Admiral's Men

“ Nor was the homage paid to our admiral confined to the higher classes. It was impossible for him to appear in the streets without being surrounded and followed by crowds of people, shouting out “Viva Nelson!” Indeed, our officers and men were invariably treated with the utmost respect and cordiality, and were hailed as the deliverers of the country. Not a dissentient voice was ever heard. It was also very gratifying to hear the praises bestowed in society upon the firmness of our excellent sovereign, and on the sagacity of his ministers. ”

“ The fame of this great admiral has depended less upon his conduct of campaigns than upon the renowned victories he won in the actual collision of fleet with fleet; and even then has been mutilated by the obstinacy with which, despite the perfectly evident facts, men have persisted in seeing in them nothing but dash,—heart, not head. ”

“ But there is a grand old admiral living now—titled, high in office, before whom even his equals in rank bow, and who can make post-captains wait in his ante-chambers—who owes at least half his advancement and social position to the services of the link-men. ”

“ Do they belong to the same nation? Did they command the same men? The admiral, full of enthusiasm, and devoured by the love of distinction, and the general, so phlegmatic and immovable, who, intrenched behind his lines at Torres Vedras, or re-forming, without emotion, his broken squares on the field of Waterloo— (where not a single British square was broken) —seems rather to aim at wearying out his enemy than at conquering him, and triumphs only by his patient and unconquerable firmness."
Must it not be asked, Why did the French suffer him to exhibit this firmness? ”

“ It will be pleasant for him to have two gentlemen with him. He takes with him his own following, of eight men; six of his band fell in the battle. The Admiral is of opinion that this is somewhat too small a force for safety; but if you each take the four men-at-arms who ride behind you, it will double his force. ”

“ An admiral may be amply rewarded by his own feelings, and by the approbation of his superiors; but what reward have the inferior officers and men but the value of the prizes? If an admiral takes that from them, on any consideration, he cannot expect to be well supported. ”

“ When it got late, and the king wanted to go, the Admiral sent him on shore in his boat very honorably, and saluted him with many guns. Having landed, he got into his litter, and departed with his 200 men, his son being carried behind on the shoulders of an Indian, a man highly respected. All the sailors and people from the ships were given to eat, and treated with much honor wherever they liked to stop. ”

“ The Admiral, who was neither a coward nor a fool, was made ridiculous by being described as the greatest commander that ever existed; one whom Nature, in a gracious freak, had made to shame us little men ”

“ The admiral twisted nervously in his chair. Strong pressure had been brought to bear on him by the leading old-timers, men whose friendship he regarded highly, and, politician that he was, he would [Pg 63] have given almost anything to be able to accommodate them. But underneath this issue lay certain fundamentals on which he had strong convictions.
He had gone to sea in the old days when the Engineer Corps and the line officers had fought so bitterly in the ancient feud between the “black gang” and the “deck force” that the service had been shaken to its foundations. ”

“ The five ships which engaged the French on the outside, where they had concentrated their force, should naturally have suffered the most severely, as indeed the Bellerophon, the Majestic, our ship, and the Minotaur did; but the Defence, like the Zealous, bore charmed lives. She had but four men killed and eleven men wounded, though she laid herself alongside of the Peuple Souverain, almost as close as we lay to the Spartiate. Her immunity illustrated the value of the Admiral’s theory of concentrating your force on part of the enemy and risking the rest. ”

“ In this distress, we had vigilant eye unto the Admiral, whom we saw cast away, without power to give the men succour, neither could we espy any of the men that leaped overboard to save themselves, either in the same pinnace, or cock, or upon rafters, and such like means presenting themselves to men in those extremities, for we desired to save the men by every possible means. ”

“ To be deserted by my fleet in the face of an enemy is a disgrace which, I believe, never before happened to a British admiral; nor could I have supposed it possible. My greatest comfort under God is that I have been supported by the officers, seamen, and marines of this ship; for which, with a heart overflowing with gratitude, I request you to accept my sincere thanks. I flatter myself much good may result from your example, by bringing those deluded people to a sense of their duty, which they owe, not only to their king and country, but to themselves. ”

“ They perceived, with delight, that it now appeared filled with ships; and had, soon, the undescribable transport to behold the French flag flying on board several of them. A tumult of joy animated every bosom in the British squadron, at sight of the enemy. The humblest individual felt himself a hero; and had a great right so to feel, since every individual was eagerly prepared to risque his life for the safety and glory of his king and country. The brave admiral was calm, but no mortal can convey to another the sense of ineffable delight which glowed in every fibre of his frame. ”

“ Only by mutiny did the Admiralty yield to our demands. What I did I would do again! We took our risks in the Thames against the guns that were levelled at us; we’ve taken our risks down here against the French to help save your squadron, and we’ve done it. The men have done it, because they’ve been loyal to the flag, and from first to last set to make the Admiralty and the people know they have rights which must be cherished. ”

“ On this he composed his thoughts and feelings, and replied, "It is very true, the place or manner is of no great importance to me; but I think living admirals should consult the dignity of the rank for their own sakes. I cannot plead a precedent; there is no precedent of an admiral, or a general officer in the army, being shot. ”

“ Though it is natural to suppose, that the time and attention of the admiral, and all the officers of his squadron, were very fully employed in repairing the damages sustained by their own ships, and in securing those of the enemy which their valour had subdued, yet the mind of that great and good man felt the strongest emotions of the most pious gratitude to the Supreme Being, for the signal success which, by the Divine favour, had crowned his endeavours in the cause of his country ”

“ I am nothing more than a messenger."
"'Twas said last night you were the bearer of startling news. There was whisper of a plot to swoop down upon the Admiral and on Condé, and to whisk them off to Paris. Faith, if the Guises once got them there we should see little of them again."
"Why has the Admiral no soldiers?"
"Because he is too honourable to distrust others. He believes they will keep their word. As for me, I would as soon trust a starving wolf as a Guise, or the Queen-Mother. The Admiral is foolish, but he is too good-hearted to think about himself." ”

“ We much fear that, if even now we could look into the heart of hearts of many a veteran admiral and captain, we should find that they have, in the event of a war, no other plan in their heads for manning the navy but a return to this dreadful and oppressive system. ”

“ A cheery solid Admiral, a shadowy Captain Ross who can navigate but does not open his lips, a talkative creature of the secretary type, the soldierly Bingham, the graceful courtly Montholons, the young General who out-gascons the Gascons, the wire-drawn subtle Las Cases, the melancholy Grand Marshal and his spasmodic consort—all of them there to guard or cheer that pathetic central figure, the world's conqueror and world's exile. ”

“ So interested was every one in the new hero of the hour—the splendid British seaman who had no equal, but the Admiral, where tough fighting was to be done—that nobody noticed a second barge which pulled alongside shortly after the other, starting from the Castel dell’ Uovo, and which, as it proved, contained, besides Will and its crew, a lady and a lame old gentleman. ”

“ If it had been a man who had played the jest upon him he would have thrashed him first, and fought a duel to the death afterwards—if the thrashed person wished to carry the matter further. And though the Admiral had taken no part in the jest, his very presence, had he been any other man, would have been sufficient for hot-headed Will. But the Admiral was to him hardly a human being,—he reverenced him so, and owed him such a debt of gratitude ”

“ One cannot regard an Admiral in the exercise of his duty as a mere human. It is in his power to make you get up an anchor by hand if he thinks you are slack; he can stop your coaling and bid you man and arm boats in the middle of the grimy mess; he can make you repeat a certain business till you are sick and dizzy; or he can raise you to high honour by signalling: ‘Well done, So-and-so. Evolution creditably performed.’ He blocks up all the horizon when he appears on it. ”

“ You can imagine that we, who had never seen a shot fired from the ship, were in a fine state of excitement. I suppose I must have winced as a round shot went through the mizzen-stay close to where I was in attendance on the Admiral, for he patted me on the shoulder and said to me, “How do you like that music?” he having on his own face his fighting smile of serene superiority. Indeed, he had not long since come up from his dinner, which was being served when we came into range of the French guns. ”

“ But, captains and gentlemen, consider well my friend the Port Admiral's advice; and if any man's heart misgives him, let him, for the sake of his country and his queen, have so much government of his tongue to hide his fears in his own bosom, and leave open complaining to ribalds and women. For if the sailor be not cheered by his commander's cheerfulness, how will the ignorant man find comfort in himself? And without faith and hope, how can he fight worthily? ”

“ Never, perhaps, in the history of the navy had British ships clamped the enemy as the Aquitaine was clamped by the Beatitude and the Ariadne. Certain it is that no admiral of the British fleet had ever to perform two such acts in one day as receiving the submission of a French admiral and offering thanks to the captain of a British man-of-war whom, while thanking, he must at once place under arrest as a mutineer. ”

“ A thunderbolt falling out of heaven would not have startled the admiral more than this speech. I never saw any man so put out of countenance. He shuffled his feet, gave a forced laugh, and not finding anything to say, stammered some disconnected words, "I trust . . . my dear. . . Danican .... a regard for duty . . . these gentlemen ....!" We put a stop to the distressing scene by low bows of dismissal, and everybody went off in a rage—the officers with their captain, the captain with the admiral for not supporting discipline, and the admiral with everybody, including, it may be, his own self. ”

“ But can a generous nation, like this, where understanding abounds, accept of his blood for the crimes of any other? surely, it cannot be.
I believe you will agree with me in thinking, that the Admiral’s behaviour before and at the time of his death; his observations and conversation with his friends; together with the paper containing his thoughts on the occasion, wrote by himself, and signed, which he gave to the Marshal of [Pg 5] the Admiralty, immediately before the sentence passed upon him was put in execution ”

“ That we should fight, every one in the fleet took for granted. It was not the Admiral’s habit to leave the enemy time to prepare. To force them to risk he would take any risk himself. In those latitudes, where there is no twilight, day drops dead into night, even on an August day, before seven of the clock. It would be as much as we could do to lay alongside of them before nightfall. We should have to fight them in absolute darkness. But the Admiral reckoned every difficulty in his favour. He had some opinion of French gunnery, but none of their courage as seamen ”

“ Most generous are the praises which the Admiral bestows upon his subordinates; his venom he reserves for just the chosen few who, no doubt, can bear it. Apart from personal recriminations, of which some of us must be more than tired, these two portly volumes are of real historical value. ”

“ Every telescope in the fleet (and there are myriads) is looking at the Admiral as he goes to the topmost and best vantage spot on board his flag ship to see the enemy, and sees him alone outlined against the sky—neither time nor room for a staff around him, and if there were they’d say, “It’s not the Admiral who is doing it,” and be demoralized accordingly—fatal to victory. In the fleet the Admiral’s got to be like Nelson—“the personal touch” so that “any silly ass can’t be an Admiral” ”

“ But he has found that no country in the world could be in so vile a state, under the worst of kings, as under these robbers and murderers; and he and the best of those with him would gladly have left the French and rejoined their Majesties if they could have come to terms.”
“The Admiral’s orders, my Lord, were most positive, not to make any terms with the rebels but unconditional surrender; and I think that anything but hanging is too good for a man who fires upon his own flag.” ”