Frigate Commander (20 page)

In fact the squadron itself was growing into a remarkably close fighting organization, with the crews of the frigates developing relationships which, on the whole, served to stand the squadron in good stead;

Our People are exceedingly intimate both with the crews of the
Melampus
and
Diamond
, but they have quarrelled with those of the
Minerva
which I am very sorry for; the cause of the dispute is the People of the
Minerva
having spoke disrespectfully of the character of Sir Sidney which was taken very heinously both by the
Diamond
’s and
Syren
’s. The People of the
Diamond
are very partial to Sir Sidney on account of his bravery and good nature, two very popular qualities with English Sailors.

Whatever the officers may have thought of Sidney Smith, there can be no doubt that he was regarded with great fondness by the ordinary, generously-hearted sailors. As the four frigates ran down towards Ushant, Moore had cause to record yet another example of both the squadron’s closeness and the sailors’ generosity:

Our Seamen sent a Deputation to me yesterday, to say, that as the
Melampus
and
Diamond
had been a long time without Beer they wished to make them a present of their allowance for two days to be equally divided between the two ships; I told them I was very happy to see so much cordiality between them and their brother Sailors in the two ships & that I would send their present on board the first opportunity.

We might now question whether the exclusion of the
Minerva
from this arrangement was actually a somewhat negative and divisive move but, for Moore, Strachan and Gossellin, this was a heartwarming gesture and one which gave them powerful confidence in the men of the squadron. Such spirit was vital to the success of both frigates individually, and frigate squadrons collectively – and it was evident in Warren and Pellew’s squadrons also.

Strachan’s squadron reached the Isle de Bas on 15 June where they found no convoy – but did fall in with Sir John Borlase Warren’s frigate squadron. Moore went on board Warren’s frigate
, La Pomone
, to pay his respects and was impressed by what he saw:

... she is, by far, the finest frigate I ever saw and, except the Line of Battle ships cut down, of the greatest force. He is an officer of great activity, zeal and courage, and has been exceedingly successful; I endeavoured on first being appointed to the
Syren
to be attached to his Squadron but could not accomplish it. If I had my choice of service, however, I know no man I would so soon serve with as Strachan, but I wish we had Sir John Warren’s station.

The squadrons parted company that evening.

Towards the end of June, Strachan ordered Moore to take the
Syren
back to Plymouth to re-provision. There, Moore learned of the capture of the French frigate
La Proserpine
by the
Dryad
, commanded by Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk.
⁴⁹
Approvingly, he noted in his journal,

Lord Amelius’s letter on the above glorious occasion was perfectly consistent with his simple and unaffected character, I think it contains about eight lines of the plainest narrative.

A week later he returned to St Marcouf to find the garrison in an unhappy state. The islands were now occupied by a miscellaneous collection of Royal Artillerymen, artificers, invalids, marines and gunboat crews,

... the whole under the command of the Senior Lieutenant commanding the Gun Boats, who happens to be a bustling active fellow, but overbearing, ill tempered, quarrelsome, vulgar and addicted to drink.

Moore considered the officer to be totally unsuited to command such a heterogeneous body.

Strachan’s squadron now consisted of the frigates
Syren
,
Melampus
,
Minerva
,
Diamond
and
Camilla
. Strachan and Moore had hopes of achieving great things with such a powerful force, but they were handicapped, as Moore wearily noted in his journal:

Sir Richard is heartily tired of the station, as he is so hampered with Marcouf on the one side and the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey on the other that we cannot cruise.

Moore too was feeling frustrated. His present station offered little chance of good prize money and yet he was increasingly aware that without greater income he could neither marry nor live comfortably on land. His spirits were lifted at the end of July when orders came from the Admiralty appointing Strachan to the command of the
Diamond
, and Moore to the
Melampus
. This was effectively a promotion, for the
Melampus
was significantly larger than the
Syren
, and armed with 18-pounder guns on her main deck, compared with the latter’s 12-pounders. Furthermore, she was
‘most capitally manned’
and, although her copper was in a bad way, Moore was delighted with the news. Until the transfers were formally ordered though, there were the usual duties to perform, and by 8 August, Moore and the
Syren
were back off Le Havre for the spring tides, keeping an eye on the frigates and corvettes still trapped in the basin.

Once the spring tides were over, Moore was sent back round to Jersey. What happened next was one of those curiosities that almost characterized the Napoleonic wars; anchored in St Aubin’s Bay, the
Syren
was joined on 16 August by a fine- looking ship-rigged private yacht belonging to Lord Craven. On board were the Duke and Duchess of Manchester who, in spite of the threat of French cruisers and privateers were on a pleasure cruise in the Channel. Moore appears to have been completely unperplexed when
‘... they did me the honour to come on board, wishing to have a peep inside St. Maloes before they returned’.
Moore was ever willing to oblige, especially as he had taken an instant liking to the Duchess, who was a fellow Scot.
⁵⁰
Moore admitted that she was not a beauty, but he was attracted to her

... native pronunciation, her frankness, her open countenance, and, above all, by her taste for Scotch music, and her universal and particular acquaintance with all the genuine songs of that country ... I felt towards this natural and unaffected creature as to a very old acquaintance, and my spirits were sunk at leaving her. How often have I been the dupe of this heart of mine! There is no love in the case, it is friendship.

Shortly after the departure of his guests, the
Syren
stopped a little French coasting sloop. It was

... a very small thing of only 26 tons, laden with lime stone, and the sole property of the poor man who commanded her ... finding that the sloop was really of no value to anybody but the poor Frenchman who commanded her I proposed to the Officers and ship’s company to dismiss her, which they cheerfully agreed to. I told him to take notice of the difference between the French and English Cruisers many of the former having often captured or destroyed even our fishing boats ... I then let him proceed with his vessel.

The grateful Frenchman reciprocated this kindness by giving Moore detailed information about French warships then lying in the road at St Malo.

Four days later, while the
Syren
was lying in Grouville Bay off Jersey, the
Melampus
arrived and Gossellin was rowed over, bearing Moore’s new commission for the command of the
Melampus
. Moore had commanded the
Syren
for just over two years and he found the moment of departure an emotional one:

I took my leave of the
Syren’s
the next day, I was affected, and the Ship’s Company seemed sorry to part with me: they are a very gallant set of fellows and a very drunken.

Yet his comment about the
Syren
’s drunkenness was really an affectionate one: they were, after all, the same men he had labelled his ‘rogues’. In fact, if the Lieutenant’s logbooks are to be relied upon, the
Syren
was on the whole a happy ship. During the 661 days he had commanded her, punishment in the form of floggings had been inflicted on just twenty-eight occasions, on average one every 23.6 days – a remarkably low incidence. Of a crew which had consisted of approximately 400 different men during the course of his commission, only about twenty-four had received a flogging. Of this number about one-third were marines, who always seem to have lacked the cohesion and team spirit of the seamen in frigates. Certainly, the
Syren
’s were not seriously prone to drunkenness, at least, no more than was to be expected of any other seamen of this period. Their high spirits were confirmed that same day:

The Seamen and Marines of the
Melampus
made our Lads in the
Syren
a present of two Butts of strong beer in lieu of the two puncheons of small beer that the
Syren
’s had given them.

Strachan in the
Diamond
arrived before nightfall and a general celebratory party seems to have taken place:

I think it worthy of remark that the
Diamond
brought a similar present to the seamen of the
Syren
: there is the strongest attachment among the crews of these three frigates to each other, I have always encouraged and promoted it as much as I could as I think it of very great importance to the service that ships acting together should be on the most cordial terms with each other. While we lay in Grouville Bay the Seamen were allowed to visit each other and the scene of drunkenness that ensued was quite in character of this strange, invaluable animal, a British Sailor.

Once again we are given a clear indication of the high level of morale and cooperation that existed in the Channel frigate squadrons, and a picture which once again profoundly contradicts the traditional portrayal of life in the navy as some form of floating hell.

On the 28th of August I took command of the
Melampus
, Sir Richard had taken 16 men with him into the
Diamond
, notwithstanding which she is a very well manned ship. I took four seamen besides my servants and some of the midshipmen with me, I intend to take three more seamen when the
Syren
goes into Port, but I do not like to distress her now.

Unfortunately, the Admiralty declined his request to take his First Lieutenant, John Henry Martin, with him to his new command – and he was going to miss his support badly. The following morning, sore heads notwithstanding, Strachan took the squadron towards Ushant. Moore now had the opportunity to assess his new command under sail;

This is one of the finest frigates in the English Navy, but rather out of repair, not having been docked these three years, her copper is bad, yet she sails as well as the generality of ships in all situations, and better than most upon a wind. Her crew is very good, but at present she is considerably short of complement, and there are 39 in the sick list, none of whom, however, are in a bad way being in general affected by the casual maladies the consequences of their drunkenness and debauchery at Spithead and Portsmouth. As yet I feel like a stranger amongst them, but I have much confidence in her capability as a fighting ship, even in her present state.

En route to Ushant, the squadron learned that Spain had declared war on England and that sixteen ships of the line, under Admiral Richery, were preparing to leave Brest to rendezvous with a fleet from Cadiz. It was rumoured that this combined force was going to escort transports carrying 40,000 troops to invade Ireland. Off Ushant the squadron fell in with Sir Alan Gardner’s fleet, which had already been posted to meet this hostile force and was awaiting reinforcement by a squadron under Admiral Colpoys. On board Gardner’s flagship, the
Royal Sovereign
(100), Moore sought out his old friend Captain William Bedford, who confided that they were worried that the enemy might arrive before Colpoys, thus overpowering Gardner’s fleet. Matters quickly took on the confused character of all such naval campaigns for, the following morning, the 80-gun
Caesar
arrived to report that, far from being in a supporting position, Colpoys had returned to port and nobody knew where Richery was. Strachan took the three remaining frigates of his squadron (i.e.
Diamond
,
Melampus
and
Syren
) back in towards Ushant, while Gardner kept his station to the west. Activities were soon restricted by fog, which seriously reduced visibility and added to the tension, but Moore was feeling more confident now that he had the
Melampus
and her crew:

I am very much pleased with the crew of the
Melampus
, they are in general finer men than that of the
Syren
and are in much better order.

The possibilities arising from a war with Spain were heartening and Moore was excited. Victory, he believed, would depend on the Royal Navy rather than the army, and this prompted him to consider the difference between the English soldier and sailor:

The moral and physical qualities of the English Soldier are, in my opinion, equal to the acknowledged excellence of our Sailors, but they have not fallen into such good hands. The same kind of stupid pomp has sometimes, in a small degree, infected the Navy, but the absolute necessity which the Nation has for its defence checks the progress of nonsense and frivolity and prevents their degrading influence in this home bred body ... Unfortunately the gratification of a false taste has been always the object in the discipline and dress of the English Army, instead of fitting them for the service they are likely to be employed on ...