Part 7

One characteristic of the wars of the middle of the eighteenth century was the great development of privateering. ‘The privateers,’ writes Sir J. K. Laughton, ‘were, in their day, a most important item in the naval strength of the country, with this additional and especial merit, that they were most numerous and strongest when the royal navy was weakest or most severely taxed.... In looking for valuable services of privateers we find them not in the periods of our national glory, not during the wars of the French Revolution, when Howe and Hood and Nelson crushed the French navy; not during the later years of the Seven Years’ War, when Hawke and Boscawen and Saunders grandly maintained England’s supremacy; but during the war of American Independence or the war of the Austrian Succession, when the fortunes of the navy were at a low ebb.... In such times of disaster and disgrace the rough and ready work of the privateers appeared more brilliant, and had a very real national importance’ (_Studies in Naval History_, p. 201). Of two famous privateer captains, Fortunatus Wright and George Walker, the same author gives a full account, and the exploits of many others are recorded in _The Liverpool Privateers_, published by Mr. Gomer Williams in 1897. Their captures and their battles were sometimes the subject of verse, and therefore a few examples of ballads relating to them have been inserted. In July 1745, Captain Talbot in the Prince Frederick, with Captain Morecock in the Duke, captured two Spanish ships with cargoes worth over 3,000,000 dollars. The share of each seaman amounted to £850 (Laughton, p. 237; Beatson, _Naval and Military Memoirs_, i. 294; Boyse, _An Historical Review of the Transactions of Europe_, ii. 171). This capture is celebrated in _England’s Glory, or the French King Stripped_ (p. 194). At the beginning of the Seven Years’ War the Terrible privateer, commanded by Captain Death, was taken by the French privateer Vengeance, of St. Malo, on December 27, 1756. The Terrible had twenty-six guns, the Vengeance thirty-four. The crew of the Vengeance numbered 350, while the Terrible, weakened by sending away some men in a prize, could muster only 116. Out of them the captain and fifty men were killed outright, and over forty wounded before the ship was taken (Entick, _History of the Late War_, 1765, ii. 110). So desperate a fight, at a moment when the popular indignation against Byng for not fighting it out with La Galissonière was at its height, naturally roused enthusiasm, and Captain Death and the Terrible were celebrated in the ballad and the poem printed on pp. 204-5.

A common form of song is one which takes the form of an invitation to enter on board a privateer under some popular captain. Of this there are many specimens in existence, and two are here reprinted (pp. 225, 226). The Lord Anson and the Hawke were two Liverpool privateers which made many captures in 1756 and 1757 (Williams, pp. 87-95). The Blandford was a Bristol ship, though Captain Stonehouse seems to have been a Liverpool man (_ib._ p. 186). In these and similar invitations the prospect of plunder naturally holds the first place. A Newcastle song says:

If we should meet with a galloon, Our own we’ll make her very soon, The drums shall beat and music play, To the Antigallican haste away.

To Charlotte’s Head then let’s repair, We’ll be received with welcome there; We’ll enter then without delay, To the Antigallican haste away.

(_Rhymes of Northern Bards_, by John Bell, 1812, p. 320). Another song, called _The Sailor’s Courtship to the Lady’s Waiting-Maid_, treats the argument sentimentally:

My love she does wait on a lady so fair, And I do belong to a stout privateer; Rich prizes I’ve taken since the wars did begin, From the lofty monsieurs and brought them all in.

And now of [these] riches my love shall have share, For she shall be drest in rich silks most rare. With ribbons and rings my jewel I’ll deck, And a fine chain of gold to hang round her neck.

And before that my money begins to grow scant, I’ll away to the sea, for my love shall ne’er want, And boldly we’ll make the loud cannons to roar, And bring home rich prizes as heretofore.

You pretty young maids who have sweethearts at sea, Pray take this advice and be ruled by me, Slight not a bold sailor while he’s ploughing the main, Most richly he’ll clothe you when he comes home again.

(_Madden Collection_, Cambridge). The prospect of manning a privateer depended a good deal on the reputation of its commander, and consequently his character was often set forth, as in the ballad called after Captain Barber of the ship Resolution of Liverpool:

Give noble Captain Barber A good broadsword in hand; The French to fight [is] his heart’s delight When Barber gives command. He’s kind and tender-hearted And makes his foes to fly, He governs men with justice And great generosity.

(_Madden Collection_). Or again in _A New Song_:

Come with me you jolly tars, We’re talking of the Spanish war, Come my boys and tack about, We’ll put the Spaniards to the rout.

_Chorus._

I beg you’ll fill your pots all round, Success to the fleet that’s outward bound; Likewise unto all true blues That sails along with Jemmy Askew, For he’s the man that’s bold and true, He’ll fight for his King and country too.

Come haste away to the rendezvous, There’s plenty of good peck and booze; Askew is a seaman’s friend, My boys, you’ll find him in the end.

_Chorus as before._

When the American war began, the British public expected a series of easy victories--at all events wherever the navy was engaged. The ballad called _The Brags of Washington_ is an instance of this (p. 244). Consequently the repulse of the fleet under Sir Peter Parker, which attacked Charleston on June 28, 1776, was a disagreeable surprise. It is the theme of an English ballad, _On the late Engagement in Charleston River_, and of an American song parodying Parker’s despatch (pp. 245-47; cf. Clowes, iii. 372). In February 1778 France concluded a defensive treaty with the United States, and in April hostilities between France and England began. _The Cruisers_ celebrates the beginning of this stage of the war; _The Arethusa_ its first action, namely, the fight between that ship and the Belle Poule on June 17, 1778 (pp. 247-248). The song, according to Sir J. K. Laughton, ‘sets truth and seamanship alike at defiance,’ for the Arethusa fought well but was beaten, and would certainly have been taken or sunk if the approach of the English seventy-fours had not scared the Belle Poule away (_Sea Fights and Adventures_, p. 8). It is to be observed that the crew of the Belle Poule numbered 230 not 500 men, that she was not driven ashore, and that she was ultimately taken by the Nonsuch, 64 guns, in 1780 (Clowes, iv. 13, 99, 114). To the same date or to 1777 belongs a song _On the brave Admiral Lockhart_, printed in Logan’s _Pedlar’s Pack_ (p. 77). Lockhart took the command of the Shrewsbury in 1777. The verses are to be sung to the tune of _Hearts of Oak_.

Ye sons of old Ocean who’re strangers to fear On board of the _Shrewsbury_ quickly repair; Brave Lockhart commands her, rejoice every tar, For Lockhart commanded the _Tartar_ last war.

The Shrewsbury formed part of the Channel fleet under Admiral Keppel. When Keppel first put to sea on June 12, 1778, the public voice confidently predicted his success, as _Admiral Keppel Triumphant_ shows (p. 252). On July 27 he engaged the French fleet under d’Orvilliers off Ushant. Two songs give an account of this indecisive engagement, one of which accounts for its indecisiveness by asserting that Keppel had secret orders not to fight (pp. 253, 255). Then followed recriminations between Keppel and Vice-admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, ending with the trial of Keppel by court-martial on the charges of misconduct and incapacity. On February 11, 1779, he was acquitted, and the charges were pronounced malicious and unfounded. The popularity of the verdict is attested by _Keppel Triumphant_ and _Keppel for Ever_ (pp. 255, 257).

In June 1779 Spain declared war, and during August 1779 the combined French and Spanish fleets dominated the Channel. Paul Jones, who had already signalised himself in 1778 by attacking Whitehaven and capturing the British sloop Drake off Carrickfergus, sailed from L’Orient on August 14, 1779, with a little squadron of four vessels threatened Leith and Edinburgh, and projected an attack on the shipping in the Tyne. On September 23 he fell in with a fleet of merchant shipping coming from the Baltic under the convoy of the Serapis of forty-four guns and the Countess of Scarborough, a hired vessel armed with twenty six-pounders. The capture of these two ships by Jones is celebrated in _Paul Jones the Pirate_. This ballad was evidently written by an American or someone sympathising with the American cause. It was often reprinted in England, but the English versions are full of corruptions and blunders. Nevertheless, by comparison of the various versions, it has proved possible to obtain a more intelligible text than that commonly given (p. 259). Several other ballads, including a Scottish one on the same subject, are reprinted in the _Roxburghe Ballads_, and with them a political song suggesting that Lord Sandwich and Lord North were in reality worse enemies to England than Jones (_Roxburghe Ballads_, viii. 330-35).

As the struggle was for America and the West Indian islands, most of the fleet engagements of the latter part of the war took place in American waters. On July 6, 1779, Vice-admiral John Byron, with Vice-admiral Samuel Barrington as his second in command, fought an action with the French fleet under D’Estaing off Grenada, and got very much the worst of the fight. A ballad on the battle, apparently written by someone on board the Royal Oak, expresses the view generally held in the fleet, that if Barrington had commanded instead of Byron the result would have been different (p. 258; cf. Clowes, iii. 434-40; Mahan, p. 367). _The Bold Blades of Old England_ celebrates the capture of Omoa in October 1779, and concludes by a reference to Rodney’s voyage to Gibraltar in December 1779 and his capture of a Spanish convoy about January 8, 1780 (p. 261; cf. Clowes, iii. 448; iv. 44). On January 16, 1780, Rodney defeated Langara off Cape St. Vincent, taking six Spanish ships of the line. Another, the Santo Domingo, was blown up Prince William was serving at the time on board the Prince George, the flagship of Rear-admiral Robert Digby, which formed part of Rodney’s fleet. Reports of the courage and good conduct of the Prince during the battle increased the popular enthusiasm which welcomed Rodney’s victory, and inspired the song entitled _The Royal Sailor_ (p. 262). On April 12, 1782, took place Rodney’s victory over De Grasse, which brought the naval war to a conclusion. It is the subject of a singularly ungrammatical ballad called _Rodney’s Glory_, and of another entitled _Hood’s Conquest over the Count de Grasse_, in which Rodney’s name is not even mentioned (p. 263). Rodney captured five line-of-battle ships in the battle. Four of them, with three English 74-gun ships, sailed from Jamaica for England at the end of July 1782, but all save two were lost on the way. Two of the prizes, the Ville de Paris and the Glorieux, foundered with all hands; a third, the Hector, was lost, though 200 of the crew were saved by the privateer Hawke. One of the English seventy-fours, the Ramillies, became unseaworthy, lost all her masts, and was abandoned. Another, the Centaur, went down with all her crew except twelve men on September 23, 1782. The ballad called _The Loss of the Centaur_ (p. 265) commemorates the escape of Captain Inglefield and the twelve survivors (Laughton, _Sea Fights and Adventures_, p. 153; Clowes, iv. 88).

Several ballads of the period relate to engagements between single ships. _Captain Farmer_ (p. 260) describes the hard-fought encounter between the Quebec and Surveillante off Ushant on October 6, 1779. The Quebec took fire and blew up, and Captain George Farmer went down with his ship.

Others relate to the fortunes of American privateers. On the American side the laureate of the war was Philip Freneau, whose poems appeared for the most part in newspapers published in America during the war. They were collected and published at Philadelphia in 1786, and republished in England in 1861 by Russell Smith. Many refer to incidents in the naval war. One is _Captain Jones’s Invitation to American Backwoodsmen to become Sailors_; another, _On the Memorable Victory gained by the gallant Captain Paul Jones_, narrates his capture of the Serapis. There are _Stanzas on the new American frigate Alliance_; _On the Death of Captain Nicholas Biddle_, commander of the Randolph, a 32-gun frigate, blown up in action with the British 64-gun ship _Yarmouth_ on March 7, 1778. A third poem, _The British Prison Ship_, tells of the capture of the American privateer Aurora by the Iris (once the American frigate Hancock) and the sufferings of the prisoners on board the hulks Scorpion and Hunter. _The Sailor’s Invitation_ is an encouragement to ship under Captain Barney on board the Hyder Ally privateer; another ballad, describes the capture of the sloop General Monk by the Hyder Ally on April 8, 1782. (Freneau’s Poems, pp. 144, 146, 164, 183, 235, 239, 241.) Another collection, _Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution_, edited by Frank Moore, 1856, contains a satirical letter in verse describing the capture of the South Carolina, a 40-gun frigate, by the British ships Diomede and Quebec on December 20, 1782 (Clowes, iv. 91).

The major operations of the war of the French Revolution and the general engagements are illustrated by numerous ballads, though for the most part of very inferior quality.

‘Now Lord Hood is sailed with his gallant crew, Bold sailors with ships of the line twenty-two,’

begins _Success to the Grand Fleet, or the Honest Briton’s Prayer_, announcing Hood’s departure for Toulon in August 1793. But the rest is too poor to quote. The temper of the moment is illustrated by some lines from _The Taking of Tobago_ (April 1793), which declares that ‘for murdering of Louis we will make these rebels rue.’ But for the most part very little sign of any feeling against the French as revolutionists appears in popular naval poetry; it is simply the old national hostility. ‘We’ll make them to knock under as we have done before,’ says the same ballad.

Howe’s victory on June 1, 1794, is the subject of at least half a dozen ballads, two of which, with a song written by a lieutenant on board the Bellerophon, will be found on pp. 268-74.

The battle of St. Vincent on February 14, 1797, is celebrated in _A new song on the victory over the Spanish Fleet by Admiral Jervis_, and in _Jervis taking the Spanish Fleet_. According to the author of the first, the tactics of the British ships were simple:

‘They, not heedful of orders, in courage confide; The best line of battle’s a thundering broadside.’

The second thus sums up the result:

‘Here’s a health to Admiral Jervis, our officers and crew; Spain with your surprising force we’ve made you for to rue. Two of your hundred and twenties and two of eighty-four By Britons brave were soon conveyed safe to old England’s shore.’

Neither deserves reprinting. Duncan was more fortunate than Jervis, and at least four ballads on Camperdown have survived. One by J. Pratt will be found on p. 283. Another by J. More, of the Royal Ayr Volunteers, to be sung to the tune of _The Garb of Old Gaul_, is printed in Ashton’s _Real Sailor Songs_ (p. 9). In one of the ballads Duncan’s religion is commended:

‘No power the pride of conquest has his heart to lead astray: He summoned his triumphant crew, and then was heard to say, “Let every man now bend his knee, and here in solemn prayer Give thanks to God, who in this fight has made our cause His care.”’ (_The Fight off Camperdown._)

In the fourth a subscription for the widows of those who fell in the battle is advocated:

‘Fighting their country’s noble cause they near the Texel fell, No mutiny, but gloriously they died behaving well.’ (_The Widow’s Lamentation._)

On the battle of the Nile the two most popular ballads--to judge from the frequency of the reprints--were _The Mouth of the Nile_ and _Battle of the Nile_. The former begins:

‘It was in the forenoon of the first day of August, One thousand seven hundred and ninety eight. After a long pursuit we o’ertook the Toulon fleet, And soon we let them know we came for to fight.’

The whole is reprinted in Ashton’s _Real Sailor Songs_. The other poem, more pretentious in style concludes with a sort of apotheosis:

‘In council above rose the deity of war, Determined to give valour due renown, And soon on the brow of each hardy British tar Was placed a resplendent royal crown.

‘While the loud trump of fame on earth and ocean sounded With Howe, Jervis, Duncan, and Nelson’s name resounded; But the battle of the Nile was the foremost on the file, And all the Angel choirs sang the glories of that day.’

Of much greater interest than these is a long narrative ballad, said to have comprised about sixty verses, of which tradition has preserved merely a fragment. From the exactness of the details, it was probably written by some sailor in the fleet. All that survives is printed on p. 287.

The battle of Copenhagen is the theme of two ballads of the ordinary type (pp. 295, 296). To these has been added the original version of Campbell’s _Battle of the Baltic_, which he enclosed in a letter to Sir Walter Scott written on March 27, 1805 (p. 290). ‘Though wanting,’ says Sir J. K. Laughton, ‘the polish which afterwards brought it to something like perfection, though many of the lines are bald, harsh, or tumid, some of the expressions are happier than in the finished work; and, though we do not go to a ballad for historical detail, it is fuller and more accurate’ (_The Nelson Memorial_, p. 196). Campbell was in a special sense the laureate of the war which resulted from the coalition known as the Armed Neutrality of 1801, and he published in the _Morning Chronicle_ of March 18, 1801, his ballad _Ye Mariners of England_ headed _On the Prospect of a Russian War_. The original of this, which differs only in a few unimportant phrases from the later version, is to be found in Laughton’s _Nelson Memorial_, p. 175, and in Beattie’s _Life of Campbell_. It is needless to reprint it here.

Nelson’s next engagement was not against the Russians, as he expected, but against the French flotilla which lay in the harbour of Boulogne prepared for the invasion of England. This disastrous attempt was made on August 15, 1801, and is the subject of _A New Song composed by the wounded Tars_ (p. 297). It was evidently meant to appeal to the charitable, and the lines:

‘All you that relieve us the Lord will you bless For relieving poor sailors in times of distress’

are a too familiar ballad formula. There are many other ballads of the period ending with similar appeals. Two examples will suffice:

‘A splinter knocked my nose off, “My bowsprit’s gone!” I cries, “Yet well it kept their blows off, thank God ’twas not my eyes.” Scarce with these words I’d outed, glad for my eyes and limbs, A splinter burst and douted both my two precious glims. I’m blind and I’m a cripple, yet cheerful would I sing Were my disasters triple, ’cause why? ’twas for my king.’ (_The Blind Sailor._)

‘A splinter from our ship was forced, Which took my arm, to my sad loss, And now I’m found to wander up and down, Seeking relief where it can be found. We all are seamen to our right, And on the seas we took delight, But by hard fortune you plainly see We lost our limbs on the raging sea. All you who extend your charity, The Lord preserve your family.’ (_The Seaflower._)

The last action of importance before the peace of Amiens was that between Linois and Sir James Saumarez in the Straits of Gibraltar on July 12, 1801 (Clowes, iv. 466). The ballad on it is a parody of the despatch in which Linois is said to have represented his escape as a victory (p. 298).

One feature in this war was the attempted invasion of Ireland by the French. A fleet appeared in Bantry Bay under Admiral Morard de Galle in December 1796; a landing was actually effected at Killala on August 22, 1798, by General Humbert; a squadron under Commodore Bompart was engaged by Sir John Borlase Warren on October 12, 1798. A number of ballads relating to these incidents are collected in Crofton Croker’s _Popular Songs Illustrative of French Invasions of Ireland_, parts iii., iv., published by the Percy Society in 1847, but they are too entirely political in their character. The best is one beginning:

‘Now fair and strong the south-east blew, and high the billows rose, The French fleet bounded o’er the main freighted with Erin’s foes. Oh, where was Hood and where was Howe, and where Cornwallis then, Where Colpoys, Bridport, or Pellew, and all their gallant men?’

The question asked in these lines formed the basis of a motion made subsequently in Parliament. The author of the ballad answers:

‘Nor skill nor courage aught avail against heaven’s high decrees: The storm arose and closed our ports, a mist o’erspread the seas.’

Captain Mahan, however, points out that the inefficiency of the British dispositions against invasion was to blame (_Influence of Sea-power upon the French Revolution and Empire_, i. 360). The fleet which reached Bantry escaped with impunity excepting the Droits de l’Homme, seventy-four, which fell in with Sir Edward Pellew, in the Indefatigable, forty-four, and Captain Reynolds in the Amazon, thirty-six, was badly mauled, and wrecked with all her crew on the coast of France. This engagement, which took place on January 13, 1798, is celebrated in _The Amazon Frigate_ (p. 276). An earlier exploit of Pellew’s, the capture of the Cleopâtre on June 18, 1793, is also the subject of a ballad (p. 267). The fight between the Pique and the Blanche on June 4, 1795, and that between the Mars and the Hercule, on April 21, 1798, and an action fought by the sloop Arrow in September 1799, are commemorated in the same way (pp. 285, 289).

In the civil history of the navy the great event was the mutiny of 1797, illustrated here by five ballads. _The New Song_ about ‘the seventeen bright stars’ gives a sailor’s history of the origin and progress of the mutiny of the fleet at Spithead, and was evidently written about the end of May (p. 277). _British Tars Rewarded_ expresses the satisfaction of the fleet at the concessions obtained from the Government, and _The Genius of Britain_ shows the sympathy with which the movement was regarded by the Radical politicians of the time (pp. 279, 280). The more dangerous mutiny of the ships at the Nore, which began on May 20 and lasted till about the middle of June, is represented by _A New Song on Parker the Delegate_ and _The Death of Parker_ (pp. 281, 282). The latter is one of the commonest of all ballads relating to the navy, and the frequency with which it was reprinted seems to show that popular feeling was inclined to regard Parker as a hero and a martyr.