Stockwin's Maritime Miscellany (5 page)

Broke’s victory brought official recognition that in battle good gunnery is as important as bravery – and the subsequent establishment of the world’s first school of naval gunnery in 1830 at HMS
Excellent
, moored off the northwest corner of Portsmouth dockyard. Her larboard broadside was positioned to face Fareham Creek so that the firing of guns would not trouble civilians ashore.

IN THE DOLDRUMS – in a state of depression.
DERIVATION
: the Doldrums is a belt of winds between the trade winds of the northern and southern hemispheres. As ships passed through these latitudes there was often no breeze to fill the sails or cool the living spaces and they were becalmed in sweltering conditions, aimlessly drifting.

Omai was the first Tahitian to visit England, arriving on board HMS
Adventure
on 14 July 1774. In his early twenties, he was brought at his own request from the Society Islands by Captain Tobias Furneaux, listed on the ship’s muster book as a supernumerary under the name Tetuby Homey. His family had once been wealthy landowners but had lost their property in tribal conflicts, and Omai, hoping the English might be able to help him seek revenge, had begged Furneaux to take him to ‘Britannia’. In England Omai became an exemplar of the ‘noble savage’ propounded by philosophers such as Rousseau.

The eminent scientists Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Carl Solander, who were both familiar with the Tahitian language, took Omai under their wing and introduced him into society. He was personally welcomed by the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Sandwich. The sea lord entertained Omai at his country house, Hinchingbrooke, where guests experienced the novelty of feasting on meats cooked over hot stones Polynesian style. He took him on a tour of Chatham Dockyard and aboard HMS
Victory
, where Omai expressed great joy at seeing so large a ship. Omai was delighted with a suit of armour that his host had made for him by the artificers of the Tower of London.

The sea lord’s protégé quickly became the toast of the town. He met George III twice and when first presented to the royal personage he declared, ‘How do, King Tosh.’ The monarch was so taken with the young man that he granted him a pension while he was in England. Omai dined with the great names of the day such as Samuel Johnson and Fanny Burney; he went to balls, the opera and attended the state opening of parliament. He loved indulging in various British pastimes such as shooting, skating and picnicking, was a frequent guest at Royal Society dinners and was painted by some of the great artists of the time, including Joshua Reynolds.

Omai returned to Polynesia in 1777, on the last of Captain Cook’s voyages. He died there two years later, apparently of natural causes.

Captain Digby in HMS
Africa
, along with another British ship, HMS
Conqueror
, took on the Spanish flagship
Santissima Trinidad
at the Battle of Trafalgar. With rigging and sails hanging over her sides and the firing ceased, it appeared that the Spanish vessel had struck her colours,
the
signal of surrender. Digby sent Lieutenant Smith with a party of seamen to take possession. In accordance with the code of honour observed in naval engagements of that time Smith was courteously received by the Spanish officers, who then coldly informed him that in fact they had not actually surrendered and had no intention of doing so. They went on to explain that they had merely paused in the fighting to supply more powder to the guns; Smith was escorted back to his ship’s boat and allowed to return safely to
Africa
, which went on to seek other opponents
. Santissima Trinidad
eventually surrendered to another English warship, HMS
Neptune
, but sank in a storm the day after the battle.

DON’T LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB – put off by a person’s outward appearance.
DERIVATION
: for an experienced sailor the cut of a jib, a triangular sail on the foremast, was a characteristic indicator of the type of ship, and sometimes the nationality. French and Spanish ships often had their jibs cut very much higher than British ships.

In the days before income tax the government of England had to raise money however it could. In the eighteenth century there were over 2,000 items subject to customs duty. This was the heyday of the smuggler and large numbers of people were either directly or indirectly involved – to many it was a perfectly acceptable way of behaving. Some newspapers ran advertisements such as this one from a Sussex paper of 1785 offering: ‘A very useful cart, fit for a maltster, ash-man, or a smuggler… and many articles that are very useful to a smuggler.’ Not only did the authorities often turn a blind eye: some were happy to fill their own cellars with contraband goods.

Some smugglers have endeared themselves down the years. Harry Paulet was master of an English vessel trading in North America when he was taken prisoner by the French. He contrived a daring escape, carrying with him important official documents that he had stolen from his captors, and he handed these over to the captain of an English ship. The information they contained proved valuable to the navy, and with the reward money he was granted Paulet went back to England and promptly purchased a vessel that he used to run contraband across the Channel.

He was returning from France in 1759 when he spotted the French fleet leaving Brest, headed for England. Paulet threw over his helm and sailed to Admiral Hawke’s squadron with the news. Upon hearing what he had to say the admiral told him that if he was right he would make his fortune, but if it was deceit he would hang at the yardarm. With Paulet on board the British set off and subsequently gained a decisive victory at the Battle of Quiberon Bay. Paulet’s cash reward enabled him to retire in style, and for the rest of his life he took much pleasure in recounting these exploits at his local tavern.

Perhaps the most famous Cornish smuggler was John Carter, ‘the king of Prussia’, a nickname from a favourite boyhood game. He had his headquarters in a remote inlet between Penzance and Helson, which became known as Prussia Cove. Carter was a devout Methodist who banned swearing on his smuggling vessels. He once suffered the indignity of having goods seized by the revenue men that he had promised to one of his regular customers. He broke into the customs house and reclaimed ‘his’ property but left everything else untouched. The matter was taken no further.

On the other hand, there were bands of smugglers who terrorised whole areas and were quite prepared to maim and murder to protect their interests. The notorious Hawkhurst gang of Kent could raise 500 armed men in less than an hour to defend their goods, and the customs officers were unable to touch them.

John Paul Jones, one of the American navy’s first heroes, was born in a humble gardener’s cottage in Kirkbean, Scotland. He joined the merchant marine at 13 and sailed to the West Indies. In 1773 he was involved in an incident there in which a man was killed and John Paul, as he was then, fled to the United States, changing his name to John Paul Jones.

Commissioned into the Continental Navy, the new navy of the United States, he took part in several actions in the early stages of the Revolutionary War off the North American coast and also in raids on English shores. In 1776, on board
Alfred
, he hoisted by his own hand the first flag ever flown from a US warship, a yellow silk banner emblazoned with a rattlesnake. In his ship
Ranger
in 1777 he captured the British warship HMS
Drake
, the first man-of-war to surrender to a Continental Navy ship flying the Stars and Stripes. Jones became the toast of the French as well as the Americans for this action.

He then put to sea in
Bonhomme Richard
with a small squadron to harass British merchantmen. Jones encountered a Baltic convoy of 44 vessels, escorted by the frigate HMS
Serapis
under the command of Captain Pearson. After a furious four-hour battle,
Serapis
came alongside
Bonhomme Richard
, which had been badly damaged. Pearson hailed Jones and asked if he was surrendering, to be told: ‘I have not yet begun to fight!’ Then
Serapis
caught fire and Jones seized his chance and boarded her, taking the vessel.
Bonhomme Richard
sank shortly afterwards and Jones sailed in
Serapis
to the Texel, where he was welcomed as a hero.

Jones spent much of the rest of his life in France. In 1905, more than a century after his death in Paris, his remains were returned to the United States and entombed at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where his shrine, permanently guarded by a duty midshipman, is open to the public.

When the white ensign of HMS
Bellerophon
was shot away for the third time during the Battle of Trafalgar, Christopher Beaty, a yeoman of signals, refused to accept this affront to his ship. He hastily rummaged around for another one and then began to climb hand over hand up the mizzenmast with the flag wrapped around his shoulders. Almost instantly he was the target of enemy fire, but he pressed on doggedly. When he reached the top, he spread out the ensign and proceeded to attach the corners firmly to the shrouds so that it stood proud. At this point the French sharpshooters in the tops of
L’Aigle
suspended their fire in recognition of his courageous action and allowed Beaty to clamber back down unharmed.

COPPER BOTTOMED – a pretty safe bet, often describing an investment.
DERIVATION
: in 1783 the Royal Navy started routinely sheathing the hulls of wooden warships with copper to prevent infestation from wood-destroying parasites such as the infamous gribble and teredo worms. This was seen to be very effective.