HMS Revenge

“ And that himself and the ship must needs be possessed by the enemy, who were now all cast in a ring round about him; the Revenge not able to move one way or other,
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but as she was moved with the waves and billow of the sea: commanded the master Gunner, whom he knew to be a most resolute man, to split and sink the ship; that thereby nothing might remain of glory or victory to the Spaniards: seeing in so many hours’ fight, and with so great a Navy they were not able to take her, having had fifteen hours’ time, fifteen thousand men, and fifty and three sail of men-of-war to perform it withal. ”

“ Another source of regret—entirely sentimental, no doubt; but are not sailors proverbially sentimental?—is the final disappearance of the big ship under a cloud of canvas. Such [Pg 234] a sight as the cadets were called from their studies to witness one day at Portland, when the Revenge, a very handsome two-decker, was beating into the roads; Captain Harris stood on the poop, a veritable sea-dog, and criticised every movement.
A big battleship or cruiser is a fine sight, the embodiment of power and dangerous energy; but she cannot hold a candle to the Revenge as a picture! ”

“ But there was a sense abroad of something more than brute strength: a memory of great traditions, of inherited skill, of undaunted and indomitable tenacity. When on that January 15, 1896, the English Admiral hoisted his flag in the Revenge, and Her Majesty’s Marines marched on board under the command of Captain Drake, the enemy disappeared from the seas, and we made haste to forget another naval victory.
The lesson, we may hope, remains; this was not a triumph of physical force. The challenger’s nerve, and not his ships, failed him; he feared his
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own destruction more than he desired ours. ”

“ The resolute bearing of the vessel, and the cool intrepidity with which they had hove-to to await us, made us also prepare on our side for a combat which we knew would be severe. Although she was superior to us in guns, yet, the Revenge being wholly fitted for war, we had many advantages, independent of our being very superior in men. Some few chase-guns were fired during our approach, when, having ranged up within a cable’s length of her, we exchanged broadsides for half an hour, after which our captain determined upon boarding. ”

“ For an Irishman, sure I have a reputation for discreetness that must not be broken. And so,” he continued, “we’ll let well enough alone.”
It was evident to every one on board the Revenge that their vessel sailed faster and closer on the wind than did the brig. And though both were heading toward the white cliffs, it became apparent that if the wind held, the Revenge would not only cross the brig’s bows at a distance that was practically out of range of her broadside guns, but would also weather the point that was the southernmost cape on the English coast—Land’s End. ”

“ The ship herself was suffered to pass out of view, but another ship was permitted to be equipped in her stead, and the officers and crew of the old ship were transferred to the new one, with little or no disguise, and the latter was suffered to depart on a cruise without molestation. Here was another ship, which had never been in any port of the Colonies, and which, according to Mr. Seward’s vocabulary, was a “pirate.” Let us see what she did. “The Revenge,” continues the historian, “proved exceedingly successful, making prizes [Pg 393] daily, and generally destroying them. ”

“ A midshipman had power to bully and maltreat all those beneath him. Aboard H.M.S. Revenge, just before Trafalgar, under a captain so strict and just as Robert Moorsom, there was a midshipman who amused himself by climbing on to gun-carriages, and calling to him the strongest and finest of the sailors. It was this little devil’s pleasure to kick and beat the poor fellows without cause. He was an officer, and to resent his cruelty would have been mutiny. A midshipman had but to complain to a lieutenant to get a man a flogging at the gangway. ”

“ This agrees also with an examination taken by Sir Francis Godolphin, of four other mariners of the same ship being returned, which examination the said Sir Francis sent unto Master William Killigrew, of Her Majesty’s Privy Chamber.
But to return to the fight, the Spanish ships which attempted to board the Revenge, as
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they were wounded and beaten off, so always others came in their places, she having never less than two mighty galleons by her sides and aboard her. ”

“ The heroism of that long tragedy in which the Revenge, Grenville, and his crew of one hundred and fifty men bore their unflinching part has been made the subject of accumulated legends. The entire hostile force of fifty-three ships and ten thousand men is said to have been employed, but the facts seem to be that a large number of the Spanish vessels were supply ships, and that of the twenty ships of war they had, some fifteen, with five thousand men, were engaged in battering the English ship. ”

“ The brunt of the engagement which followed was principally borne by the Revenge, commanded by Sir Richard Grenville. The fight began about three o’clock in the afternoon, and continued until after daylight the next morning.
The Revenge was laid on board at one and the same time by the St. Philip, of 1500 tons and 78 guns, and four others of the Spanish men-of-war of the largest size, and filled with soldiers. The enemy boarded no less than fifteen times during the night, and were as often repulsed, although they continually shifted their vessels, and boarded with fresh men. ”

“ But the other ships had also to get their sick men on board, and sickly as the Revenge was, she was no worse off than her consorts. It is quite certain, however, that by some cause the Revenge was delayed, and before she could weigh, the Spanish fleet had stretched to windward of her, cutting her off from the admiral and the rest of the squadron. Greynvile might still have got clear by keeping away large, and so, doubling on the enemy, have rejoined his friends. ”

“ The voyage of 1591 was rendered extremely memorable by the famous last fight of the Revenge. In this year the queen sent out her squadron under the command [120] of Lord Thomas Howard. It consisted of six ships, and it took up the cruising ground occupied to so little purpose by Hawkins and Frobisher in the previous year. By this time it had become impossible for the King of Spain to delay his flota again. Orders had therefore been sent to come on at all hazards. ”

“ Insurance rose to twenty per centum; and so unwilling were English merchants to risk their goods in British bottoms that at one time forty French vessels were taking in cargoes in the Thames. The Revenge tried to intercept the British transports taking hired German troops to America, but failed.
After the treaty of alliance with France was signed, the French openly assisted the Americans, whose cruisers and privateers became more active than ever. The story of their exploits in detail forms a most romantic chapter of American history. ”

“ At this period Captain Malcolm of the Donegal, arrived with the Revenge and Niobe, and the attack was renewed by the four ships going in alternately, and making every exertion to destroy the enemy as long as the tide would allow them to do so ”

“ As the fight went on hour after hour, ever one ship coming on and going away hurt, while two others were ready to take its place, many of the crew of the Revenge were slain or hurt, and towards nightfall one of the great galleons of the Armada and the admiral of the hulks were both sunk, while the decks of other vessels were crowded with groaning wounded. ”

“ Without further preface I shall commence with a narrative of my cruise off Hispaniola, in the Revenge privateer.
The Revenge mounted fourteen guns, and was commanded by Captain Weatherall, a very noted privateer’s-man. One morning at daybreak we discovered a vessel from the masthead, and immediately made all sail in chase, crowding every stitch of canvass. As we neared, we made her out to be a large ship, deeply laden, and we imagined that she would be an easy prize; but as we saw her hull more out of the water, she proved to be well armed, having a full tier of guns fore and aft. ”

“ Fortunately, she was prepared for the stroke, and only forty-eight men were lost. She sank in six fathoms, listing heavily to starboard, and then turning completely over, so that her keel remained visible, like the back of a huge whale, above the surface till near the end of the campaign, when she was blown up as an obstruction. On the same day as the disaster to the Triumph, a submarine also aimed at the Vengeance, the Lord Nelson (Admiral de Robeck’s flagship) , and three of the French battleships. It was evident that the whole system of naval action, anchorage, and supply must be changed. ”

“ The prize proved to be the Vengeance, of 52 guns, exclusive of a number of brass swivels on her gunwale, and 326 men, many of whom were killed and wounded; but her exact loss has never been ascertained. The casualties on board la Seine were Lieutenant George Milne and 12 men slain; Lieutenant Archibald Macdonald, of the marines; Mr. Andrew Barclay, Master; Mr. Home, Captain’s Clerk; and 26 wounded.
The action between la Seine and the Vengeance was justly considered by naval men as one of the most brilliant fought during the war between single ships. ”

“ The Revenge was cruising about among the Canary Islands, when a Spanish vessel ran for Teneriffe from Palma, and was at once pursued. She sped for Gomera, but unable to weather the point came to anchor within half a cable's length of the shore. She was a bark of sixty tons burthen, and as the Revenge drew more water and the captain feared sunken rocks, he ordered the yawl to be hoisted out and to be manned with eleven hands. ”

“ Half-an-hour has passed of wild noise and fury; three times has the Vengeance, as a dolphin might, sailed clean round and round the Sta. Catharina, pouring in broadside after broadside, till the guns are leaping to the deck-beams with their own heat, and the Spaniard's sides are slit and spotted in a hundred places, and yet, so high has been his fire in return, and so strong the deck defences of the Vengeance, that a few spars broken, and two or three men wounded by musketry, are all her loss. ”

“ A lighted cigarette upon a dark deck high in the air may be seen a half a mile at sea and thus would enable an enemy submarine to radio a lookout warning to another “sub” lying in wait ahead. These pests of the deep generally worked in pairs. To show how strict the rules were one man was court martialed and sent to prison, an officer was court martialed and reduced, and an army chaplain, who was assisting the chaplain of the ship in administering to the dying, was threatened with court-martial because he had opened a port slightly in response to a dying soldier’s request for air. ”

“ Not another living man could be seen, though there were dead enough strewn about the deck, and the water that came in through the scuppers, deeply reddened by their blood, swashed to and fro over them and up the painted bulwarks at every roll.
The flag of the enemy was still flying, but as Lieutenant Biddle and his men started aft the three officers at the taffrail threw down their swords in token of surrender, while one buried his face in his hands and turned away. So Lieutenant Biddle himself hauled down the flag and reported the surrender of the ship to Captain Jones. ”

“ Our rigging was soon shot away and our sails cut into ribbons. At length away went the lower masts a little above the deck, while about two hundred men were pegging away at us with muskets. To make our happiness supreme, the sloop of war which had been set on fire and abandoned, blew up, and set us partially in a blaze, and while we were endeavouring to extinguish it the enemy took the cowardly advantage of wounding the purser, gunner, and two seamen, as well as myself, though only slightly. ”

“ Four men and the second mate will run the brig to Portsmouth easily enough. There’s not a craft on the coast can come near the Vengeance for speed; her bottom has not been injured, and she spreads more canvas now than before. If Vice-Admiral Colpoys is still off Isle Dieu, I shall be able, on stating the circumstances, to get leave to return and render you any aid you may require; I can be back, if no untoward event occurs, in three days.”
“Nothing can be better,” said Lieutenant Thornton, joyfully. “The Vengeance has some of her guns on board, but no stores.” ”

“ The next day the enemy unrigged all their ships and made a strong boom with their yards, top masts, and cables, buoyed up with casks, for which they had all the leisure and convenience they could wish, the wind hindering the English from doing anything; and, to try the admiral's patience to the very utmost, it so fell out that a drunken gunner firing a pistol, his other small fire-ship was destroyed; so that he had now none left but the Little Victory, which drew too much water to enter that part of the bay where the Algerines lay. ”

“ The enemy now bore up to renew the action; made every preparation to receive him; reloaded the guns with round and grape. Mustered at quarters, and found 110 men missing; six quarter-deck guns, four on the forecastle, and many of the main-deckers disabled, with the wreck lying over them; the hull knocked to pieces, and the fore-mast, in falling, had passed through the forecastle and main-decks; all our masts gone, the ship making water, and one pump shot away. ”