Frigate Commander (19 page)

It is now midnight and I have just sent the Island launch, our large and small cutter, the
Druid’
s barge and cutter well manned and armed to the mouth of the river to endeavour to cut out the lugger and Sloop. I am of course very anxious, but if they can get alongside I have no doubt of their success.

Unfortunately, the lugger escaped in the darkness and the frigates’ boats ran aground and remained so until the tide rose. They returned to the ships at 3.30am. Things went even more wrong the following morning. At daylight Moore gave the order to weigh, as the wind had risen and there was a heavy swell;

In heaving ahead the Capstern flew round (owing to the heedlessness of the men) killed one man outright and wounded three others slightly.

It was not the only accident there had been recently:

Three days ago as we were coming to an anchor two of our men fell overboard, and altho’ we picked them both up yet one of them was so much hurt, having fallen from the main yard, that he died the next day – We are now very weakly manned.

When Moore returned to St Marcouf, he found that Smith had arrived with storeships carrying supplies and blockhouses for the islands. The storeships also carried arms and equipment for a Chouan army which was expected to assemble on the coast shortly. On his way back to St Marcouf, Smith had landed a spy on the coast to make contact with the Chouan leaders and Moore, who had regularly been charged with the covert landing of spies, was ordered to pick up the spy on the night of 1 April. On the appointed night, the
Syren
, in company with the
Diamond
, ran in to the coast after dark, anchoring about five miles from the shore so as to avoid arousing suspicion. The
Syren’
s cutter was lowered and manned with eight seamen and a midshipman, plus Moore and Richard King
–
Captain of the
Druid
, who had insisted on accompanying Moore out of friendship – all of whom were well armed. Muffling the oars, they set off on the two-hour haul towards the shore. At first they steered by compass, but as they came closer to the shore they were able to use a church steeple as a mark. Then, some way from the shore, the boat suddenly grounded, and although they pushed her along as quietly as possible, four men armed with muskets appeared on the beach. Moore was initially alarmed, but on calling out the secret challenge he was relieved to hear the correct response. The men began to wade out towards the boat. Moore was still suspicious and stood watching them with a pistol in each hand but as they neared he saw that they were carrying the spy on their shoulders. Once back on board, the man reported that the surrounding country was ready to rise against the Republican government as soon as the arms could be landed.

Before any such attempt could be made, however, news reached the squadron that a French convoy was about to depart from Le Havre, bound for Brest. It was to be escorted by a powerful force of three frigates and three corvettes, which indicated that the convoy was of considerable value. Smith immediately ordered both the
Syren
and the
Druid
to take station off Havre, while the
Diamond
, with the frigates
Magicienne
and
Minerva
, would wait out of sight to the west. Moore and Sir Richard King set off on 6 April, with the
Druid
sailing further in shore than the
Syren
. At 4pm, Moore was surprised when the
Druid
suddenly opened fire, and it was seen that she had fallen in with a convoy of eight deeply laden merchant brigs. Moore closed in with the
Syren
, and the merchantmen ran for cover under the heavy guns of a battery at Port-en-Bessin. Leaving King to maintain a guard over the brigs, Moore took the
Syren
on towards Le Havre. Before he got there, however, he fell in with Smith and his detachment who had overtaken them. It was now agreed that the four frigates should form a screen across the likely path of the Le Havre convoy; each frigate to be stationed nine miles apart with identification lights at the head of each mast. For three days, Smith maintained this position, but there was no sighting of the convoy. It was agreed that the convoy must have slipped past the cruisers, so Smith decided to take both the
Druid
, which had rejoined, and the
Diamond
as far as Cherbourg in pursuit. The next day, however, Moore discovered that the convoy was still secure in Le Havre.

By 11 April, the spring tides had passed and so had the opportunity for the deeply laden merchantmen to cross the bar at Le Havre. Moore, greatly disappointed, was ordered to escort some empty transports back to Spithead.

A week later Moore returned to St Marcouf to hear the most astonishing news: Sidney Smith had been captured by the French. He had led a party of three lieutenants, six midshipmen and twenty-four seamen in boats to cut out a privateer lugger in the harbour of Le Havre. Also with the party were his private secretary and a French émigré, Lieutenant de Tromelin. The party successfully seized the lugger, but the vessel’s anchor cable was cut prematurely and, as the tide turned, she drifted helplessly into the hands of waiting French troops. Smith’s men tried to resist, but they were surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered. There was nothing he could do but surrender. It was a ridiculous affair but typical of the antics which Smith had been undertaking. There was something of an inevitability to the outcome and Moore, with no trace of vindication, simply noted in his journal that it was

... most extraordinary and much to be regretted that so gallant and accomplished a man should run such risks to little or no purpose ...

though he could also not help adding that the lugger was an unworthy object on which to hazard both the Commodore and his men.

In Smith’s absence, command of the squadron had fallen to Captain Thomas Peyton in the
Minerva
. Moore also had ambitions in this direction and dispatched a hasty note to Spencer, the new First Lord of the Admiralty, asking for command of the
Diamond
and/or command of the station. The application was quietly refused, but on the last day of April 1796, the squadron’s new commander arrived and any disappointment Moore felt was instantly mitigated by the fact that it was his old friend, Richard Strachan.

8

Strachan’s Squadron, HMS Melampus (April 1796 – March 1797)

Following Strachan’s appointment, the squadron was reduced in size. Moore had expected this, believing that it was really too powerful a force for the operations assigned to it. One of Strachan’s first orders to his depleted group of commanders was an insistence that they were not to attempt senseless expeditions unless there was some clear justification to the degree of risk involved. It is hardly a surprise that Moore confided that he was
‘... heartily glad of the appointment of Strachan to this command’.
The
Syren
herself was immediately ordered to Cherbourg to watch a large assembly of merchant vessels which was now there in the harbour. The rest of the squadron was deployed ready to intercept the Le Havre convoy once again, but Strachan learned that two of the French frigates had already escaped. With a reduced escort the convoy would not attempt to sail, so the squadron returned to St Marcouf. Lamentably, on arrival there, another accident occurred on board the
Syren
which Moore, who was always so careful of his men, noted in his journal:

Just as we were taking in our topsails, one of our best seamen was knocked off the main shrouds by the carelessness of another and although the boat from the stern was lowered down with great alertness he almost immediately sunk. This is the third man we have lost in the
Syren
by similar accidents, besides one who was rendered totally unfit for service.

The incident depressed him. He was once again fed up with the war;
‘I tire of this station, nothing is to be done, and I tire of the scenes around me, where I see nothing to interest me.’
His mood was improved considerably when Strachan stated that the
Syren
was the most effective ship in the squadron, and in a lighthearted moment he copied the full lyrics of the popular naval song ‘Spanish Ladies’ into the journal.

On a more serious note though, both Moore and Strachan were becoming increasingly concerned about the noticeable change in French naval tactics. Moore again noted in his journal that,
‘The French are distressing our trade extremely with their Privateers’
and
‘These small craft have done a great deal of mischief’.
He and Strachan discussed this and considered the possibility of switching the focus of their operations westwards towards Brest in the hope of retaking English or allied merchantmen captured by privateers, but Strachan knew that he had to protect St Marcouf and patrol the vital Race of Alderney. Besides, the Commodore argued, even if he left the
Diamond
,
Minerva
and
L’Espion
on the squadron’s current station, ‘... Melampus
and
Syren
would be too slight a force to go off Ushant with’.
It was a sensible and responsible decision and one that Sidney Smith might not have reached. A few days later though, Strachan had decided to risk taking the whole squadron to cruise north-east of Ushant for a few days. Moore recorded this as

... joyful news to me as we have been so long on the worst cruising ground, and where we are going I look upon to be as good a place for meeting an enemy as we could go to. I have long wished to meet with something we could cope with in company with Strachan. The
Syren
at this moment sails very equally with the
Melampus
; the
Minerva
is by far the worst sailer of the squadron.

Moore’s joy was short-lived; on 25 May, near the Isle de Bas, as the
Syren
, sailing close to the wind, turned at speed towards a suspect lugger, her foremast split

... with such a crack that I thought it must have gone over the side. We called the men from the Mast head and the top as soon as possible and shortened sail in all haste. We found the upper part of the mast under the Cat harpins quite gone, so bad that all the hope I had was to lower the heel of the top mast below the spring and endeavour to secure it by good lashing above and below it.

After three hours’ intensive labour, the mast was jury-rigged and he consulted Strachan. Moore thought he could carry out a better repair at the Channel Islands, but Strachan advised getting the frigate back to Spithead or Plymouth for a new mast. With the wind fair for Spithead, Moore took the
Syren
there, arriving on 27 May. In ten days the ship was ready for sea again and Moore was greatly encouraged by the eager cooperation of the ship’s company whilst in port. For although they received their pay,

... they had very little enjoyment, poor fellows, as, from the urgency of the case, I could not let any of them go on shore, and not even Sunday afforded them a relaxation from work. Indeed they seemed to acquiesce in my measures as none of them asked to go on shore, but all went through their work with great cheerfulness.

On 7 June the
Syren
sailed again, escorting another group of transports for St Marcouf. What Moore did next serves to illustrate exactly why he was a superb frigate commander, and one who was increasingly respected by his men. As recorded in Moore’s journal it also gives us a rare insight into the techniques which the best frigate commanders used in the effective management of the men under their command – at a time when there were no manuals or handbooks to inform officers about leadership:

In the evening after we had mustered the Ship’s Company at their Quarters, I called them up on the Quarter Deck and told them that I had found it necessary to keep them hard at it during their stay at Spithead on this occasion as it was my wish, and I was certain they were no less anxious, to fulfil the expectation of that active and gallant officer Sir Richard Strachan who had expressed his confidence in the exertions of the
Syren
in so very handsome a manner. That I thought it was but fair to tell them that I was exceedingly well pleased with their conduct since we had met with the accident that forced us into Port, that it shewed an admirable disposition and a Spirit worthy of English Sailors, and gave me the utmost confidence in their zeal and courage. I concluded with thanking them for their manly forbearance from asking what I could not have granted without injury to the public service, and by assuring them that I would not forget their very meritorious conduct. While I delivered my sentiments to the Lads, I was frequently interrupted by their declaration that not a man of them even wished to go on shore when they knew there was so much occasion for them on board, and that they were all equally desirous with me to meet the
Melampus
again. As soon as I had finished my harangue, I was saluted with three such cheers as went to my heart.

Moore’s increasing popularity was not just evident on board the frigate. He noted with a degree of modest puzzlement in his diary, that he had been generally well received on his last visit to Portsmouth. It was making him more optimistic about his prospects.

Strachan too was proving a popular commander with the crews of his squadron. He certainly seems to have had the right touch. When the
Syren
rejoined his squadron in time to search for a French convoy off Ushant, Strachan came on board to congratulate them on their speedy return

... and on his saying that he was very glad to have the
Syren
with him, our People, who like him exceedingly, jumped up and gave him three cheers.