Cochrane the Dauntless Read online

  The first cruise of the Arab was uneventful. They escorted a convoy of merchantmen down the Channel, and then headed north to Liverpool. After a fortnight of winter gales, with heavy seas and showers of rain and sleet, they anchored in the River Mersey. A week was spent taking on water and stores and overhauling the rigging; a seaman was punished with twenty-four lashes for drunkenness; and on 31 December a Liverpool pilot guided them out to sea. By 9 January they were back in Plymouth Sound. During the few days that they were moored in the harbour, carrying out repairs and adjustments to the rigging, Surgeon Guthrie came on board and joined the small group of Cochrane’s followers who had transferred from the Speedy to the Arab.

  The second cruise of the Arab was marred by several unfortunate incidents which Cochrane would no doubt have preferred to forget, and indeed none of them are mentioned in his autobiography. His orders from his commanding officer Lord Keith were to join the other British warships which were keeping watch on the French invasion flotilla being assembled at Boulogne. The Arab sailed from Plymouth on 16 January 1804 in company with a convoy, and was sailing past Dungeness when she collided with the gun brig Bloodhound, causing her to lose her jib boom, bumkins and associated rigging. There was a stiff southwesterly wind blowing at the time and visibility was cut down by driving rain but, according to Cochrane, the accident was due to the poor sailing qualities of the Arab and not the negligence of his officer of the watch. He informed the Admiralty that the Arab had gone about on to the larboard tack, the yards were not trimmed ‘and the ship, which steers badly at all times, had nearly lost her way. She was therefore unmanageable… I was instantly on deck and everything was done that was proper to clear the vessels.’25 Cochrane played down the damage caused to the gun brig but Lord Keith told Markham at the Admiralty, ‘I am obliged to send the Bloodhound to the Nore, all to pieces by the Arab running foul of her. Lord C. gives a sad account of the latter.’26

  If it had been an isolated incident the collision would soon have been forgotten but three days later, while the Arab was at anchor in the Downs, the great anchorage between Deal and the Goodwin Sands, she fell foul of the Abundance. This was a large naval storeship and her master promptly put in a claim for damages. Cochrane was mortified and immediately despatched a letter to Lord Keith: ‘The Arab having been foul of two vessels in so short a time it is necessary for the justification of my conduct and that of the officers that I apply immediately for Courts Martial…’27 When he received a letter from the Admiralty Board which clearly blamed him for the collision he wrote back with a detailed defence and again demanded a court martial so he could clear his name. ‘I am well aware of the value of their Lordships’ good opinion, and that of my brother officers. I do not dread a decision founded on fact; against groundless assertion no man’s character is safe.’28 He was informed that there was no need for a court martial because Rear-Admiral Rowley had already been directed to enquire into the matter.

  The troubles of the Arab continued unabated. When a boat was sent ashore for water while they were moored off Deal five of the launch’s crew deserted. Two days later James White was punished with thirty-six lashes for attempting to desert. On 19 February they crossed the Channel to Boulogne and then sailed along the French coast to Calais. A number of French gunboats were seen cruising inshore. Cochrane anchored and sent a boat with an armed crew in chase, provoking the shore batteries to open fire. Unlike the Speedy’s inshore raids, this one achieved nothing, and when they attempted to get under weigh the sailors manning the capstan were knocked down by the capstan bars which were too short, and the Arab began drifting ashore. To save her going aground they had to make sail hastily and cut the anchor cable, losing the main anchor and forty fathoms of cable.

  A week later, on 27 February, Cochrane caused a diplomatic incident by boarding the Chatham, an American ship bound for Amsterdam from New York. He informed her captain that he could not proceed to Amsterdam because the Texel was under blockade, which was not the case, and ordered the ship to make for the nearest British port. This led to a complaint from James Monroe, the American ambassador in London, and a demand from the Admiralty for an explanation from Cochrane. It was around this time that Lord Keith told Markham that Cochrane’s uncle, Captain Alexander Cochrane, was a crack-headed, unsafe man who had stirred up dissension in the fleet in the Mediterranean, ‘and I am sorry to find that his nephew is falling into the same error – wrong-headed, violent and proud’.29

  Cochrane now received orders to escort a convoy of Greenland-bound whaling ships as far as the Shetland Islands and then to cruise the east coast and Scottish waters, keeping an eye out for enemy privateers. Few, if any, French privateers ventured north as far as Berwick, let alone the deserted, windswept seas off the Scottish isles. For a young man thirsting for action and prize money this was a bitter assignment. Routine patrols and convoy protection duties might be the lot of most junior captains but Cochrane believed he was destined for greater things. He blamed official displeasure and malevolence for what he later described as ‘naval exile in a tub’ and he came to regard the cruise as a blank in his life.

  On 24 March the Arab joined her convoy at the Nore and sailed from the Thames estuary up the east coast. For a week they endured strong gales and sleet but they made good time and on 31 March the Arab and eight whaling ships dropped anchor in the fine harbour of Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands. The gales and sleet continued but they were able to take on water and fresh beef, and carry out repairs to the rigging. After four days it was time to move on and the Arab headed out into the North Atlantic with the convoy. When they were within sight of the Faeroe Islands, 250 miles north of the Scottish mainland, they left the whalers to proceed on their way to Greenland and headed back to the Moray Firth. For four days in mid-May they moored in Cromarty Bay and then embarked on an extended cruise which took them around the northern tip of Scotland past Cape Wrath, down through the Hebrides to Barra, and then back through the Pentland Firth and across the Moray Firth towards Peterhead and Aberdeen. They passed Flamborough Head on 12 July and on the 14th they sailed up the Thames estuary and dropped anchor at the Nore.

  The fourth and final cruise of the Arab under Cochrane’s command took them across the Channel to the mouth of the Texel, and then north to Norway. Nearly two months were spent cruising the Norwegian coast, following a similar track to that taken by the Thetis when Cochrane was an eighteen-year-old midshipman on his uncle’s ship. The cruise of the Thetis had taken place during the icy months of the Norwegian winter. This time Cochrane and his crew had the benefit of light breezes and warm summer sunshine. In September they sailed north and returned to the Shetlands where they spent five days in Lerwick harbour before heading south. By 24 October they were back at the Nore.

  After four weeks lying at anchor amidst the comings and goings of warships and London-bound merchantmen, they sailed around the North Foreland and dropped anchor in the Downs. It was there, on 27 November, that Cochrane learnt that his penance on the hated Arab was over.30 Lord St Vincent had been replaced as First Lord of the Admiralty by Henry Dundas, recently created Lord Melville, and a friend of the Cochrane family. Melville was a Scot, he had been Member of Parliament for Edinburgh for many years, he was a former Home Secretary and was a key figure in the political life of Scotland and Westminster.31 When he was approached on Cochrane’s behalf by the Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland, and by Cochrane’s naval uncle, it did not take him long to find a suitable ship – the new 32-gun frigate Pallas. She had been built in the royal dockyard at Plymouth, and launched a few days before the Arab returned to the Nore. Cochrane would be her first commander.

  To be given command of a frigate was the dream of every young and ambitious captain. Frigates were fast, relatively powerful in terms of their armament, and were equipped for extended cruising. They were used for a variety of tasks: for reconnaissance; for carrying despatches; for escorting convoys of merchant ships; and for raiding enemy coasts and
harassing enemy commerce. In the words of an eminent naval historian, ‘Their officers and men were recognised (not least by themselves) as a professional elite, honed by independent cruising and frequent action’.32 Unlike the more heavily armed ships of the line which spent much of their time blockading enemy ports the frigates roamed far and wide and there was ample opportunity for glory and for prize money.

  5

  The Flying Pallas

  1804–1806

  The royal dockyard at Plymouth is situated on the lower reaches of the River Tamar alongside the broad stretch of water known as the Hamoaze. Unlike the great expanse of Plymouth Sound, which was exposed to the full force of southerly winds until the completion of the breakwater in 1840, the sheltered waters of the Hamoaze provided a secure anchorage for warships guarding the western approaches of the English Channel. It was to Plymouth that ships battered by months of blockade duty off Brest retreated for repairs to hulls and rigging, and Plymouth was often the last port of call for convoys setting off across the Atlantic. Founded in 1690 the dockyard had expanded steadily during the course of the eighteenth century and by 1800 its facilities were comparable with the royal dockyards at Chatham and Portsmouth. A panoramic view of the yard painted by Nicholas Pocock in 1798 shows row upon row of elegantly proportioned brick buildings stretching back in orderly lines from the waterfront. On the extreme right of the painting are three building slips with ships in the course of construction. It was on one of these slips that Cochrane’s new ship was built.

  In the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich there are plans of the Pallas and her sister ship the Circe which were issued by the Navy Office on 3 April 1804. One of the drawings is entitled. ‘A Draught for building in His Majesty’s Yard at Plymouth, Two Frigates of Fir, of 32 Guns, prepared in pursuance of an Order from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty of 16th March 1804’. What is interesting about the plans is that instead of showing the latest development in frigate design they reveal a modified version of a design which had been drawn up fifty years earlier. The Pallas, the Circe and five other small frigates were based on the lines of the Richmond class which had been designed back in 1753. The adoption of an earlier design and the use of fir (a softwood rather than hardy English oak) were largely due to the disastrous economies forced on the royal dockyards by Lord St Vincent during his spell as First Lord of the Admiralty. In his misguided campaign to root out corruption and bad practice in the yards St Vincent had sacked a fifth of the workforce, destroyed morale and by series of false economies had drastically reduced the supplies of hemp, sailcloth and timber, particularly English oak, available for use in the dockyards. With the renewal of the war against France there was an urgent need for more frigates. To economise on timber and have the ships at sea as soon as possible the Admiralty decided to fall back on the design of the smallest viable class of frigate.1 The keels of the Pallas and Circe were laid down in June 1804 and they were both built and launched within six months, a notable achievement for the dockyard. Most of the larger 36-gun and 38-gun frigates took between one and two years to build.

  The day of the launch was a spectacular and colourful occasion. Joseph Tucker, the Master Shipwright at Plymouth, was determined to impress the Admiralty with the efficiency of the dockyard and on 17 November 1804 he arranged the simultaneous launch of the Pallas, the Circe and the 120-gun Hibernia. On the same day the 98-gun St George was undocked after major repairs. A print commemorating the occasion shows the waters of the Hamoaze crowded with small boats filled with cheering spectators. The massive hull of the Hibernia is entering the water; the Pallas and the Circe are already afloat and are shown in the centre of the picture with huge launch flags billowing above their decks.

  Cochrane’s new command may have been based on an old design and she may have been among the smallest of the navy’s frigates but she was in a different league from the Speedy. She measured 127 feet on her gun deck and so was nearly fifty feet longer than the brig sloop; she had a crew of 215 compared to the Speedy’s eighty; and she had more than five times the firepower in terms of the weight of her broadside. Although classed as a 32-gun frigate she had twenty-six 12-pounder guns on her gun deck, and twelve 24-pounder carronades on her quarterdeck and forecastle. Carronades were short, light guns of heavy calibre and low velocity which had been developed by the Carron Iron Company of Falkirk in the 1770s.2 The navy had been reluctant to use them at first but tests had shown their effectiveness at short range. By the 1790s they had become the standard armament on the upper works of British frigates. Whether loaded with round shot, grape shot or canister they had a murderous, smashing effect when fired at close quarters on to a crowded deck. Their shock value had been confirmed in several successful frigate actions against French ships. Napoleon, who had trained as an artillery officer, wrote to his Minister of Marine in 1805, ‘In this war, the English have been the first to use carronades, and everywhere they have done us great harm. We must hasten to perfect their system…’3

  Designs and description of a 24-pounder carronade on a carriage designed by Captain Schank and ‘approved of and lodged in the Admiralty’.

  Cochrane, with his inventive mind and his interest in new technology, would have regarded the rows of Scottish-made carronades on his quarterdeck with approval. He would also have welcomed the light and airy space of his quarters which were situated at the stern of the ship below the quarterdeck. His cabin was illuminated by six well-proportioned stern windows and there was more than six foot of headroom. His crew enjoyed better accommodation than the crew of a ship of the line because in a two-decked 74-gun ship most of the crew had to eat and sleep in the low, cramped space among the guns. The principal characteristic of a frigate of this period was that she was armed with thirty-two to forty guns and her major battery of carriage guns was mounted on her main deck. The crew’s accommodation was on the unarmed lower deck which gave the men more space per ton than in any other type of warship. The position of the main battery well above the water line gave the frigate a distinct advantage in heavy weather. While a 74-gun ship had to close her lower gunports when heeled before a strong wind, a frigate could continue to carry a press of sail and fire her guns while heeled over to a considerable degree.

  Within days of hearing the news of his appointment to the Pallas, Cochrane had sent letters to the Admiralty asking for various members of the crew of the Arab to be transferred with him to the Pallas. He also wrote to Lord Melville and explained that he had raised the whole ship’s company of the Arab only twelve months earlier. ‘Some of them have been with me since I commanded a ship. I entreat of your Lordship to recommend to the Board to let them go with me. If it is necessary I will raise as many for the Arab at my own expense.’4 It was not unusual for captains to take able and trusted members of their crews with them when they took up a new command but Cochrane was only allowed to take half a dozen men including James Sutherland the master, Robert Boddy the carpenter, William Wilson the purser, and his friend James Guthrie the surgeon. He now had the difficult task of raising the remainder of the crew.

  Captains with a reputation for capturing ships and winning prize money rarely had problems in recruiting good seamen but Cochrane suffered from the disadvantage that his recent cruises in the Arab had been singularly lacking in prizes. However, his appointment to the Pallas occurred at an opportune moment. Spain, which was currently Napoleon’s closest ally, had declared war on Britain in December 1804. This meant that the Spanish treasure ships bringing back gold and silver from the mines in South America were a legitimate target for British cruisers. Indeed, it was the attack on a squadron of Spanish ships bearing treasure which was the major cause of Spain’s declaration of war. On 5 October a squadron of four British frigates under the command of Captain Graham Moore had attacked four Spanish frigates in the Gulf of Cadiz. The justification for the attack was that the bullion on board the ships was going to subsidise the French war effort. One of the Spanish ships had blown up during the action kill
ing a large number of seamen and civilian passengers, including the wife and daughters of a returning Spanish governor. The other three ships were captured with cargoes worth around £1 million.5 Not surprisingly the Spanish authorities were outraged by an attack which was made without warning at a time when Britain was at peace with Spain.

  Cochrane’s orders were to proceed to the islands of the Azores, which were on the route of homecoming Spanish treasure ships, and to ‘cruize in the neighbourhood of them for the purpose of taking or destroying the Enemy’s ships of war, and privateers; and for distressing their trade’.6 On the strength of this he was able to issue a boldly worded recruiting poster which announced that ‘The Flying Pallas… a new and uncommonly fine frigate’ was ready for an expedition. He appealed to seamen and stout hands to join him and hinted at rewards of doubloons from galleons loaded with the treasure of Peru and La Plata. The poster may have encouraged some men to sign on, but he still had to resort to sending out press gangs into the sailors’ haunts of Plymouth to round up enough men to be able to take the Pallas to sea. This brought him into conflict with the local authorities. The Mayor of Plymouth would not allow press gangs to operate without his permission and Cochrane chose to ignore this. A gang from the Pallas led by Lieutenant Crawley was arrested, imprisoned and fined for causing a riot in a public house. The next day violence broke out when local constables attempted to arrest a press gang led by Cochrane himself. This was to result in the Mayor issuing a warrant for Cochrane’s arrest on charges of assault. Fortunately the Admiralty stepped in on his side and instructed their solicitor to act on his behalf.7