Part 11

To Dead Man's Bay when her day is past, To Dead Man's Bay comes the ship at last.

Thus for the present we close the record of this 'blustering adjective' from the point of view of naval history. Enough has been told. 'A nation,' says Guizot, 'is safe in the greatest crisis of its fate if it can remember its own history.' Those who on a future day may serve in our present _Formidable_ before an enemy, will be none the worse for remembering the associations of old-time victory that form part and parcel of their ship's famous name, in virtue of which, that name finds its place to-day on the roll of the Royal Navy for 'one of the best' among the battle-ships of the British Fleet.[59] 'No man,' wrote a young officer of the famous _Bellerophon_, in his last letter home on the evening before Trafalgar, 'can be a coward on board the _Billy Ruff'n_.' No man on board the _Formidable_, who knows the story of his ship, should be found wanting on the day of battle. It will rest as a point of honour with those who then man the _Formidable_ to remember Rodney and prove the _Formidable_ 'worthy of her name.'

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 13: _Admirals All, and Other Verses_, p. 15.]

[Footnote 14: _Edward the Third_, Act III. Sc. 1.]

[Footnote 15: Built at Chatham in 1777 as a 98-gun three-decker of 1945 tons. The _Formidable_ taken at Quiberon was broken up some ten years previously.]

[Footnote 16: From Mr. Newbolt's verses on a memorial brass in Clifton College chapel.]

[Footnote 17: He was captain of the French frigate _L'Arethuse_ on May 18, 1759, when she was cut off and captured, off the Brittany coast, by a British squadron; to become a British frigate, and later on the 'Saucy' _Arethusa_ of the celebrated ballad.]

[Footnote 18: Hennequin's _Biographie Maritime_, art. 'Vaudreuil'; also L. Dussieux's _Generaux et Marins du XVIII. Siecle_, p. 260. The governorship of the island of Dominica was offered to De Vaudreuil after its capture from Great Britain through treachery. Some of the creole inhabitants of Dominica invited the French over from Martinique, and, on the night of their landing, made the garrison of the principal fort in the island drunk, plugged up the touch-holes of their cannon, and put sand in the locks of their muskets.]

[Footnote 19: Bougainville was born in 1729. He was granted the _particle nobiliaire_ by order of the King as a special favour, escaped the guillotine during the Terror by the merest chance, and died a Senator of the Empire in 1811. Bougainville's name is commemorated in the French navy to-day in a corvette used as a training ship for cadets. The vessel is well known as a visitor to Dartmouth and Plymouth Sound every year.]

[Footnote 20: It was the practice of the Comte de la Charette to blacken the sides of each ship that he commanded. Ordinarily, at this period, ships' sides were of a yellow colour--the planking simply varnished over.]

[Footnote 21: Carlyle, _French Resolution_, vol. ii. bk. ii. chap. i.]

[Footnote 22: Carronades were short pieces of large calibre, throwing heavy shot, but with a very limited range. They were only of use for fighting at close quarters, when, however, they were terribly destructive. They were invented and first made at the Carron Ironworks in Scotland--whence the name.]

[Footnote 23: Sir Gilbert Blane, _Dissertations on Medical Science_, vol. i. p. 86.]

[Footnote 24: It extends sometimes to as far as six or seven miles seaward.--_West India Pilot._]

[Footnote 25: 'De Grasse's action,' says Captain Mahan (_The Influence of Sea Power upon History_, p. 290), 'was justified by the court which tried him, in which were many officers of high rank and doubtless of distinction, as being "an act of prudence on the part of the admiral dictated to him by the ulterior projects of the cruise." Three days later he was signally beaten by the fleet he had failed to attack at disadvantage, and all the ulterior projects of the cruise went down with him.']

[Footnote 26: _Annual Register_, 1782 (History of Europe), p. 206.]

[Footnote 27: Mundy's _Life of Rodney_, vol. ii. p. 251.]

[Footnote 28: _United Service Journal_, 1833, part i. p. 512, Sir C. Douglas's narrative.]

[Footnote 29: Imagine this page the surface of the sea, the top being north, the foot south, and so on. The wind would be blowing diagonally across from the right-hand corner at the foot of the page. Rodney's ships would be approaching slantwise towards the centre of the page from near the left-hand lower corner. De Grasse's fleet would be coming down to meet them near the centre from a point at the top of the page about two inches from the left-hand corner.]

[Footnote 30: To make sure that they saw the signal and obeyed it without delay, De Grasse kept firing gun after gun to enforce it, until all had answered.]

[Footnote 31: Captain Mahan in _The Royal Navy: A History_, vol. iii. p. 528.]

[Footnote 32: Mundy's _Life of Rodney_, vol. ii. pp. 235-236.]

[Footnote 33: British flag-officers were at this time still divided, for purposes of promotion, into groups and subdivisions, as Admirals, Vice-Admirals, and Rear-Admirals of the Red, White, and Blue (except that there was no Admiral of the Red), which had existed since the middle of the seventeenth century, although the original purpose of the arrangement, in accordance with the tactical formations of fleets for battle, had long ceased to exist. The French, on the other hand, had no permanent subsidiary gradations in their flag-officers' list, and held to their original tactical distribution of squadrons; the senior officer commanding the Escadre Blanche, the second the Escadre Blanche et Bleue, the third the Escadre Bleue.]

[Footnote 34: _Hist. MSS. Commission: Report XIV._ Duke of Rutland's MSS. at Belvoir Castle, vol. iii. p. 55. At Belvoir Castle there are preserved, besides eight brass cannon of French make, the carved tiller of the _Resolution_, and some bottles of wine stamped with the Manners peacock, which were in the ship as part of the captain's stores.]

[Footnote 35: There is a very fine model of the _Duke_, representing her exactly as she appeared on the 12th of April 1782, in the naval collection at South Kensington Museum.]

[Footnote 36: The first was in the fighting on the 9th of April. 'De Grasse had sent me a message that he could not meet me in March, but that he certainly would attack us in April. He did not keep his promise, for I attacked him. In the first day's action, when the _Formidable_ came abreast of the _Ville de Paris_, I ordered the main topsail to be laid aback. [This was a well-understood form of personal challenge at sea.] De Grasse, who was about three miles to windward, did not accept the challenge, but kept his wind and did not fire one shot the whole day.' (Letter to Lady Rodney, May 4, 1782; quoted in Mundy's _Life_, etc., vol. ii. p. 291.)]

[Footnote 37: Sir Gilbert Blane, _Dissertations on Medical Science_, vol. i. p. 88 _et seq._]

[Footnote 38: Sir C. Dashwood's letter is dated Torquay, 8th July 1829. It is quoted in full in the _United Service Journal_ for 1833, part i. p. 73.]

[Footnote 39: Professor J. Knox Laughton, R.N., _Dictionary of National Biography_, art. 'Rodney.']

[Footnote 40: The _Diademe's_ name appears in De Vaudreuil's official return of the ships rallied by him which reached Cap Francois, San Domingo, on the 25th of April.]

[Footnote 41: Hennequin, _Biographie Maritime_, vol. i. p. 356.]

[Footnote 42: Navy Records Society: _The Naval Miscellany_, vol. i. p. 234. A letter apparently from a lieutenant of the _Ville de Paris_ gives details.]

[Footnote 43: Navy Records Society, _Letters of Sir Samuel Hood_, pp. 102-103.]

[Footnote 44: Sir Gilbert Blane, _Dissertations on Medical Science_, vol. i.]

[Footnote 45: _United Service Journal_ for 1833, vol. i. p. 514.]

[Footnote 46: De Grasse, it is stated, had not once left the quarter-deck since daybreak. See also _Historical Memoirs of my Own Time_, Sir N.W. Wraxall, vol. iii. p. 108.]

[Footnote 47: Wraxall's _Memoirs_, iii. p. 107. Lord Cranstoun told Sir N.W. Wraxall that _he_ 'was sent after the _Ville de Paris_ struck to take possession of her, as well as to receive De Grasse's sword.' In the memoir of Captain Knight of the _Barfleur_ (_Naval Chronicle_, xi. pp. 428-429) it is stated that 'Captain Knight received and presented to his Admiral the sword of Count de Grasse and those of all the surviving officers of the _Ville de Paris_, who, with the exception of the Count (he, by desire of Sir Samuel Hood, remaining in his own ship), lodged that night in the captain's cabin of the _Barfleur_.' Our illustration depicts a third version of the incident.]

[Footnote 48: Hennequin, _Biographie Maritime_, vol. i. art. 'Marigny.']

[Footnote 49: They were:--the Chevalier du Pavillon, De Vaudreuil's flag-captain; De la Clochetterie; De la Vicomte; Comte Bernard de Marigny; De Saint Cesaire; and D'Escars of the _Glorieux_.]

[Footnote 50: Half a million sterling was the French monetary loss in one of the biggest sea battles ever fought. Japan lost upwards of a million and a quarter by the sinking of one battleship alone, the _Hatsuse_; and Russia, a million and eight thousand pounds by the sinking of the _Petropavlovsk_.]

[Footnote 51: Blane's _Dissertations on Medical Science_, vol. i., as before.]

[Footnote 52: It is certainly curious that a man of the world such as Rodney was should not have known French. Most people have heard the story--the truth of which is well established--of Rodney's detention in Paris, at the outset of the war, owing to his debts, and how the Duc de Biron advanced him the money which enabled Rodney to leave for England.]

[Footnote 53: It is rather difficult to reconcile these two statements by De Grasse, one to Dr. Blane and the other to Rodney.]

[Footnote 54: According to the _London Magazine_ for August 1782, King George, at an audience granted to De Grasse shortly after the French admiral's arrival in England, returned him the sword that De Grasse had surrendered to Rodney. 'This _etiquette_,' the _London Magazine_ proceeds, 'enabled the Count to appear at Court.' He spent the week he was in London, we are told, 'in paying visits to the great officers of State and some of the principal nobility of the kingdom, by whom he was entertained in a sumptuous and hospitable style. He likewise took a view of the Bank and other public edifices, and of Vauxhall and other places of amusement.... Every mark of respect was shown to him, even by the common people, in testimony of his valour.']

[Footnote 55: Practically everybody: four or five officers were called before the court at the close of the proceedings, and formally reprimanded for not having done all they might. De Vaudreuil came off with flying colours, and all documents containing reflections on him were ordered to be suppressed. The warmest commendation was bestowed on the captains who rallied with De Vaudreuil to the support of De Grasse.]

[Footnote 56: 'The most virulent expressions of disgust were hurled on his misfortune and his fame; epigrams circulated from mouth to mouth, and even the women carried ornaments called "a la De Grasse," having on one side a heart and on the other none.' (Sir E. Cust's _Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. iii. p. 329). Also General Mundy in his _Life of Lord Rodney_ (vol. ii. p. 290, note), says of De Grasse: 'On his return to France he was disgraced by his Court, and in the gardens of the Tuileries his life was nearly sacrificed to the fury of an exasperated mob.']

[Footnote 57: Wraxall's _Memoirs_, iii. p. 104. Several of the medals, in silver and bronze, struck to commemorate the great occasion are now in private collections. A lady's fan of the period, bearing a portrait of Rodney with emblematical devices in honour of the victory, was on view two or three years ago at a small exhibition of fans of the eighteenth century in Bond Street.]

[Footnote 58: Letter quoted in Mundy's _Life of Lord Rodney_, vol. ii. p. 309.]

[Footnote 59: Mr. Schetky, the artist, whose picture of Rodney's victory is reproduced in this book, relates in a note the following anecdote. 'It is in reference to this famous action (Rodney's victory) that the story is told of the old one-legged veteran, a patient in the Edinburgh Infirmary, who, being asked by Dr. John Barclay, "Where did you lose your leg, my man?" briefly replied, "At the 12th of April, your honour." The doctor, not immediately calling to mind that great day, inquired again, "_What_ 12th of April?" Jack looked him in the face with supreme contempt, and retorted indignantly, "What 12th of April? Who ever heard of any 12th of April but One."']

III

WON AT THE CANNON'S MOUTH

HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP _UNDAUNTED_

Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life, Is worth an age without a name.

Scott.

There is no incident quite like it in all the annals of the Royal Navy. There is hardly a finer tale, all said and done, hardly a more stirring story, than that which tells how we came by our first _Undaunted_--why there is an _Undaunted_ to-day on the roll of the British fleet. Better name for British fighting ship there could be none; none, assuredly, of happier omen. In a sense, indeed, it is, so to speak, a self-made name. No Admiralty Lord of high degree in the comfortable surroundings of a sanctum at Whitehall first made choice of or appointed it. No lady fair with customary libation of foaming wine on dockyard gala day wished 'God speed' to our first _Undaunted_. In quite another way, indeed, was the name first given. Amid the clash and ring of hostile steel, in the heat of a hard-fought fight, with shells bursting round, and grape-shot hurtling through the powder smoke, with bullets flying thick, while men closed hand to hand with cutlass and bayonet and boarding pike, came the first idea of the name _Undaunted_, and the scene of its first appointment, of its first bestowal on a British man-of-war, was the quarter-deck of a British flagship, as the last echoes of battle were dying down.

The West Indies, Nelson's 'station for honour,' was the scene of the event, off the island of Martinique, and Thursday the 20th of March 1794 was the day. There had been turbulent doings in Martinique for the past six weeks. Ever since the second week of February, day after day, almost incessantly, the quiet valleys and hillsides of the fair island had re-echoed with the crackle of musketry and the booming of cannon. It was the old story, of course, red-coats fighting blue; the old story--with the old result. We were in the second year of the war with the French Revolution, and a British army had been sent over to drive the French from their West Indian possessions. Martinique was the first to be attacked, and three columns of British troops had landed there at different points to fight their way inland until they met, driving the French field force and garrisons before them. Outmatched in the open, the French troops and local militiamen had in the end fallen back on Fort Royal, whither General Rochambeau, the French Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies, had called in all his forces and massed his battalions to make a final stand at bay. The fate of Martinique depended on their power of holding out until help from outside should reach them.

A large and powerful British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis, the future Earl St. Vincent, had escorted the troops across the Atlantic. After assisting the soldiers in the earlier stages of the campaign it had closed in and fastened its grip on the seaward approaches to Fort Royal.

Fort Royal was the headquarters station of the French in the West Indies. It was situated at the head of a deep bay, Cul de Sac Royal as it was called. The place was strongly fortified, and was the great arsenal and dockyard of France across the Atlantic. For a hundred years past and more French fleets and squadrons had fitted there for war, and had put in to repair after battle. Thence Du Casse had sailed to fight Benbow. From there, as we have seen, De Grasse put out to meet his fate off the 'Saints' at the hands of Rodney. Two fortified positions of considerable strength and with heavy cannon, besides outlying redoubts and batteries, defended the town of Fort Royal; one position fronting inland, the other facing towards the sea.

Against the former, Fort Bourbon, an entrenched work set on high ground at the back of the town of Fort Royal, the main force of our soldiers was to operate, attacking with a siege train of heavy guns and mortars and opening zigzags and parallels in the orthodox way. Fort Louis on the sea front, blocking the entrance to the _carenage_, or man-of-war harbour, and the dockyard, was to be attacked by the Naval Brigade, assisted by a number of grenadier and light infantry companies, with siege batteries made up of ships' 24-pounders. At the entrance to Fort Royal Bay, to 'keep the ring,' as it were, rode the big two-deckers and frigates of the fleet.

The bombardment began on the 7th of March and lasted ten days, during which time the enemy resisted stoutly. Their sorties were, however, beaten back, and by the 16th of the month the advanced batteries of the second parallel had been pushed forward to within 500 yards of Fort Bourbon. The sappers and miners had in the same time got nearer still to Fort Louis. As yet though no date had been fixed for the assault.

On the 17th of March an accidental circumstance suddenly brought on the crisis. Lieutenant Bowen of the flagship _Boyne_, who commanded the guard boats of the fleet, heard that there were some British seamen prisoners on board a French frigate that lay in the _carenage_ moored close under the walls of Fort Louis. He was a young fellow of exceptional daring, and a fine piece of work suggested itself to his mind. It was to dash in on his own account and try and cut out the French ship and rescue the prisoners. Young Bowen said nothing about it to any one. He took his boats in and made the attempt. He boarded the frigate in the face of a sharp fire, only, however, to find that the prisoners had been removed. Then he tried to bring the prize off. It proved, however, impossible. The frigate had been moored with chains and had no sails bent to her yards. Lieutenant Bowen had to retire, but his daring attempt gave an idea to the British admiral. It took shape on paper, and the co-operation of the military on shore was arranged for. Sir John Jervis's plan was to send in all the boats of the fleet _en masse_, carrying landing parties of sailors and marines, and attempt Fort Louis itself by a _coup de main_. At the same time, it was arranged, a brigade of troops, detached from before Fort Bourbon, should move down and threaten the town of Fort Royal and the landward bastions of Fort Louis.

The plan was put in hand at once, and Thursday the 20th of March was fixed on for the attempt. It was to be made in broad daylight, going straight at the enemy. This, briefly, was to be the order of the attack. The _Asia_, a 64-gun ship, Captain John Brown, with the _Zebra_, a 16-gun sloop of war, Commander Robert Faulknor, were to push on ahead of the boats. Having got as close in to the ramparts as the tide would allow, the _Asia_ was to batter away at the fort and breach the sea-wall. The _Zebra_ at the same time was to sweep the ramparts with grape and canister and cover the approach of the boats with the storming parties, which were to come up a little astern of her. All the boats in the fleet--flat-bottomed boats, barges, and pinnaces, carrying 1200 seamen and marines--were to be employed, each provided with a number of bamboo scaling-ladders of from 20 to 36 feet long. Everything was ready by the appointed time, seven on Wednesday night, and at five o'clock on the morning of the 20th the signal was given to set off.

Promptly the _Zebra_ led in. There was a brisk north-easterly breeze blowing, and standing right before it she headed directly for the French batteries. The enemy on their side opened fire on her at once, a long-range cannonade, but without effect. She was a small object to hit. Without checking her course the _Zebra_ held on steadily. The _Asia_ followed, and all went well until just as she was getting within grape-shot range. Then suddenly an amazing thing happened. To the blank astonishment of the whole squadron, the 64 suddenly wore round and stood out of the bay. She turned round deliberately and drew off from the enemy. What was the matter? Something very serious indeed must have happened on board. Sir John Jervis himself, the admiral, thought it could only be that Captain Brown had been killed, and sent off his flag-captain to take charge. It was not that, however. Not a man had been touched by a shot. Captain Grey[60] was only a few moments on board, and then went down the side into his boat to return to the flagship, after which the _Asia_ stood in again. It was a great relief to all--when suddenly, just as she got to the same spot as before, within grape-shot range, round went the _Asia's_ bows once more, and she for the second time put back. What on earth had happened now?

This is the story. It is not a very nice one.

A French naval officer who had deserted to the British was on board the _Asia_ in charge of the pilotage arrangements for the day's attack. He was a M. de Tourelles, a Royalist, formerly harbour-master at Fort Royal. He had volunteered for the post and had been accepted for his pilot knowledge. The failure of the _Asia_ was due to Lieutenant de Tourelles' nerves. All of a sudden, as the enemy's opening shots began to fly overhead through the _Asia's_ rigging, M. de Tourelles got alarmed and lost his head. Whether it was sheer cowardice, or a qualm of conscience at the part he was taking against his own countrymen, or a fear for his own skin if anything went wrong and the French got hold of him--from one cause or another M. de Tourelles broke down abjectly. Before any one on board knew what was happening, he had put the _Asia's_ helm hard over and rounded the ship out of action. That was the first failure, and the Frenchman's explanation was that he had somehow got out of his reckoning. After Captain Grey of the _Boyne_ came on board M. de Tourelles said he would try again. He did so; and the same thing happened again. There was, though, another failure on board besides that of the pilot. Once more, to the surprise of all on deck in the _Asia_, Captain Brown did nothing. He was an officer who had seen service--of the same seniority as Nelson on the post list, and not far off flag rank in the ordinary course--yet he let the Frenchman for the second time carry the ship out of battle. Lookers-on expected him to pistol De Tourelles on the spot, or cut him down; at the least to send him below under arrest and take charge himself. The tide was flowing, it was nearly three-quarters high water, and he might well have risked touching on a shoal and borne up directly for the batteries. Captain Brown, however, did nothing of the kind. The _Asia_ for the second time headed tamely out of action, this time to remain out.[61]

It was a disheartening spectacle and a bad start. The whole attack indeed was jeopardised. The _Asia_ dropped back nearly outside the bay. The boats lay on their oars just within the bay. The _Zebra_, all by herself, entirely unsupported, was some distance ahead; all the time under fire from the enemy, stormed at by round-shot and shell and grape from every gun that the French could bring to bear on her.