Admiral Byng

“ Notwithstanding all that has been said in his favour, notwithstanding the infamous arts that were practised to keep up the cry against him, notwithstanding this solemn appeal to heaven in his last moments, and even self-conviction of innocence, the character of admiral Byng, in point of personal courage, will still, with many people, remain problematical. ”

“ Admiral Byng, the son of a famous sailor, was sent in command of a small and a very poorly furnished squadron to the Mediterranean to relieve Minorca. When he readied Gibraltar he found that a French fleet much superior in numbers to his own was blockading the island he was sent to relieve. Byng called a council of war, and the council decided that, as they had no instructions from home how to act in the event of their finding themselves face to face with a superior force, they had better not interfere with the doings of the enemy. ”

“ But this want of temper, of confidence, of resolution, though leading to criminal misconduct, was not cowardice, certainly not that type of cowardice of which the court acquitted him, that cowardice which regards death or personal danger as the most terrible of evils. Of this, in his last moments, Admiral Byng showed himself entirely free. ”

“ The admiral followed them all the rest of that day and the succeeding night, and the next morning early, the English having approached near to them, the Marquis de Mari, rear-admiral, with six Spanish men-of-war and all the galleys, fire-ships, bomb-vessels and store-ships, separated from the main fleet and stood in for the Sicilian shore; upon which Admiral Byng detached Captain Walton in the Canterbury with five other ships to follow them. ”

“ Our officer’s next appointment was to the Mercury, of 28 guns, attached to the squadron on the Newfoundland station, under the orders of Sir James Wallace. In 1796, when the French Admiral Richery invested that settlement with seven ships of the line and three frigates, having 2,000 troops on board, the Vice-Admiral defended it with one ship of 50 guns, two frigates, and two sloops; and, aided by the bravery and vigilance of Captain Byng and the other officers of his small squadron, ultimately succeeded in compelling the enemy to abandon their project of subjugating the colony. ”

“ Admiral Byng was himself the son of an admiral, who was created Viscount Torrington for his distinguished services. Some of the innumerable caricaturists who earned a blackguardly living by attacking a man who had few friends and powerful enemies, fixed upon his honourable birth as an additional means of wounding him ”

“ In truth the French admiral was very nervous, constantly expecting the reappearance of the English in superior force, and was only kept from retiring to Toulon by the incessant driving of Richelieu. The honour both of the defence and of the attack in this campaign belongs wholly to the soldiers. When the result of the meeting of the two fleets was known, there burst out a storm of rage of which the echoes can be heard to this day. It is not pleasant to hear a people howling for the life of a man, whether he be the great and terrible Strafford or poor, weak, self-satisfied John Byng. ”

“ I am a man, and must feel at parting with my friends; but you will not see me discomposed to-morrow.” He then dismissed them all, wished them a good night, and desired they would come to him next day at [Pg 28] nine; chusing to have the morning to himself.
He carefully avoided desiring any thing himself, that could look like a favour; but one of his relations waited upon Admiral Boscawen that evening, and represented to him, that appointing the fore-castle for the place of execution was an indignity to Admiral Byng’s rank, and hoped that he would change the place to the quarter-deck. ”

“ Just now, perhaps, there is no man-of-war name all the world over of more unpleasant notoriety than hers. She is the Monarque, a seventy-four, taken from the French, and it was on her quarter-deck, some eighteen months ago, on a dull and cloudy March day, that they shot Admiral Byng. The Monarque has now just returned from “Straits” service, and if you went on board her you would see, still there, and part of the ship’s company, the men of the platoon of marines who formed Byng’s firing party. ”

“ Another statement, less sweeping but wholly incorrect, has also been often repeated, and has been accepted by even serious historians: it is said that Admiral Byng was shot for ‘an error in judgment,’ a fault which, as Lord Macaulay has properly shown, may be a very good reason for not employing a man again, but does not amount to a crime. ”

“ There was little room for any display of genius on the part of Byng, though he was deservedly commended for the advantage he had taken of the enemy's incapacity; and to the world at large the issue appeared, as broadly stated, that the English fleet of twenty-one sail had utterly destroyed a Spanish fleet of eighteen ships of the line beside a number of smaller vessels. The king wrote his congratulations to the admiral with his own hand ”

“ In the beginning of 1756 he was sent into the Mediterranean, where he joined Admiral Byng, and was present at the action off Minorca on 20 May. He was afterwards appointed by Sir Edward Hawke, in rapid succession to the Chesterfield, the Deptford, and the Trident; was then sent home as a witness at the trial of Admiral Byng, and in April 1757 was appointed to the Southampton, a 32-gun frigate, in which, off Portland, on 25 July, he fought a severe action with two French frigates of superior force (Laughton, Studies in Naval history, p. 333) , and succeeded in beating them off. ”

“ George lies another “Mediterranean ship,” just returned home—the Revenge, one of the ships in Byng’s battle. It was the damning evidence of the Revenge’s captain—Frederick Cornwall, now at home on half-pay—as they all say in the fleet, that settled Byng’s fate. “If I cannot disprove what you have said, Captain Cornwall,” exclaimed Byng, as the one-armed captain of the Revenge turned to leave the cabin, after a futile attempt at cross-examination on the part of the Admiral, “may the Lord have mercy on me.” There is no need to go further. ”

“ THE STORY OF ADMIRAL THE HONOURABLE JOHN BYNG. BY JOHN CAMPBELL.
The honourable John Byng was the fourth son of George Viscount Torrington, and was born at his father's seat at Southill, in Bedfordshire, in the year 1704. Showing a strong inclination for the navy, his father took him to sea with him when he was only thirteen years old; and so rapid was his promotion, that at twenty-three he was made captain of the Gibraltar frigate, then stationed in the Mediterranean. ”

“ This would have made Byng virtually commander-in-chief; for Lord Pembroke was neither sailor nor soldier, and had no experience in commanding men; but before the nomination took effect the king died, and the Churchills, who came into power, visited, it was believed, on Byng, the old grudge which they bore to Admiral Russell, whose follower and partisan Byng was. He asked for a flag, which he considered due to him after having been so long first-captain to the admiral of the fleet ”

“ Directions were immediately despatched to sir Edward Hawke, that Byng should be sent home in arrest; and an order to the same purpose was lodged at every port in the kingdom; precautions which, however unnecessary to secure the person of a man who longed ardently to justify his character by a public trial, were yet productive of considerable effect in augmenting the popular odium. Admiral Byng immediately embarked in the ship which had carried out his successor, and was accompanied by Mr. ”

“ She continues—
“Most people think that Mr. Byng will have some good excuse, if not justification, for what he has done; but however that may be, Sir Edward Hawke [123] and Captain Saunders (now made an Admiral) are gone to take command of the fleet.”
[123] Afterwards Lord Hawke, born 1705, died 1787.
In a letter of July 28, from Tunbridge to Mr. Montagu, one finds—
[90]
“The people at the Walks were all rejoicing poor Admiral Byng was arrested at Portsmouth. ”

“ Admiral John Byng, born 1704, was shot in pursuance of the sentence of a court-martial in 1757.
A letter to Sir George Lyttelton to Hagley in return for his condolences runs thus—
“Your publick life will raise a high expectation of your son, it is but just that you should give some of your private hours to qualify him so as to answer it: his happy genius makes him worthy of such a Preceptor.... You need but do justice to my affection for him to give me some share of his love.” ”

“ Meanwhile the French had got ready thirteen sail of the line and fifteen thousand troops; and at last, when the danger of losing Minorca became apparent, hurry and confusion took the place of sloth and apathy.
Even then only ten ships were ordered to the Mediterranean, incompletely manned and without hospital or fire ships. The command was given 273 to Admiral John Byng, fourth son of Lord Torrington, who had served under his father on board the Superbe at the defeat of the Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro. Byng sailed from Spithead on April 7, 1756, arriving at Gibraltar on May 2. ”

“ Rear-Admiral West, with his division, bore away seven points, and attacked the French fleet with such impetuosity that several of their ships were put out of action. The French centre kept its position, and Byng did not advance. This prevented West from following up his advantage. If the Commander-in-Chief had shown equal zeal, the French fleet would have been defeated and Minorca saved. As it was, by holding back he gave Admiral Galissonière time to retreat out of danger. The wind enabled Byng to fight if he would, when a complete victory would have been the result. ”

“ There is no official record of any such court-martial; and probably an explanation to the admiral, Sir George Byng, was all that was called for. In any case, he was held free from blame; and, in the Swiftsure, went on to Gibraltar, and thence into the Mediterranean, where he joined the fleet under Sir Clowdisley Shovell [q. v.] ”

“ Even at this time, from the instructions given to Byng, the English ministry did not seem fully to believe that Minorca was to be found in possession of the French, as Byng was directed to detach a portion of his squadron, under Rear-Admiral West, to America, in case he should learn, on arriving at Gibraltar, that the French fleet had passed out of the Straits into the Atlantic. Byng arrived at Gibraltar on May 2d, after a stormy passage, and here all uncertainty in regard to the motions of the French was relieved. ”

“ John Byng, Admiral of the Blue squadron of his Majesty’s Fleet, and to try him upon a charge, that during the engagement between his Majesty’s Fleet, under his command, and the Fleet of the French King, on the 20th of May last, he did withdraw or keep back, and did not do his utmost to take, seize, and destroy, the ships of the French King, which it was his duty to have engaged, and to assist such of his Majesty’s ships as were engaged in fight with the French ships, which it was his duty to have assisted ”

“ I say nothing of his having been a warm persecutor of Admiral Matthews: cowards, like [371] other guilty persons, are often severe against failings, which they hope to conceal in themselves by condemning in others: it was the uniformity of Mr. Byng’s behaviour from the outset of his persecution to his catastrophe, from whence I conclude that he was aspersed as unjustly, as I am sure that he was devoted maliciously, and put to death contrary to all equity and precedent. ”

“ This not only caused the enemy's centre to be unattached, but the Rear-Admiral's division rather uncovered for some little time. I sent and called to the ships ahead of me to make sail, and go down on the enemy; and ordered the Chesterfield to lay by the INTREPID, and the DEPTFORD to supply the INTREPID'S place. I found the enemy edged away constantly ”

“ His duty was to set sail and oppose the enemy’s fleet, and thus, if possible, cut off the retreat of their forces already engaged on the island. He had been promised a force from the garrison of Gibraltar, but upon his asking for the men the Governor refused to obey his instructions, alleging that the position of affairs would not allow of his sparing a single man from the Rock. So Byng sailed without his expected reinforcement, and arrived off Minorca too late for any communication to be made with the English Governor, who was still holding the enemy at bay. ”

“ In the course of the same year, the Belliqueux formed part of Sir Edward Pellew’s squadron at the capture and destruction of a Dutch frigate, seven brigs of war, and about twenty armed and other merchant-vessels, in Batavia Roads [12] . During the operations, the Commander-in-Chief publicly expressed his satisfaction at Captain Byng’s activity and good conduct, by the telegraphic signal, “Your zeal I have noticed.” ”

“ Byng’s Ship was prevented from bearing down upon the Enemy with all Expedition; why he was kept back so long, that one of our own Ships, which did not sail so well as the Ramillies, was able to get betwixt him and the Enemy, and was in great Danger therefore of receiving her Fire—you would have alledged an Argument [Pg 26] in his Defence more material and important, than a thousand Encomiums on his Calmness and Presence of Mind. ”