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JANE AUSTEN'S SAILOR BROTHERS

'^ VICIi-AD^Ilf-.At, SIR FRANCIS AUSTEN, K.C.B.

/«' * »i » -» » * « ',

JANE AUSTEN'S SAILOR BROTHERS

Being the Adventures of Sir Francis

Austen, G.C.B., Admiral of the Fleet

and Rear-Admiral Charles

Austen By J. H. Hubback

and Edith C. Hubback

mdccccvi London: John Lane The Bodley Head, Vtgo Street, TV. New York: 'John Lane Company

Printed by Ballantyne <5r» Co. Limited Tavistock Street, London

TO M. P. H.

" I HAVE DISCOVERED A THING VERY LITTLE KNOWN, WHICH IS THAT IN one's WHOLE LIFE ONE CAN NEVER HAVE MORE THAN ONE MOTHER. YOU MAY THINK THIS OBVIOUS. YOU ARE A GREEN GOSLING ! '*

224848

PREFACE

Perhaps some apology may be expected on behalf of a book about Jane Austen, having regard to the number which have already been put before the public in past years. My own membership of the family is my excuse for printing a book which contains little original matter, and which might be described as '*a thing of shreds and patches," if that phrase were not already over-worked. To me it seems improbable that others will take a wholly adverse view of what is so much inwoven with all the traditions of my life. When I recol- lect my childhood, spent chiefly in the house of my grandfather, Sir Francis, and all the interests which accompanied those early days, I find myself once more amongst those deep and tender dis- tances. Surrounded by reminiscences of the opening years of the century, the Admiral always cherished the most affectionate remembrance of the sister who had so soon passed away, leaving

vii

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

those six precious volumes to be a store of house- hold words among the family.

How often I call to mind some question or answer, expressed quite naturally in terms of the novels ; sometimes even a conversation would be carried on entirely appropriate to the matter under discussion, but the actual phrases were **Aunt Jane's." So well, too, do I recollect the sad news of the death of Admiral Charles Austen, after the capture, under his command, of Martaban and Rangoon, and while he was leading his squadron to further successes, fifty-six years having elapsed since his first sea-fight.

My daughter and I have made free use of the Letters of Jane Austen^ published in 1884, by the late Lord Brabourne, and wish to acknowledge with gratitude the kind permission to quote these letters, given to us by their present possessor. In a letter of 18 13, she speaks of two nephews who " amuse themselves very comfortably in the even- ing by netting ; they are each about a rabbit-net, and sit as deedily to it, side by side, as any two Uncle Franks could do." In his octogenarian days Sir Francis was still much interested in this same occupation of netting, to protect his Morello

viii

Preface

cherries or currants. It was, in fact, only laid aside long after his grandsons had been taught to carry it on.

My most hearty thanks are also due to my cousins, who have helped to provide materials for our work ; to Miss M. L. Austen for the loan of miniatures and silhouettes ; to Miss Jane Austen for various letters and for illustrations ; to Com- mander E. L. Austen for access to logs, and to official and other letters in large numbers ; also to Miss Mary Austen for the picture of the PeferelinaLCtiony and to Mrs. Herbert Austen, and Captain and Mrs. Willan for excellent portraits of the Admirals, and to all these, and other members of the family, for much encouragement in our enterprise.

JOHN H. HUBBACK. July 1905,

IX

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. BROTHERS AND SISTERS I

II. TWO MIDSHIPMEN I5

III. CHANGES AND CHANCES IN THE NAVY. ... 28

IV. PROMOTIONS 41

V. THE " PETEREL " SLOOP 56

VI. THE PATROL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ... 78

VII. AT HOME AND ABROAD 94

VIII. BLOCKADING BOULOGNE Ill

IX. THE PURSUIT OF VILLENEUVE I3O

X. " A MELANCHOLY SITUATION " I47

XI. ST. DOMINGO 164

XII. THE CAPE AND ST. HELENA 180

XIII. STARS AND STRIPES I96

XIV. CHINESE MANDARINS 212

XV. A LETTER FROM JANE . . ^ . . . . 22/

XVI. ANOTHER LETTER FROM JANE 243

XVII. THE END OF THE WAR 260

XVIII. TWO ADMIRALS 274

INDEX 287

X]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Vice- Admiral Sir Francis Austen, K.C.B. {From a painting in the possession of Mrs. Herbert A usten) . . frontispiece

The Reverend George Austen, Rector of Steventon {From

a miniature in the possession of Miss M. L. Austen) , . 8

Action between the English frigate Unicorn and the French frigate La Tribune^ June 8, 1796 {From a painting in the possession of Captain Willan, R.N., and Mrs. Willan). By kind permission of Miss Hill 22

Francis Austen as Lieutenant {From a miniature) . . 44

Sloop of War and Frigate {From a pencil sketch by Captain

Herbert Austen, R.N.) 64

Peterel in action with the French brig La Ligurienne after driving two others on the rocks near Marseilles, on March 21, 1800 {From a sketch by Captain Herbert Austen^ R.N.,in the possession of Miss Mary Austen) . 84

Topaz Crosses given to Cassandra and Jane by Charles

Austen {In the possession of Miss Jane Austen) . . 92

The Way to Church from Portsdown Lodge {From a

pencil sketch by Catherine A . Austen) . . . .108

Mrs. Austen {From a silhouette in the possession of Miss

M. L. Austen) 124

Order of Battle and of Sailing, signed Nelson. and Bront6,

dated March 26, 1805 132

xiii

List of Illustrations

PAGE

Order of Battle and of Sailing, signed Nelson and Bronte,

dated June 5, 1805 138

Captain Francis William Austen {From a miniature of 1806, in the possession of Miss M. L. Austen. The Order of the C.B. has been painted in at a later date, probably when conferred in iSi^) 156

" Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Austen, K.C.B.'s writing-desk " {From a caricature sketch by his daughter Cassandra, about 1840) 174

Cassandra Austen {From a silhouette in the possession of

Miss M. L. Austen) 184

Portchester Castle. The French prisoners were interned in the neighbouring buildings after the Battle of Vimiera {From a sketch hy Captain Herbert Austen ^ R.N.) 200

Captain Charles Austen {From a painting of 1809, in the

possession of Miss Jane Austen) 2 10

Jane Austen, from a sketch by her sister Cassandra {In

the possession of Miss jfane Austen) 226

Mrs. Charles Austen, nee Fanny Palmer, daughter of the Attorney-General of Bermuda {From a painting in the possession of Miss J afte Austen) 252

Captain Charles Austen, C.B. {From a painting in the

possession of Captain Willan, R.N., and Mrs. Willan) . 266

Jane Austen's work-box, with her last piece of work {In

the possession of Miss Jane Austen) .... 270

Memorandum, dated May 12, 1838, signed by Charles

Austen on taking command of the Bellerophon , . 274

Rear- Admiral Charles Austen, C.B. {From a miniature painted at Malta in 1846, in the possession of Miss Jane Austen) 278

Sir Francis Austen, G.C.B., Admiral of the Fleet, at the

age of ninety 284

xiv

JANE AUSTEN'S SAILOR BROTHERS

CHAPTER I BROTHERS AND SISTERS

No one can read Jane Austen's novels, her life, or her letters, without feeling that to her the ties of family were stronger and more engrossing than any others.

Among the numbers of men and women who cheerfully sacrifice the claims of their family in order that they may be free to confer somewhat doubtful benefits on society, it is refreshing to find one who is the object of much love and gratitude from countless unknown readers, and who yet would have been the first to laugh at the notion that her writing was of more importance than her thought for her brothers and sister, or the various home duties which fell to her share. It is this sweetness and wholesomeness of thought, this clear conviction that her ** mission '* was to do her duty, that gives her books and letters their peculiar quality. Her theory of life is clear. Whatever troubles befall, people must go on doing their work and making the best of it ; and we are not

c/;:/ Jai^.^'i^uken'^ Sailor Brothers

allowed to feel respect, or even overmuch sym- pathy, for the characters In the novels who cannot bear this test. There is a matter-of-courseness about this view which, combined with all that we know of the other members of the family, gives one the idea that the children at Steventon had a strict bringing up. This, in fact, was the case, and a very rich reward was the result. In a family of seven all turned out well, two rose to the top of their profession, and one was — Jane Austen.

The fact of her intense devotion to her family could not but influence her writing. She loved them all so well that she could not help thinking of them even in the midst of her work ; and the more we know of her surroundings, and the lives of those she loved, the more we understand of the small joyous touches in her books. She was far too good an artist, as well as too reticent in nature, to take whole characters from life ; but small cha- racteristics and failings, dwelt on with humorous partiality, can often be traced back to the natures of those she loved. Mary Crawford's brilliant letters to Fanny Price remind one of Cassandra, who was the ** finest comic writer of the present age." Charles' impetuous disposition is exaggerated in BIngley, who says, "Whatever I do is done in a hurry," a remark which is severely reproved by Darcy (and not improbably by Francis Austen), as an ** indirect boast." Francis himself comes in

Brothers and Sisters

for his share of teasing on the opposite point of his extreme neatness, precision, and accuracy. " They are so neat and careful in all their ways," says Mrs. Clay, in *' Persuasion," of the naval pro- fession in general ; and nothing could be more characteristic of Francis Austen and some of his descendants than the overpowering accuracy with which Edmund Bertram corrects Mary Crawford's hasty estimate of the distance in the wood.

** * I am really not tired, which I almost wonder at ; for we must have walked at least a mile in this wood. Do not you think we have ? '

" * Not half a mile,' was his sturdy answer ; for he was not yet so much in love as to measure dis- tance, or reckon time, with feminine lawlessness.

•* * Oh, you do not consider how much we have wound about. We have taken such a very serpen- tine course, and the wood itself must be half a mile long in a straight line, for we have never seen the end of it yet since we left the first great path.'

** * But if you remember, before we left that first great path we saw directly to the end of it. We looked down the whole vista, and saw it closed by iron gates, and it could not have been more than a furlong in length.'

*' * Oh, I know nothing of your furlongs, but I am sure it is a very long wood ; and that we have been winding in and out ever since we came into it ; and therefore when I say that

3

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

we have walked a mile in it I must speak within compass.'

** * We have been exactly a quarter of an hour here,' said Edmund, taking out his watch. * Do you think we are walking four miles an hour ? '

***Oh, do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.'

" A few steps farther brought them out at the bottom of the very walk they had been talking of.

** * Now, Miss Crawford, if you will look up the walk, you will convince yourself that it cannot be half a mile long, or half half a mile.'

** * It is an immense distance,' said she ; * I see that with a glance.'

** * He still reasoned with her, but in vain. She would not calculate, she would not compare. She would only smile and assert. The greatest degree of rational consistency could not have been more engaging, and they talked with mutual satisfaction.' "

It is in ** Mansfield Park" and in ** Persuasion" that the influence of her two sailor brothers, Francis and Charles, on Jane Austen's work can be most easily traced. Unlike the majority of writers of all time, from Shakespeare with his *' Seacoast of Bohemia " down to the author of a penny dreadful, Jane Austen never touched, even lightly, on a subject unless she had a real knowledge of its

4

Brothers and Sisters

details. Her pictures of the life of a country gentleman and of clergymen are accurate, if not always sympathetic. Perhaps it was all too near her own experience to have the charm of romance, but concerning sailors she is romantic. Their very faults are lovable in her eyes, and their lives packed with interest. When Admiral Croft, Cap- tain Wentworth, or William Price appears on the scene, the other characters immediately take on a merely subsidiary interest, and this prominence is always that given by appreciation. The distinc- tion awarded to Mr. Collins or Mrs. Elton, as the chief object of ridicule, is of a different nature. The only instance she cared to give us of a sailor who is not to be admired is Mary Crawford's uncle, the Admiral, and even he is allowed to earn our esteem by disinterested kindness to William Price.

No doubt some of this enthusiasm was due to the spirit of the times, when, as Edward Ferrars says, ** The navy had fashion on its side " ; but that sisterly partiality was a stronger element there can be no question. Her place in the family was between these two brothers, Francis just a year older, and Charles some four years younger. Much has been said about her fondness for ** pairs of sisters " in her novels, but no less striking are the ** brother and sister " friendships which are an important factor in four out of her six books. The

5

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

love of Darcy for his sister Georgina perhaps suggests the intimacy between James Austen and Jane, where the difference in their ages of ten years, their common love of books, the advice and encouragement that the elder brother was able to give his sister over her reading, are all points of resemblance. The equal terms of the affection of Francis and Jane are of another type.

Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor, Mrs. Croft and Frederick Wentworth, give us good instances of firm friendships. In the case of the Tilneys, confidences are exchanged with ease and freedom ; but in ** Persuasion,*' the feeling in this respect, as in all others, is more delicate, and only in the chapter which Jane Austen afterwards cancelled can we see the quickness of Mrs. Croft's perceptions where her brother was concerned. For so long as she supposes him to be on the brink of marrying Louisa Musgrove, sympathy is no doubt somewhat difficult to force, but '' prompt welcome " is given to Anne as Captain Wentworth's chosen wife ; and with some knowledge of Mrs. Croft we know that the ** particularly friendly manner " hid a warmth of feeling which would fully satisfy even Frede- rick's notions of the love which Anne deserved. But it is in ** Mansfield Park " that '' brothers and sisters " play the strongest part. No one can pos- sibly doubt the very lively affection of Mary and Henry Crawford. Even when complaining of the

6

Brothers and Sisters

shortness of his letters, she says that Henry is ** exactly what a brother should be, loves me, consults me, confides in me, and will talk to me by the hour together " — and the scene later on, where he tells of his devotion to Fanny Price, is as pretty an account of such a confidence as can be well imagined, where the worldliness of each is almost lost in the happiness of disinterested love, which both are feeling.

When Jane Austen comes to describing Fanny's love for her brother William, her tenderness and her humour are in perfect accord. From the reality of the feelings over his arrival and promo- tion, to the quiet hit at the enthusiasm which his deserted chair and cold pork bones might be sup- posed to arouse in Fanny's heart after their early breakfast, when he was off to London, the picture of sisterly love is perfect. We are told, too, that there was ** an affection on his side as warm as her own, and much less encumbered by refinement and self-distrust. She was the first object of his love, but it was a love which his stronger spirits and bolder temper made it as natural for him to express as to feel." So far this describes the love of William and Fanny, but a few lines further on comes a passage which has the ring of personal experience. In reading it, it is impossible not to picture a time which was always of great import- ance in the life at Steventon — the return on leave

7

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

for a few weeks or a few months of one or other of the sailor brothers, and all the walks and talks which filled up the pleasant days. ** On the morrow they were walking about together with true enjoy- ment, and every succeeding morrow renewed the tHe-d.-tete, Fanny had never known so much feli- city in her life as in this unchecked, equal, fearless intercourse with the brother and friend, who was opening all his heart to her, telling her all his hopes and fears, plans and solicitudes respecting that long thought of, dearly earned, and justly valued blessing of promotion — who was interested in all the comforts and all the little hardships of her home — and with whom (perhaps the dearest indulgence of the whole) all the evil and good of their earliest years could be gone over again, and every former united pain and pleasure retraced with the fondest recollection."

Some slight record of the childhood of the Steventon family has been left to us. Most of the known facts have already been told by admirers of Jane Austen, but some extracts from an account written by Catherine Austen in the lifetime of her father, Sir Francis Austen, will at least have the merit of accuracy, for he would cer- tainly have been merciless to even the simplest "embroidery."

The father, Mr. George Austen, was the rector of Steventon. He was known in his young days,

8

THE RKVP:REND GEORGE AUSTEN IN 1763

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Brothers and Sisters

before his marriage, as ** the handsome tutor," and he transmitted his good looks to at least three of his sons ; Henry, Francis, and Charles were all exceptionally handsome men. Indeed, neither wit nor good looks were deficient in the Steventon family. Probably much of Jane's simplicity about her writing arose from the fact that she saw nothing in it to be conceited about, being perfectly con- vinced that any of the others, with her leisure and inclination, could have done just as well. Her father had a gentleness of disposition combined with a firmness of principle which had great effect in forming the characters of his family. The mother's maiden name was Cassandra Leigh. She was very lively and active, and strict with her children. It is not difficult to see whence Francis derived his ideas of discipline, or Jane her un- swerving devotion to duty.

The elder members of the family were born at Deane, which was Mr. Austen's first living, but in 1 77 1 they moved to Steventon, where they lived for nearly thirty years.

The account of the house given by Catherine Austen shows the simplicity of the life.

** The parsonage consisted of three rooms in front on the ground floor, the best parlour, the common parlour, and the kitchen ; behind there were Mr. Austen's study, the back kitchen and the stairs ; above them were seven bedrooms and

9

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

three attics. The rooms were low-pitched but not otherwise bad, and compared with the usual style of such buildings it might be considered a very good house." An eulogy follows on the plainness and quietness of the family life — a characteristic specially due to the mother's in- fluence.

''That she had no taste for expensive show or finery, may be inferred from the fact being on record that for two years she actually never had a gown to wear. It was a prevalent custom for ladies to wear cloth habits, and she having one of red cloth found any other dress unnecessary. Imagine a beneficed clergyman's wife in these days contenting herself with such a costume for two years! But the fact illustrates the retired style of living that contented her." Even when she did find it necessary to provide herself with some other costume, the riding-habit was made to serve another useful purpose, for it was cut up into a first cloth suit for little Francis.

The following account of their upbringing closes this slight record :

" There is nothing in which modern manners differ much more from those of a century back than in the system pursued with regard to children. They were kept in the nursery, out of the way not only of visitors but of their parents ; they were trusted to hired attendants ; they were allowed a

lO

Brothers and Sisters

great deal of air and exercise, were kept on plain food, forced to give way to the comfort of others, accustomed to be overlooked, slightly regarded, considered of trifling importance. No well- stocked libraries of varied lore to cheat them into learning awaited them ; no scientific toys, no philosophic amusements enlarged their minds and wearied their attention." One wonders what would have been the verdict of this writer of fifty years ago on education in 1905. She goes on to tell us of the particular system pursued with the boys in order to harden them for their future work in life. It was not considered either necessary or agreeable for a woman to be very strong. ** Little Francis was at the age of ten months removed from the parsonage to a cottage in the village, and placed under the care of a worthy couple, whose simple style of living, homely dwelling, and out-of-door habits (for in the country the poor seldom close the door by day, except in bad weather), must have been very different from the heated nurseries and constrained existence of the clean, white-frocked little gentlemen who are now growing up around us. Across the brick floor of a cottage Francis learnt to walk, and perhaps it was here that he received the foundation of the excellent constitution which was so remarkable in after years. It must not, however, be supposed that he was neglected by his parents ; he was

II

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

constantly visited by them both, and often taken to the parsonage."

One cannot but admire the fortitude of parents who would forego the pleasure of seeing their children learn to walk and satisfy themselves with daily visits, for the sake of a plan of education of which the risks cannot have been otherwise than great.

The rough-and-tumble life which followed must have thoroughly suited the taste of any enterprising boy, and given him an independence of spirit, and a habit of making his own plans, which would be exactly what was wanted in the Navy of those days, when a man of twenty-five might be commander of a vessel manned by discon- tented, almost mutinous, sailors, with the chance of an enemy's ship appearing at any time on the horizon.

Riding about the country after the hounds began for Francis at the age of seven ; and, from what we hear of Catherine Morland's childhood, we feel sure that Jane would not always have been contented to be left behind.

Catherine, at the age of ten, was ''noisy and wild, hated confinement and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house." When she was fourteen, we are told that she ''preferred cricket, base-ball, riding on horseback, and

12

Brothers and Sisters

running about the country, to books — or, at least, books of information — for, provided that nothing like useful knowledge could be gained from them, provided they were all story and no reflection, she had never any objection to books at all ! "

This, if not an accurate picture of the tastes of the children at Steventon, at least shows the sort of amusements which boys and girls brought up in a country parsonage had at their command.

Perhaps it was of some such recollections that Jane Austen was thinking when she praised that common tie of childish remembrances. *'An advantage this, a strengthener of love, in which even the conjugal tie is beneath the fraternal. Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first association and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power which no sub- sequent connection can supply, and it must be by a long and unnatural estrangement, by a divorce which no subsequent connection can justify, if such precious remains of the earliest attachments are ever entirely outlived. Too often, alas ! it is so. Fraternal love, sometimes almost everything, is at others worse than nothing. But with William and Fanny Price it was still a sentiment in all its prime and freshness, wounded by no opposition of interest, cooled by no separate attachment, and

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

feeling the influence of time and absence only in its increase." That it was never Jane's lot to feel this cooling of affection on the part of any member of her family is due not only to their appreciation of their sister, but to the serenity and adaptability of her own sweet disposition.

14

CHAPTER II TWO MIDSHIPMEN

Both Francis and Charles Austen were educated for their profession at the Royal Naval Academy, which was established in 1775 at Portsmouth, and was under the supreme direction of the Lords of the Admiralty. Boys were received there between the ages of 1 2 and 1 5. They were supposed to stay there for three years, but there was a system of sending them out to serve on ships as '* Volunteers." This was a valuable part of their training, as they were still under the direction of the College authorities, and had the double advantages of experience and of teaching. They did the work of seamen on board, but were allowed up on deck, and were specially under the eye of the captain, who was supposed to make them keep accurate journals, and draw the appear- ances of headlands and coasts. It is no doubt to this early training that we owe the careful private logs which Francis kept almost throughout his whole career.

15

V /

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

Some of the rules of the Naval Academy show how ideas have altered in the last hundred and more years. There was a special law laid down that masters were to make no differences between the boys on account of rank or position, and no boy was to be allowed to keep a private servant, a rather superfluous regulation in these days.

Three weeks was the extent of the holiday^ which it seems could be taken at any time in the year, the Academy being always open for the benefit of Volunteers, who were allowed to go there when their ships were in Portsmouth. Those who distinguished themselves could continue this privilege after their promotion. Francis left the Academy in 1788, and immediately went out to the East Indies on board the Perseverance as Volunteer.

There he stayed for four years, first as midship- man on the Crown, 64 guns, and afterwards on the Minerva, 38.

A very charming letter from his father to Francis is still in existence.

** Memorandum for the use of Mr. F. W. Austen on his going to the East Indies on board his Majesty's ship Perseverance (Captain Smith).

^^ December, 1788.

"My dear Francis, — While you were at the Royal Academy the opportunities of writing to you

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Two Midshipmen

were so frequent that I gave you my opinion and advice as occasion arose, and it was sufficient to do so ; but now you are going from us for so long a time, and to such a distance, that neither you can consult me or I reply but at long intervals, I think it necessary, therefore, before your depar- ture, to give my sentiments on such general subjects as I conceive of the greatest import- ance to you, and must leave your conduct in particular cases to be directed by your own good sense and natural judgment of what is right."

After some well-chosen and impressive injunc- tions on the subject of his son's religious duties, Mr. Austen proceeds :

" Your behaviour, as a member of society, to the individuals around you may be also of great importance to your future well-doing, and cer- tainly will to your present happiness and comfort. You may either by a contemptuous, unkind and selfish manner create disgust and dislike ; or by affability, good humour and compliance, become the object of esteem and affection ; which of these very opposite paths 'tis your interest to pursue I need not say.

*' The little world, of which you are going to be- >^ come an inhabitant, will occasionally have it in their power to contribute no little share to your pleasure or pain ; to conciliate therefore their goodwill, by every honourable method, will be the part of a

17 B

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

prudent man. Your commander and officers will be most likely to become your friends by a respectful behaviour to themselves, and by an active and ready obedience to orders. Good humour, an inclination to oblige and the care- fully avoiding every appearance of selfishness, will infallibly secure you the regards of your own mess and of all your equals. With your inferiors perhaps you will have but little intercourse, but when it does occur there is a sort of kindness they have a claim on you for, and which, you may believe me, will not be thrown away on them. Your conduct, as it respects yourself, chiefly comprehends sobriety and prudence. The former you know the importance of to your health, your morals and your fortune. I shall therefore say nothing more to enforce the observance of it. I thank God you have not at present the least disposition to deviate from it. Prudence extends to a variety of objects. Never any action of your life in which it will not be your interest to consider what she directs ! She will teach you the proper disposal of your time and the careful manage- ment of your money, — two very important trusts for which you are accountable. She will teach you that the best chance of rising in life is to make yourself as useful as possible, by carefully study- ing everything that relates to your profession, and distinguishing yourself from those of your

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Two Midshipmen

own rank by a superior proficiency in nautical acquirements.

** As you have hitherto, my dear Francis, been extremely fortunate in making friends, I trust your future conduct will confirm their good opinion of you ; and I have the more confidence in this expectation because the high character you acquired at the Academy for propriety of behaviour and diligence in your studies, when you were so much younger and had so much less experi- ence, seems to promise that riper years and more knowledge of the world will strengthen your naturally good disposition. That this may be the case I sincerely pray, as you will readily believe when you are assured that your good mother, brothers, sisters and myself will all exult in your reputation and rejoice in your happiness.

**Thus far by way of general hints for your conduct. I shall now mention only a few par- ticulars I wish your attention to. As you must be convinced it would be the highest satisfaction to us to hear as frequently as possible from you, you will of course neglect no opportunity of giving us that pleasure, and being very minute in what relates to yourself and your situation. On this account, and because unexpected occasions of writing to us may offer, 'twill be a good way always to have a letter in forwardness. You may depend on hear- ing from some of us at every opportunity.

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

" Whenever you draw on me for money, Captain Smith will endorse your bills, and I dare say will readily do it as often, and for what sums, he shall think necessary. At the same time you must not forget to send me the earliest possible notice of the amount of the draft, and the name of the person in whose favour it is drawn. On the subject of letter-writing, I cannot help mentioning how incumbent it is on you to write to Mr. Bayly, both because he desired it and because you have no other way of expressing the sense I know you entertain of his very great kindness and attention to you. Perhaps it would not be amiss if you were also to address one letter to your good friend the commissioner, to acknowledge how much you shall always think yourself obliged to him.

" Keep an exact account of all the money you receive or spend, lend none but where you are sure of an early repayment, and on no account whatever be persuaded to risk it by gaming.

" I have nothing to add but my blessing and best prayers for your health and prosperity, and to beg you would never forget you have not upon earth a more disinterested and warm friend than, " Your truly affectionate father,

** Geo. Austen."

That this letter should have been found among the private papers of an old man who died at the

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Two Midshipmen

age of 91, after a life of constant activity and change, is proof enough that it was highly valued by the boy of fourteen to whom it was written. There is something in its gentleness of tone, and the way in which advice is offered rather than obedience demanded, which would make it very persuasive to the feelings of a young boy going out to a life which must consist mainly of the opposite duties of responsibility and discipline. Incidentally it all throws a pleasant light on the characters of both father and son.

The life of a Volunteer on board ship was by no means an easy one, but it no doubt inured the boys to hardships and privations, and gave them a sympathy with their men which would after- wards stand them in good stead.

The record of Charles as a midshipman is very much more stirring than Francis' experiences. He served on board the Unicorn, under Captain Thomas Williams, at the time of the capture of the French frigate La Tribune, a notable single ship encounter, which brought Captain Williams the honour of knighthood.

On June 8, 1796, the Unicorn and the Santa Margarita, cruising off the Scilly Islands, sighted three strange ships, and gave chase. They proved to be two French frigates and a corvette. La Tribune, La Tamise, and La Legere. The French vessels continued all day to run

21

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

before the wind. The EngHsh ships as they gained on them were subjected to a well-directed fire, which kept them back so much that it was evening before La Tamise at last bore up and engaged one of the pursuers, the Santa Margarita, After a sharp action of about twenty minutes La Tamise struck her colours.

La Tribune crowded on all sail to make her escape, but the Unicorn^ in spite of damage to masts and rigging, kept up the chase, and after a running fight of ten hours the Unicorn came alongside, taking the wind from the sails of the French ship. After a close action of thirty-five minutes there was a brief interval. As the smoke cleared away. La Tribune could be seen trying to get to the windward of her enemy. This manoeuvre was instantly frustrated, and a few more broadsides brought down La Tribunes masts, and ended the action. From start to finish of the chase the two vessels had run 2IO miles. Not a man was killed or even hurt on board the Unicorn, and not a large proportion of the crew of La Tribune suffered. No doubt in a running fight of this sort much powder and shot would be expended with very little result.

When this encounter took place Charles Austen had been at sea for scarcely two years. Such an experience would have given the boy a great notion of the excitement and joys in store for him

22

f € ,( < t

Two Midshipmen

in a seafaring life. Such, however, was not to be his luck. Very little important work fell to his share till at least twenty years later, and for one of his ardent temperament this was a some- what hard trial. His day came at last, after years of routine, but when he was still young enough to enjoy a life of enterprise and of action. Even half a century later his characteristic energy was never more clearly shown than in his last enterprise as Admiral in command during the second Burmese War (1852), when he died at the front.

Francis, during the four years when he was a midshipman, had only one change of captain. After serving under Captain Smith in the Perseverance, he went to the Crown, under Captain the Honourable W. Cornwallis, and eventually followed him into the Minerva, Admiral Cornwallis was afterwards in command of the Channel Fleet, blockading Brest in the Trafalgar year.

Charles had an even better experience than Francis had, for he was under Captain Thomas Williams all the time he was midshipman, first in the Dcedalus, then in the Unicorn, and last in the Endymion,

The fact that both brothers served for nearly i all their times as midshipmen under the same | captain shows that they earned good opinions. If •

23

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

midshipmen were not satisfactory they were very speedily transferred, as we hear was the lot of poor Dick Musgrave.

*' He had been several years at sea, and had in the course of those removals to which all midship- men are liable, and especially such midshipmen as every captain wishes to get rid of, been six months on board Captain Frederick Wentworth's frigate, the Laconia ; and from the Laconia he had, under the influence of his captain, written the only two letters which his father and mother had ever received from him during the whole of his absence, that is to say the only two disin- terested letters ; all the rest had been mere applications for money. In each letter he had spoken well of his captain — mentioning him in strong, though not perfectly well-spelt praise, as * a fine dashing felow, only two perticular about the schoolmaster.' "

No doubt Dick's journal and sketches of the coast line were neither accurate nor neatly executed.

William Price's time as a midshipman is, one would think, a nearer approach to the careers of Francis and Charles. Certainly the account given of his talk seems to bear much resemblance to the stories Charles, especially, would have to tell on his return.

*' William was often called on by his uncle to

24

Two Midshipmen

be the talker. His recitals were amusing in them- selves to Sir Thomas, but the chief object in seeking them was to understand the reciter, to know the young man by his histories, and he listened to his clear, simple, spirited details with full satisfaction — seeing in them the proof of good principles, professional knowledge, energy, courage and cheerfulness — everything that could deserve or promise well. Young as he was, William had already seen a great deal. He had been in the Mediterranean — in the West Indies — in the Mediterranean again — had been often taken on shore by favour of his captain, and in the course of seven years had known every variety of danger which sea and war together could offer. With such means in his power he had a right to be listened to ; and though Mrs. Norris could fidget about the room, and disturb everybody in quest of two needlefuls of thread or a second-hand shirt button in the midst of her nephew's account of a shipwreck or an engagement, everybody else was attentive ; and even Lady Bertram could not hear of such horrors unmoved, or without sometimes lifting her eyes from her work to say, ^ Dear me ! How disagreeable ! I wonder any- body can ever go to sea.'

'*To Henry Crawford they gave a different feeling. He longed to have been at sea, and seen and done and suffered as much. His heart was

25

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

warmed, his fancy fired, and he felt a great respect for a lad who, before he was twenty, had gone through such bodily hardships, and given such proofs of mind. The glory of heroism, of useful- ness, of exertion, of endurance, made his own habits of selfish indulgence appear in shameful contrast ; and he wished he had been a William Price, distinguishing himself and working his way to fortune and consequence with so much self- respect and happy ardour, instead of what he was ! "

This gives a glowing account of the conse- quence of a midshipman on leave. That times were not always so good, that they had their share of feeling small and of no account, on shore as well as at sea, is only to be expected, and Fanny was not allowed to imagine anything else.

'''This is the Assembly night, 'said William. * If I were at Portsmouth, I should be at it perhaps.'

" ' But you do not wish yourself at Portsmouth, William ? '

'" No, Fanny, that I do not. I shall have enough of Portsmouth, and of dancing too, when I cannot have you. And I do not know that there would be any good in going to the Assembly, for I might not get a partner. The Portsmouth girls turn up their noses at anybody who has not a commission. One might as well be nothing as a midshipman. One is nothing, indeed. You remember the

26

Two Midshipmen

Gregorys ; they are grown up amazing fine girls, but they will hardly speak to me, because Lucy is courted by a lieutenant.'

** * Oh ! Shame, shame ! But never mind it, William (her own cheeks in a glow of indignation as she spoke). It is not worth minding. It is no reflection on you ; it is no more than the greatest admirals have all experienced, more or less, In their time. You must think of that ; you must try to make up your mind to it as one of the hardships which fall to every sailor's share — like bad weather and hard living — only with this advantage, that there will be an end to it, that there will come a time when you will have nothing of that sort to endure. When you are a lieutenant ! — only think, William, when you are a lieutenant, how little you will care for any nonsense of this kind.' "

27

CHAPTER III

CHANGES AND CHANCES IN THE NAVY

\ Francis obtained his Lieutenant's commission in 1792, serving for a year in the East Indies, and afterwards on the home station. Early pro- motions were frequent in those days of the Navy ; and, in many ways, no doubt, this custom was a good one, as the younger men had the dash and assurance which was needed, when success lay mainly in the power of making rapid decisions. Very early advancement had nevertheless decided disadvantages, and it was among the causes that brought about the mutinies of 1797. There are four or five cases on record of boys being made captains before they were eighteen, and pro- motions often went so much by favour and so little by real merit that the discontent of the crews commanded by such inexperienced officers was not at all to be wondered at. There were many other long-standing abuses, not the least of which was the system of punishments, frightful in their severity. A few instances of these, taken

28

Changes and Chances in the Navy

at haphazard from the logs of the various ships on which Francis Austen served as Lieutenant will illustrate this point.

Glory, December 8, 1795. — ** Punished P. C. Smith forty-nine lashes for theft."

January 14, 1796. — ** Punished sixteen seamen with one dozen lashes each for neglect of duty in being off the deck in their watch."

Punishments were made as public as possible. The following entry is typical :

Seahorse, December 9, 1797. — '' Sent a boat to attend punishments round the fleet."

In the log of the London, one of the ships ot the line blockading Cadiz, just after the fearful mutinies of 1797, we find, as might be expected, that punishments were more severe than ever.

August 16, 1798. — ''Marlborough made the signal for punishment. Sent three boats manned and armed to attend the punishment of Charles Moore (seaman belonging to the Marlborough), who was sentenced to receive one hundred lashes for insolence to his superior officer. Read the articles of war and sentence of Court-martial to the ship's company. The prisoner received twenty-five lashes alongside this ship."

In the case of a midshipman court-martialled for robbing a Portuguese boat, ''the charges having been proved, he was sentenced to be turned before the mast, to have his uniform stripped off him on

29

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

the quarter-deck before all the ship's company, to have his head shaved, and to be rendered for ever incapable of serving as a petty officer."

No fewer than six executions are recorded in the log of the London as taking place among the ships of the fleet off Cadiz. Only one instance is mentioned where the offender was pardoned by the commander-in-chief on account of previous good conduct. Earl St. Vincent certainly deserved his reputation as a disciplinarian.

When, in addition to the system of punishment, it is further considered that the food was almost always rough and very often uneatable, that most of the crews were pressed men, who would rather have been at any other work, and that the seamen's share in any possible prizes was ludicrously small, one wonders, not at the mutinies, but at the splendid loyalty shown when meeting the enemy.

It is a noticeable fact that discontent was rife during long times of inaction (whilst blockading Cadiz is the notable instance), but when it came to fighting for their country men and officers alike managed to forget their grievances.

On May 29, the log of the London is as follows :

''The Marlborough anchored in the middle of the line. At seven the Marlborough made the signal for punishment. Sent our launch, barge and cutter, manned and armed, to attend the execution of Peter Anderson, belonging to the

30

Changes and Chances in the Navy

Marlborough, who was sentenced to suffer death for mutiny. Read the sentence of the court- martial, and the articles of war to the ship's company. At nine the execution took place." This is a record of an eye-witness of the historic scene which put a stop to organised mutiny in the Cadiz fleet.

The narrative has been often told. Lord St. Vincent's order to the crew of the Marlborough that they alone should execute their comrade, the leader of the mutiny — the ship moored at a central point, and surrounded by all the men-of-war's boats armed with carronades under the charge of expert gunners — the Marlborough' s own guns housed and secured, and ports lowered — every precaution adopted in case of resistance to the Admiral's orders — and the result, in the words of the commander-in-chief: " Discipline is pre- served."

Perhaps the relief felt in the fleet was expressed in some measure by the salute of seventeen guns recorded on the same day, '' being the anniversary of King Charles' restoration."

Gradually matters were righted. Very early promotions were abolished, and throughout the Navy efforts were made on the part of the officers to make their men more comfortable, and espe- cially to give them better and more wholesome food — but reforms must always be slow if they are

31

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

to do good and not harm, and, necessarily, the lightening of punishments which seem to us bar- barous was the slowest of all.

The work of the pressgang is always a subject of some interest and romance. It is difficult to realise that it was a properly authorised Govern- ment measure. There were certain limits in which it might work, certain laws to be obeyed. The most useful men, those who were already at sea, but not in the King's service, could not legally be impressed, unless they were free from all former obligations, and the same rule applied to appren- tices. These rules were not, however, strictly kept, and much trouble was often caused by the wrong men being impressed, or by false state- ments being used to get others off. The following letter, written much later in his career by Francis Austen when he was Captain of the Leopard in 1 804, gives a typical case of this kind.

Leopard^ Dungeness, August 10, 1804.

'* Sir, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th inst., with the enclosure, relative to Harris Walker, said to be chief mate of the Fanny, and in reply thereto have the honour to inform you that the said Harris Walker was impressed from on board the brig Fanny, off Dungeness, by Lieutenant Taylor of his Majesty's ship under my command, on the evening of the

32

Changes and Chances in the Navy

7th inst., because no documents proving him to be actually chief mate of the brig were produced, and because the account he gave of himself was un- satisfactory and contradictory. On examining him the following day he at first confessed to me that he had entered on board the Fanny only three days before she sailed from Tobago, in consequence of the captain (a relation of his) being taken ill, and shortly afterwards he asserted that the whole of the cargo had been taken on board and stowed under his direction. The master of the Fanny told Lieutenant Taylor that his cargo had been shipped more than a fortnight before he sailed, having been detained for want of a copy of the ship's register, she being a prize purchased and fitted at Tobago. From these very contradictory accounts — from the man's having no affidavit to produce of his being actual chief mate of the brig, from his not having signed any articles as such — and from his handwriting totally disagreeing with the Log- Book (said to have been kept by himself) I felt myself perfectly justified in detaining him for his Majesty's service.

" I return the enclosure, and have the honour to be,

** Sir, your obedient humble servant,

*' Francis Wm. Austen.

*' Thomas Louis, Esq.,

'* Rear- Admiral of the Blue."

33 c

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

The reason assigned, that the reports Harris Walker gave of himself were ** unsatisfactory and contradictory," seems to us a bad one for ** detaining him for his Majesty's service," but it shows clearly how great were the difficulties in keeping up the supply of men. Captain Austen had not heard the last of this man, as the belief seems to have been strong that he was not legally impressed. Harris Walker, however, settled the matter by deserting on October 5.

An entry in the log of the newly built frigate Triton, under Captain Gore, gives an instance of wholesale, and one would think entirely illegal action.

November 25, 1796, in the Thames (Long Reach).

** Sent all the boats to impress the crew of the Britannia East India ship. The boats returned with thirty-nine men, the remainder having armed themselves and barricaded the bread room."

** 26th, the remainder of the Britannia crew surrendered, being twenty-three. Brought them on board."

So great was the necessity of getting more men, and a better stamp of men, into the Navy, and of making them fairly content when there, that in 1800 a Royal Proclamation was issued encouraging men to enlist, and promising them a bounty.

34

Changes and Chances in the Navy

This bounty, though it worked well in many- cases, was of course open to various forms of abuse. Some who were entitled to it did not get it, and many put in a claim whose right was at least doubtful. An instance appears in the letters of the Leopard oi a certain George Rivers, who had been entered as a ''prestman," and applied success- fully to be considered as a Volunteer, thereby to procure the bounty. He evidently wanted to make the best of his position.

The case of Thomas Roberts, given in another letter from the Leopard, is an example of induce- ments offered to enter the service.

Thomas Roberts ''appears to have been received as a Volunteer from H.M.S. Ceres, and received thirty shillings bounty. He says he was apprenticed to his father about three years ago, and that, sometime last October, he was enticed to a public-house by two men, who afterwards took him on board the receiving ship off the Tower, where he was persuaded to enter the service."

The difficulty of getting an adequate crew seems to have led in some cases to sharp practice among the officers themselves, if we are to believe that Admiral Croft had real cause for complaint.

" ' If you look across the street,' he says to Anne Elliot, ' you will see Admiral Brand coming down, and his brother. Shabby fellows, both of them ! I am glad they are not on this side of the

35

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

way. Sophy cannot bear them. They played me a pitiful trick once ; got away some of my best men. I will tell you the whole story another time.' " But ''another time " never comes, so we are reduced to imagining the " pitiful trick."

The unpopularity of the Navy, and the con- sequent shorthandedness in time of war, had one very bad result in bringing into it all sorts of undesirable foreigners, who stirred up strife among the better disposed men, and altogether aggravated the evils of the service.

Undoubtedly the care of the officers for their men was doing its gradual work in lessening all these evils. To instance this, we find, as we read on in the letters and official reports of Francis Austen, that the entry, ' ' the man named in the margin did run from his Majesty's ship under my command," comes with less and less frequency ; and we have on record that the Aurora, under the command of Captain Charles Austen, did not lose a single man by sickness or desertion during the years 1 826-1 828, whilst he was in command. Even when some allowance is made for his undoubted charm of personality, this is a strong evidence of the real improvements which had been worked in the Navy during thirty years.

With such constant difficulties and discomforts to contend with, it seems in some ways remark- able that the Navy should have been so popular as

36

Changes and Chances in the Navy

a profession among the classes from which officers were drawn. Some of this popularity, and no doubt a large share, was the effect of a strong feeling of patriotism, and some was due to the fact that the Navy was a profession in which it was possible to get on very fast. A man of moderate luck and enterprise was sure to make some sort of mark, and if to this he added any ** interest" his success was assured. Success, in those days of the Navy, meant money. It is difficult for us to realise the large part played by ** prizes " in the ordinary routine work of the smallest sloop. In the case of Captain Wentworth, a very fair average instance, we know that when he engaged himself to Anne Elliot, he had ** nothing but himself to recommend him, no hopes of attaining influence, but in the chances of a most uncertain profession, and no connexions to secure even his farther rise in that profession," yet we find that his hopes for his own advancement were fully justified. Jane Austen would have been very sure to have heard of it from Francis if not from Charles, if she had made Captain Wentworth's success much more remarkable than that of the ordinary run of men in such circumstances.

We are clearly told what those circumstances were.

'* Captain Wentworth had no fortune. He had been lucky in his profession ; but spending freely

37

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

what had come freely had realised nothing. But he was confident that he would soon be rich ; full of life and ardour, he knew that he would soon have a ship, and soon be on a station that would lead to everything he wanted. He had always been lucky ; he knew he should be so still." Later, '* all his sanguine expectations, all his confidence had been justified. His genius and ardour had seemed to foresee and to command his prosperous path. He had, very soon after their engagement ceased, got employ ; and all that he had told her would follow had taken place. He had distin- guished himself, and early gained the other step in rank, and must now, by successive captures, have made a handsome fortune. She had only Navy Lists and newspapers for her authority, but she could not doubt his being rich."

Such were some of the inducements. That '* Jack ashore " was a much beloved person may also have had its influence. Anne Elliot speaks for the greater part of the nation when she says, *' the Navy, I think, who have done so much for us, have at least an equal claim with any other set of men, for all the com- forts and all the privileges which any home can give. Sailors work hard enough for their comforts we must allow."

That Sir Walter Elliot represents another large section of the community is, however, not to be

3S

Changes and Chances in the Navy- denied, but his opinions are not of the sort to act as a deterrent to any young man bent on following a gallant profession.

**Sir Walter's remark was: *The profession has its utility, but I should be sorry to see any friend of mine belonging to it."

** * Indeed!' was the reply, and with a look of surprise.

*' * Yes, it is in two points offensive to me ; I have two strong grounds of objection to it. First, as being the means of bringing persons'*, of obscure birth into undue distinction, and raising \ men to honours which their fathers and grand- fathers never dreamt of ; and, secondly, as it cuts up a man's youth and vigour most horribly ; a sailor grows old sooner than any other man. I have observed it all my life. A man is in greater danger in the Navy of being insulted by the rise of one whose father his father might have disdained to speak to, and of becoming prematurely an object of disgust to himself, than in any other line. One day last spring in town I was in company with two men, striking instances of what I am talking of : Lord St. Ives, whose father we all know to have been a country curate, without bread to eat : I was to give place to Lord St. Ives, and a certain Admiral Baldwin, the most deplorable- looking personage you can imagine ; his face the colour of mahogany, rough and rugged to the last

39

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

degree ; all lines and wrinkles, nine grey hairs of a side, and nothing but a dab of powder at top.'

" * In the name of heaven, who is that old fellow ? ' said I to a friend of mine who was standing near (Sir Basil Morley), * Old fellow ! ' cried Sir Basil, 'it is Admiral Baldwin.' *' * What do you take his age to be ? ' " 'Sixty,' said I, *or perhaps sixty-two.' '** Forty,' replied Sir Basil, 'forty, and no more.'

'* * Picture to yourselves my amazement. I shall not easily forget Admiral Baldwin. I never saw quite so wretched an example of what a seafaring life can do ; they all are knocked about, and exposed to every climate and every weather till they are not fit to be seen. It is a pity they are not knocked on the head at once, before they reach Admiral Baldwin's age.' "

40

CHAPTER JV

PROMOTIONS

As Lieutenant, Francis Austen had very different experience and surroundings to those of his days as a midshipman. For three years and more he was in various ships on the home station, which meant a constant round of dull routine work, en- livened only by chances of getting home for a few days. While serving in the Lark sloop, he ac- companied to Cuxhaven the squadron told off to bring to England Princess Caroline of Brunswick, soon to become Princess of Wales. The voyage out seems to have been arctic in its severity. This bad weather, combined with dense fogs, caused the Lark to get separated from the rest of the squadron, and from March 6 till the 1 1 th nothing was seen or heard of the sloop. On March 1 8 the Princess came on board the Jupiter, the flagship of the squadron, and arrived in England on April 5 after a fair passage, but a voyage about as long as that to the Cape of Good Hope nowadays.

41

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

Francis notes in the log of the Glory, that while cruising/ ' the 7?^/f//£?r cutter joined company, and informed us she yesterday spoke H.M.S. Dcedalus " — a matter of some interest to him, as Charles was then on board the Dadalus as mid- shipman, under Captain Thomas Williams. Captain Williams had married Jane Cooper, a cousin ot Jane Austen, who was inclined to tease him about his having ''no taste in names." The following extract from one of her letters to Cassandra touches on nearly all these facts :

" Sunday, /anwaf^y lo, 1796.

" By not returning till the 19th, you will exactly contrive to miss seeing the Coopers, which I suppose it is your wish to do. We have heard nothing from Charles for some time. One would suppose they must have sailed by this time, as the wind is so favourable. What a funny name Tom has got for his vessel ! But he has no taste in names, as we well know, and I dare say he christened it himself."

Tom seems to have been a great favourite with his wife's cousins. Only a few days later Jane writes :

'* How impertinent you are to write to me about Tom, as if I had not opportunities of hearing from him myself. The last letter I received from him

42

Promotions

was dated on Friday the 8th, and he told me that if the wind should be favourable on Sunday, which it proved to be, they were to sail from Falmouth on that day. By this time, therefore, they are at Barbadoes, I suppose."

Having the two brothers constantly backwards and forwards must have been very pleasant at Steventon. Almost every letter has some refer- ence to one or the other.

** Edward and Frank are both gone forth to seek their fortunes ; the latter is to return soon and help us to seek ours."

Later from Rowling, Edward Austen's home, she writes :

'* If this scheme holds, I shall hardly be at Steventon before the middle of the month ; but if you cannot do without me I could return, I sup- pose, with Frank, if he ever goes back. He enjoys himself here very much, for he has just learnt to turn, and is so delighted with the employment that he is at it all day long. . . . What a fine fellow Charles is, to deceive us into writing two letters to him at Cork ! I admire his ingenuity extremely, especially as he is so great a gainer by it. . . . Frank has turned a very nice little butter-churn for Fanny. . . . We walked Frank last night to (church at) Crixhall Ruff, and he appeared much edified. So his Royal Highness Sir Thomas Williams has at length sailed ; the papers say * on a cruise.'

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

But I hope they are gone to Cork, or I shall have written in vain. . . . Edward and Fly (short for Frank) went out yesterday very early in a couple of shooting-jackets, and came home like a couple of bad shots, for they killed nothing at all.

** They are out again to-day, and are not yet returned. Delightful sport ! They are just come home — Edward with his two brace, Frank with his two and a half. What amiable young men ! "

About the middle of September 1796 Frank was appointed to the Triton, which event is an- nounced to Cassandra in these terms :

*' This morning has been spent in doubt and deliberation, forming plans and removing difficul- ties, for it ushered in the day with an event which I had not intended should take place so soon by a week. Frank has received his appointment on board the Captain John Gore, commanded by the Triton, and will therefore be obliged to be in town on Wednesday ; and though I have every disposition in the world to accompany him on that day, I cannot go on the uncertainty of the Pearsons being at home.

" The Triton is a new 3 2 -frigate, just launched at Deptford. Frank is much pleased with the prospect of having Captain Gore under his com- mand."

Francis stayed on board the Triton for about eighteen months. He then spent six months in

44

■-■^T:

FRANCIS AUSTEN IN 1 796

Promotions

the Seahorse before his appointment to the London off Cadiz, in February 1798. On April 30 follow- ing is recorded in the log of the London the ar- rival of H. M.S. Vanguard, carrying Rear- Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson's flag, and on May 3 the Vanguard proceeded to Gibraltar. On May 24 the ** detached squadron" sailed as follows: Cul- loden (Captain Troubridge), Bellerophon, Defence, Theseus, Goliath, Zealous, Minotaur, Majestic, and Swiftsure.

These three entries foreshadow the Battle of the Nile, on August i. The account of this victory was read to the crew of the London on September 27, and on October 24 they "saw eleven sail in the south-west — the Orion and the French line of battleships, prizes to Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson's fleet."

Now and then the London went as far as Ceuta or Gibraltar, and the log notes, '* Cape Trafalgar East 7 leagues."

It is curious to think that ** Trafalgar " conveyed nothing remarkable to the writer. One wonders too what view would have been expressed as to the plan of making Gibraltar a naval command, obviously advantageous in twentieth-century con- ditions, but probably open to many objections in those days.

Charles, in December 1797, was promoted to be a Lieutenant, serving in the Scorpion. There

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

is something In the account of William Price's joy- over his promotion which irresistibly calls up the picture of Charles in the same circumstances. Francis would always have carried his honours with decorum, but Charles' bubbling enthusiasm would have been more difficult to restrain.

** William had obtained a ten days' leave of absence, to be given to Northamptonshire, and was coming to show his happiness and describe his uniform. He came, and he would have been delighted to show his uniform there too, had not cruel custom prohibited its appearance except on duty. So the uniform remained at Portsmouth, and Edmund conjectured that before Fanny had any chance of seeing it, all its own freshness, and all the freshness of its wearer's feelings, must be worn away. It would be sunk into a badge of disgrace ; for what can be more unbecoming or more worthless than the uniform of a lieutenant who has been a lieutenant a year or two, and sees others made commanders before him ? So reasoned Edmund, till his father made him the confidant of a scheme which placed Fanny's chance of seeing the Second Lieutenant of H.M.S. Thrush in all his glory, in another light. This scheme was that she should accompany her brother back to Portsmouth, and spend a little time with her own family. William was almost as happy in the plan as his sister. It would be

46

Promotions

the greatest pleasure to him to have her there to the last moment before he sailed, and perhaps find her there still when he came in from his first cruise. And, besides, he wanted her so very much to see the Thrush before she went out of harbour (the Thrush was certainly the finest sloop in the service). And there were several improvements in the dockyard, too, which he quite longed to show her. ... Of pleasant talk between the brother and sister there was no end. Everything supplied an amusement to the high glee of William's mind, and he was full of frolic and joke in the intervals of their high-toned subjects, all of which ended, if they did not begin, in praise of the Thrush — conjectures how she would be employed, schemes for an action with some superior force, which (sup- posing the first lieutenant out of the way — and William was not very merciful to the first lieu- tenant) was to give himself the next step as soon as possible, or speculations upon prize-money, which was to be generously distributed at home with only the reservation of enough to make the little cottage comfortable in which he and Fanny were to pass all their middle and later life to- gether."

Charles's year in the Scorpion was spent under the command of Captain John Tremayne Rodd. The chief event was the capture of the Courier, a Dutch brig carrying six guns. Undoubtedly the

47

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

life was dull on a small brig, and Charles as mid- shipman had not been used to be dull. He evidently soon began to be restless, and to agitate for removal, which he got just about the same time as that of Francis's promotion.

In December 1798 Francis was made Com- mander of the Peterel sloop, and Charles, still as Lieutenant, was moved from the Scorpion to the frigate Tamar, and eventually to the Endymion, commanded by his old friend and captain, Sir Thomas Williams.

Charles had evidently written to his sister Cassandra to complain of his hard lot. Cassandra was away at the time, staying with Edward Austen at Godmersham, but she sent the letter home, and on December 18 Jane writes in answer :

*' I am sorry our dear Charles begins to feel the dignity of ill-usage. My father will write to Admiral Gambler" (who was then one of the Lords of the Admiralty). *' He must have already received so much satisfaction from his acquaintance and patronage of Frank, that he will be delighted, I dare say, to have another of the family intro- duced to him. I think it would be very right in Charles to address Sir Thomas on the occasion, though I cannot approve of your scheme of writing to him (which you communicated to me a few nights ago) to request him to come home and convey you to Steventon. To do you justice,

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Promotions

you had some doubts of the propriety of such a measure yourself. The letter to Gambler goes to-day."

This is followed, on December 24, by a letter which must have been as delightful to write as to receive.

** I have got some pleasant news for you which I am eager to communicate, and therefore begin my letter sooner, though I shall not send it sooner than usual. Admiral Gambler, in reply to my father's application, writes as follows : ' As it is usual to keep young officers ' (Charles was then only nineteen) ' in small vessels, it being most proper on account of their inexperience, and it being also a situation where they are more in the way of learning their duty, your son has been continued in the Scorpion ; but I have mentioned to the Board of Admiralty his wish to be in a frigate, and when a proper opportunity offers, and It is judged that he has taken his turn in a small ship, I hope he will be removed. With regard to your son now in the London, I am glad I can give you the assurance that his promotion is likely to take place very soon, as Lord Spencer has been so good as to say he would include him in an arrangement that he proposes making in a short time relative to some promotions in that quarter.'

"■ There ! I may now finish my letter and go

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

and hang myself, for I am sure I can neither write nor do anything which will not appear insipid to you after this. Now I really think he will soon be made, and only wish we could com- municate our foreknowledge of the event to him whom it principally concerns. My father has written to Daysh to desire that he will inform us, if he can, when the commission is sent. Your chief wish is now ready to be accomplished, and could Lord Spencer give happiness to Martha at the same time, what a joyful heart he would make of yours! "

It is quite clear from this, and many other ot the letters of Jane to Cassandra, that both sisters were anxious to bring off a match between Frank and their great friend, Martha Lloyd, whose younger sister was the wife of James Austen. Martha Lloyd eventually became Frank's second wife nearly thirty years after the date of this letter.

Jane continues her letter by saying : '* I have sent the same extract of the sweets of Gambler to Charles, who, poor fellow ! though he sinks into nothing but an humble attendant on the hero of the piece, will, I hope, be contented with the prospect held out to him. By what the Ad- miral says, it appears as if he had been designedly kept in the Scorpion. But I will not torment myself with conjectures and suppositions. Facts

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Promotions

shall satisfy me. Frank had not heard from any of us for ten weeks, when he wrote to me on November 12, In consequence of Lord St. Vincent being removed to Gibraltar. When his commis- sion is sent, however, it will not be so long on its road as our letters, because all the Government despatches are forwarded by land to his lordship from Lisbon with great regularity. The lords of the Admiralty will have enough of our appli- cations at present, for I hear from Charles that he has written to Lord Spencer himself to be re- moved. I am afraid his Serene Highness will be in a passion, and order some of our heads to be cut off."

The next letter, of December 28, is the cul- minating-point :

** Frank is made. He was yesterday raised to the rank of Commander, and appointed to the Peterel sloop, now at Gibraltar. A letter from Daysh has just announced this, and as it is con- firmed by a very friendly one from Mr. Matthew to the same effect, transcribing one from Admiral Gambler to the General, we have no reason to suspect the truth of it.

** As soon as you have cried a little for joy, you may go on, and learn farther that the India House have taken Captain Austen's petition into consideration — this comes from Daysh — and likewise that Lieutenant Charles John Austen is

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removed to the Tamar frigate — this comes from the Admiral. We cannot find out where the Tamar is, but I hope we shall now see Charles here at all events.

'' This letter is to be dedicated entirely to good news. If you will send my father an account of your washing and letter expenses, &c., he will send you a draft for the amount of it, as well as for your next quarter, and for Edward's rent. If you don't buy a muslin gown on the strength of this money and Frank's promotion I shall never forgive you.

*' Mrs. Lefroy has just sent me word that Lady Dorchester meant to invite me to her ball on January 8, which, though an humble blessing compared with what the last page records, I do not consider any calamity. I cannot write any more now, but I have written enough to make you very happy, and therefore may safely conclude."

Jane was in great hopes that Charles would get home in time for this ball at Kempshot, but he '' could not get superceded in time," and so did not arrive until some days later. On January 21 we find him going off to join his ship, not very well pleased with existing arrangements.

''Charles leaves us to-night. The Tamar is in the Downs, and Mr. Daysh advises him to join her there directly, as there is no chance of her going to the westward. Charles does not approve

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Promotions

of this at all, and will not be much grieved if he should be too late for her before she sails, as he may then hope to get a better station. He at- tempted to go to town last night, and got as far on his road thither as Dean Gate ; but both the coaches were full, and we had the pleasure of seeing him back again. He will call on Daysh to-morrow, to know whether the Tamar has sailed or not, and if she is still at the Downs he will proceed in one of the night coaches to Deal.

** I want to go with him, that I may explain the country properly to him between Canterbury and Rowling, but the unpleasantness of returning by myself deters me. I should like to go as far as Ospringe with him very much indeed, that I might surprise you at Godmersham."

Charles evidently did get off this time, for we read a few days later that he had written from the Downs, and was pleased to find himself Second Lieutenant on board the Tamar.

The Endymion was also in the Downs, a further cause of satisfaction. It was only three weeks later that Charles was reappointed to the Endymion as Lieutenant, in which frigate he saw much service, chiefly off Algeciras, under his old friend '' Tom." One is inclined to wonder how far this accidental meeting in the Downs influenced the appointment. Charles appears on many occasions to have had a quite remarkable gift for getting what he wanted.

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

His charm of manner, handsome face, and affec- tionate disposition, combined with untiring enthu- siasm, must have made him very hard to resist, and he evidently had no scruple about making his wants clear to all whom it might concern. The exact value of interest in these matters is always difficult to gauge, but there is no doubt that a well-timed application was nearly always necessary for advancement. The account of the way in which Henry Crawford secured promotion for William Price is no doubt an excellent example of how things were done.

Henry takes William to dinner with the Ad- miral, and encourages him to talk. The Admiral takes a fancy to the young man, and speaks to some friends about him with a view to his promo- tion. The result is contained in the letters which Henry so joyfully hands over to Fanny to read.

** Fanny could not speak, but he did not want her to speak. To see the expression of her eyes, the change of her complexion, the progress of her feelings — their doubt, confusion and felicity — was enough. She took the letters as he gave them. The first was from the Admiral to inform his nephew, in a few words, of his having succeeded in the object he had undertaken (the promotion of young Price), and enclosing two more — one from the secretary of the First Lord to a friend, whom the Admiral had set to work in the business ;

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Promotions

the other from that friend to himself, by which it appeared that his lordship had the very great happiness of attending to the recommendation of Sir Charles ; that Sir Charles was much delighted in having such an opportunity of proving his regard for Admiral Crawford, and that the circumstances of Mr. William Price's commission as Second Lieutenant of H.M. sloop Thrush being made out, was spreading general joy through a wide circle of great people."

55

CHAPTER V

THE PETEREL SLOOP

It will, perhaps, be as well to recall some of the principal events of the war, during the few years before Francis took up his command of the Peter el, in order that his work may be better understood.

Spain had allied herself with France in 1796, and early in the following year matters looked most unpromising for England. The British fleet had been obliged to leave the Mediterranean. Bonaparte was gaining successes against Austria on land. The peace negotiations, which had been begun by France, had been peremptorily stopped, while the French expedition to Ireland obviously owed its failure to bad weather, and not in the least to any effective interference on the part of the British Navy. Altogether the horizon was dark, and every one in England was expect- ing to hear of crushing disaster dealt out by the combined fleets of France and Spain, and all lived in fear of invasion. Very different was the

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The Peterel Sloop

news that arrived In London early In March. Sir John Jervis, with Nelson and Collingwood, met the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent on Valentine's Day, and we all know the result. As Jervis said on the morning of the fight, '' A victory was essential to England at this moment." The confidence of the nation returned, and was not lost again through the hard struggle of the follow- ing years. An extract from the log of Lieutenant F. W. Austen, on board the frigate Seahorse, in the Hamoaze, October 6, 1797, reads as follows '- " Came into harbour the San Josef , Salvador del MundOy San Nicolai, and San Isidore, Spanish line-of-battle ships, captured by the fleet under Lord St. Vincent on the 14th February."

After their defeat, the remainder of the Spanish fieet entered the port of Cadiz, and were for the next two years blockaded by Admiral Jervis, now Earl St. Vincent. In this blockade, Francis Austen took part, serving In the London,

During this time of comparative Inaction, the fearful mutinies, described in a former chapter, seemed to be sapping the strength of the Navy. The greater number of the British ships were concentrated in the Channel under Lord Bridport, and were employed in watching the harbour of Brest, in order to prevent the French fleet from escaping, with what success we shall presently tell. Our flag was scarcely to be seen inside the

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

Mediterranean except on a few sloops of war. Each side was waiting- for some movement of aggression from the other. Now was Bonaparte's chance to get to the East. His plans were quietly and secretly formed. An armament was prepared at Toulon almost unknown to the British, and at the same time all possible measures to avert sus- picion were taken. The Spanish fleet in Cadiz formed up as if for departure, and so kept Lord St. Vincent on the watch, while Bonaparte himself stayed in Paris until the expedition was quite ready to start, in order to give the idea that the invasion of England was intended. Still it was not prac- ticable to keep the preparations entirely secret for any length of time.

Early in April 1798 Nelson sailed from England, joined St. Vincent at Cadiz, and imme- diately went on into the Mediterranean, with three ships of the line, to reconnoitre. He was rein- forced by nine more under Troubridge, and Lord St. Vincent had orders from home to follow with the entire squadron if it should prove necessary. Nelson searched for Bonaparte in the Mediter- ranean, and missed him twice. The French seized Malta for the sake of getting their supplies through, but the British as promptly blockaded it. At last, on August i. Nelson came upon the French fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay, and the Battle of the Nile was fought. The situation

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The Peterel Sloop

now created can be briefly summarised. Bona- parte was in Egypt, cut off from all communication with France, and however determinedly he might turn his face towards Africa or Asia his position was a serious one. Turkey almost immediately declared war against France. Malta was still closely blockaded by the British. Nelson had established himself at Palermo, on friendly terms with the King of Naples, who had taken refuge in Sicily. The news of the Battle of the Nile had spread far and wide, and France had good reason to fear that the tide had turned against her.

Early in 1799 Bonaparte attacked Acre, and Sir Sydney Smith was sent to harass his forces, and to compel him, if possible, to raise the siege.

At this time occurred one of those events which show how a slight advantage, properly used, may decide the final issue. Matters were in this critical state ; every British ship in and near the Mediterranean was employed at some important work, when that happened which might have been the cause of serious disaster. Admiral Bruix got away from Brest with a fleet of twenty- five sail of the line and ten smaller ships.

The blame of this mishap is not at all easy to attach. Lord Bridport was still in command of the Channel Fleet, but the Admiralty seemed to prefer to keep him in touch with headquarters off

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Tane Austen's Sailor Brothers

the coast of Kent, rather than to allow him to main- tain a position whence he could more easily keep watch on the French fleet. Now ensued an ex- citing time. No one knew where the French fleet was, much less whither it was bound. They had escaped in a thick fog, being seen only by La Nymphe, one of the British frigates, whose officers, owing to the density of the fog, imagined that they saw the fleet bring to under the land, and signalled accordingly to Lord Bridport. When the fog lifted the French fleet was no longer in sight.

Of course the first idea was that they had gone to Ireland, and off went Lord Bridport to pursue them. A little later news was received that they had sailed southward, and a correspondent at this time writes : *' Lord St. Vincent will have a fine field to exert his talents if the French fleet join the Spanish, after capturing Lisbon."

On the morning of May 5, from the Rock of Gibraltar, Lord St. Vincent saw, with the deepest anxiety, the French fleet running before a westerly gale into the Mediterranean. His most immediate fear was lest Bruix should be on his way to help Bonaparte at Acre, and to overwhelm Sydney Smith's squadron. If so, the question was how to stop him. Lord Bridport s fleet was useless, as it was not until nearly four weeks later that he was able to send help. Lord Keith was

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The Peterel Sloop

blockading Cadiz. If he left, the whole Spanish fleet would be released and at liberty to attack where they would. Nelson was at Palermo with only one British line-of-battle ship, and great would be the consternation in the town if that one ship were to be withdrawn. A small squadron was blockading Malta, and a few ships were at Minorca under Commodore Duckworth, but Port Mahon was not yet fully garrisoned. Troubridge was outside Naples. Bruix might attack any of these divisions with the full force of his fleet, or he might proceed straight to Egypt. St. Vincent had to determine which of these positions should be abandoned in order to meet the French fleet. He decided on ordering Keith into the Mediter- ranean so as to concentrate the available forces, sending word as far as possible to the outlying squadrons.

To Nelson at Palermo he wrote that he ex- pected the enemy to proceed to Malta and Alexandria. This despatch was entrusted to the Hyena, which fell in with the Peterel, now under the command of Francis Austen. The Peterel was already on the way to Nelson with a despatch from Minorca, and, being a fast-sailing sloop, the captain of the Hyena at once handed on the im- portant paper to be delivered by Captain Austen.

The entries in the log of the Peterel at this date tell their own story :

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^' May lo. — On the passage from Minorca to Palermo.

** 12 noon. — Offshore four or five miles.

** 2 o'clock. — Answered the private signal made by a ship in the S.S.E.

*'4 o'clock. — Showed our pendants to a ship in the S.S.E.

"5 o'clock. — Joined H.M.S. Hyena; lowered the jolly-boat, and went on board.

*' lo past 5. — Up boat and made all sail ; the Hyena parted company, standing to the N.W.

''May 12. A quarter past 9. — Saw a sail on the lee bow, made the private signal to her, which was answered. Made the signal for having gained intelligence, and repeated it with four guns, but it was not answered.

** 15 minutes past ii< — Hove to ; lowered the jolly-boat and went on board the stranger, which proved to be H.M.S. Pallas, with a convoy for the westward.

** 20 minutes past 1 1 . — Up boat, filled, and made all sail as before. Observed the Pallas bear up and follow us with her convoy.

''May 13. — At daylight, Cape Trepano (in Sicily). S.S.W. five or six leagues.

'* A quarter-past 3 p.m. — Shortened sail, backed ship, hove to and lowered the boat. The first lieutenant went on shore with despatches for Lord Nelson at Palermo.

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The Peterel Sloop

** A quarter before 4. — The boat returned, hoisted her up, and made all sail.

** Note. — The place at which the first lieu- tenant landed was on the east side of the Bay, between Cape St. Vito and Cape Alos, and about twenty-four miles by road from Palermo."

The following is the letter which Captain Austen sent to the Admiral, with the despatches :

" Peterel at Sea, off Cape St. Vito, May 13, 1799.

** My Lord, — I have the honour to inform your Lordship that I sailed from the Island of Minorca with his Majesty's sloop under my command, at II A.M. on Friday, the loth inst, charged with the accompanying despatch for your lordship, and the same evening met his Majesty's ship Hyena, about five leagues S.E. by S. of Fort Mahon, from the captain of which I received the paper enclosed ; and judging from the contents of it that its speedy arrival must be of the utmost conse- quence, and that a passage by land may be per- formed in much less time than by sea, with the wind as it now is at the E.S.E., I have directed Mr. Staines, my first lieutenant, to land with the despatch at Castella, and proceed with all possible expedition to your lordship at Palermo, to which place I shall carry his Majesty's sloop as soon as I can.

*' I fell in with his Majesty s ship Pallas and

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convoy yesterday at 1 1 a.m., about fifteen leagues E.S.E. of Cape Carbonera, and, in consequence of the Intelligence I gave the captain of that ship bore up with his convoy for Palermo. I enclose the state and condition of his Majesty's sloop under my command, and have the honour to be,

'* My lord, ** Your lordship's most obedient " humble servant,

** Francis Wm. Austen.

" To the Rt. Hon. Lord Nelson, K.B., Etc., etc., etc."

''May 14. — At four o'clock hove to in Palermo Bay. The first lieutenant returned on board. At six o'clock filled and made all sail on the lar- board tack, pinnace ahead towing."

Nelson was at this time short of small vessels by which to send news. He therefore employed the Peterel to go on to the blockading squadron off Malta with orders, which were delivered on board H.M.S. Goliath, about noon on May 19. The Peterel \}i\^vi returned to Minorca.

Bruix, contrary to expectation, did nothing with his chance. Probably the aim of the Directory in sending him was to discover how far Spain was to be relied upon for support, and there may have been no intention of employing

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The Peterel Sloop

him to help Bonaparte, but Brulx seems to have had a free hand in the matter, so that his own want of resolution and failure of insight are the apparent causes of the expedition proving inconclusive.

The Spanish fleet came out of Cadiz, as was of course to be expected, and on May 30 Bruix sailed eastward from Toulon, getting into communication with General Moreau at Genoa. The great matter was to keep the two fleets from combining, and this might be done by following the French fleet and beating it. Lord St. Vincent's health now entirely gave way, and he was obliged to give up the command to Keith, though it is probable he expected to have his advice still followed. Lord Keith sailed away in pursuit, but Bruix doubled on his tracks, and keeping close in shore repassed Toulon, and got down to Cartagena, where he met the Spanish fleet. Keith, instead of taking up the command- ing position earnestly recommended by St. Vin- cent, let his chance slip by going back to Minorca, which he supposed to be in danger, and thus the conjunction of the fleets took place. It was how- ever followed by no adverse results. Spain was lukewarm, and Bruix sailed back to Brest, having accomplished nothing but an addition of fifteen ships to his fleet, to serve as a pledge for the goodwill of the Spanish Government. Had Bruix

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joined Bonaparte instead of the Spanish fleet, very different results would almost certainly have followed.

The following proclamation will show clearly how important the support of Spain was felt to be, and how anxious Bruix was lest there should be any cause for disagreement.

'* In the name of the French Republic.

'' In the Road of Cartagena, on board the

Admiral's sloop the Ocean, dated 24th June,

in the seventh year of the French Republic,

Eustace Bruix commanding the French

fleet.

** Frenchmen and Republicans, — At last,

united with our faithful allies, we approach the

period when we shall punish England and relieve

Europe from all its tyranny. Although I have

no doubt, my brave friends, of the sentiments

which you have professed, I felt myself bound

to call upon you to give proofs of their sincerity

by every means in your power. Recollect that it

is for the interests of your country, and for your

own honour, to give to a nation, whom we esteem,

the highest opinion of us. That word alone is

enough for Frenchmen. Do not above all forget

that you are come among a just and generous

people, and our most faithful allies. Respect

their customs, their usages, their religion. In a

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word, let everything be sacred to us. Think the least departure from that which I am now pre- scribing to you will be a crime in the eyes of the Republic, for which it will be my duty to punish you. But, on the contrary, I am convinced that you will give me an opportunity of praising your conduct, and that will be the greatest re- compence I can receive.

^* E. Bruix."

Carrying Lord St. Vincent's letter to Nelson seems to have been the first service of im- portance which fell to the share of Captain Austen. Perhaps some description of the more ordinary happenings of the life on board of a sloop of war may prove of interest. The change from the position of First Lieutenant on board a ship of the line to that of the Captain of a small vessel must necessarily have been very marked.

Towards the end of 1798 the Peterel had had the misfortune to be captured by the Spaniards, who treated the captain (Charles Long) and his crew very badly. The following day she was rescued by the Argo, under Captain Bowen. Francis Austen was then given the command, and on February 27 we find him taking over his new duties, the Peterel being then moored in Gibraltar Bay.

The first few months were spent in cruising

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about the west of the Mediterranean. Almost every day there was a pursuit of some vessel of more or less importance. Sometimes * ' the chace " proved to be a friendly craft, sometimes she got away, but not infrequently was captured and overhauled. On one occasion, Francis Austen remarks trenchantly, ** Our chace proved to be a tower on the land."

Evidently the plan of procedure was always to follow up and find out the nationality of any dis- tant sail. If a friend, news was interchanged, and often some help might be given. If an enemy, an attack usually followed. One of these small en- counters is described in the log of the date March 23, 1799, the Peterel then cruising off the south side of Majorca.

** 1 1 o'clock. — Saw a latteen-sail boat, appearing to be a privateer, just within the western point of Cabrera. From the manoeuvres of this boat I judge her to be a privateer. When we first saw her she was on the starboard tack, and seemed to be exam- ining us. I could just distinguish her hull from the Catharpins. She appeared to be full of men. She was rigged with one large latteen sail, and might be about fifteen to twenty tons."

This boat was evidently not to be seen again until " At a quarter past 3, perceived the chace run round a point of the island into a cove, under the protection of a castle situated on a high rock.

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The Peterel Sloop

This was the same boat we saw in the forenoon. Our appearance had evidently frightened them, and they judged it prudent to keep snug till we were gone by, and, at the time they ventured out, supposed us too far off to distinguish them. It was, indeed, with difficulty that we could, as the distance was full three leagues, and their sail was nearly the same colour as the rock along which they were passing.

" The cove or haven into which the boat went IS about three-quarters of a mile from the N.W. point of the island, and is completely land-locked by the two points which form it overlapping. We were close in, not more than a quarter of a mile from the westernmost of these points, but could get no ground with forty fathoms line. The castle is situated on a pinnacle rock or cliff on the eastern side of the entrance, and from its situation I should judge it difficult of access to an hostile approach. They had not more than two guns in it, and those were not more than four or six-pounders. Several of their shot went over us, and others fell within a few yards on each side of us, but not one struck the ship. Ours all went on shore, and I believe most of them struck the castle, but there was too much motion to fire with very great precision. This cove, from its situation, is a most excellent place of resort for small privateers, as they are secure from the effects of any wind, and can from

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the height discover the approach of any vessel, and be ready to push out on them when they may be too close to the Island to effect their escape."

With nightfall this attack had to be abandoned, and by six o'clock the next morning, March 24, the Peterel was In pursuit of another '' chace."

" At a quarter past 8, hoisted out the pinnace and launch and sent them to board the chace.

*'At 8 o'clock, I could discern with a glass the privateer, with his sail furled, laying In his oars, just within the west point of the cove, ready to pop out on the Spanish boat, and, but for our being so near, certainly would have recaptured her, but when our boats put off from the ship he went in again.

"At 10 o'clock, the boats returned with the chace, which proved to be a Spanish coasting- vessel of 20 tons, from Cadiz bound to Barcelona with wheat, prize to the General Pigot, a privateer belonging to Gibraltar. Supplied him with a few baracoes of water.

"At II o'clock, in boats and made sail on the larboard tack."

This account of a twenty-four hours on board the Peterel will give some idea of the constant interest and continual demand on the judgment incidental to this life. This particular day, though a full one, was barren of results. The privateer got out of the way of the Peterel^ and the chace

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which they did succeed in boarding had already surrendered to another British ship. The entries of a few days later, March 28, will show how varying was the success of these encounters. On that day they secured three prizes in twelve hours.

** 5 o'clock A.M., saw a strange sail bear S.W. by S. Bore up and set royal and steering sails in chace.

** 8 o'clock. — Fresh breezes and clear weather ; came up with the chace close off the west end of Ivica. Shortened sail and hove to, sent a boat on board ; she proved to be a Spanish brig laden with barley, from Almeria bound to Barcelona. Sent an officer and eight men to take possession, and took all the Spaniards out of her.

*' At 10 o'clock. — Took her in tow, and made sail to the eastward.

" At half-past 10. — Saw a brig at the south part of Ivica, cast off the tow, and made all sail in chace.

** Half-past II. — In steering sails.

** At noon. — Moderate and clear weather, pass- ing through between Ivica and Formenterra, prize in company.

** Half-past 12. — Fired five guns at the chace to make her bring to, but without effect.

"At I o'clock. — She anchored close under a signal tower with four guns on it. Hoisted out

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the pinnace, and sent her armed under the direction of the second lieutenant to board the vessel.

** Half-past 2. — The pinnace returned with the brig ; sent her away to cut out a small vessel, which was then riding about half a mile to the westward of the tower. The brig appears to be French, but no one was found on board her. Sent an officer and five men to take charge of her.

'* At 5 o'clock. — The pinnace returned with the other vessel, a Spanish settee, appearing by papers found on board to be the Alicant packet. Her crew had quitted her on seeing our boats approach. Sent an officer and five men on board to take charge of her. Took her in tow and made sail ; prizes in company."

Such days as this were of quite frequent occur- rence. Sometimes the prizes were of great value, as on April ii, when the Peterel, in com- pany with the Powerful and the Leviathan, assisted in capturing a vessel which they thought to be a despatch-boat, and therefore of the first importance. She proved to be a fishing-boat, employed in carrying a brigadier-general, a lieu- tenant-colonel, and a captain of the Walloon Guards over to Ivica from Alicant. She had on board specie to the amount of 9000 dollars. The PetereHs share of this valuable prize was 1469

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dollars, which was paid out in the following pro- portions :

To a captain .		. 750 dollars
„ a lieutenant		. 62i „
,, a warrant officer		. 36I „
„ a petty officer .		. loj „
„ a foremast man .		2 „

It is to be feared that the prize-money was a doubtful blessing to the foremast hands, especially as th^ Peterel -wdiS then nearing Port Mahon, where they lay at anchor for three days, during which it was no doubt easy to incur the punishments for drunkenness and neglect of duty which we find meted out two days later.

Another capture of political importance is de- tailed on the 26th April, when a Spanish tartan, the San Antonio de Padua, was brought to, having on board fifty-three soldiers belonging to a com- pany of the 3rd battalion of the Walloon Guards, who were being conveyed from Barcelona to Majorca. These, with sailors and a few recruits also on board, summed up a capture of seventy- nine Spanish prisoners, who were taken on board the Peterel.

The tartan was manned by a midshipman and seven men, and taken in tow. The prisoners were afterwards transferred to the Centaur, and the prize, after everything was taken out of her, was scuttled.

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These few instances will serve to show the kind of life of which we get such tantaHsing hints in ** Persuasion."

The account Captain Wentworth gives to the two Miss Musgroves and to Admiral Croft of his earlier commands is a case in point. The date is not the same, for we remember that Captain Wentworth first got employ in the year six (1806), soon after he had parted in anger from Anne Elliot.

" The Miss Musgroves were just fetching the * Navy List ' (their own ' Navy List,' the first there had ever been at Uppercross), and sitting down together to pore over it, with the professed view of finding out the ships which Captain Went- worth had commanded.

** ' Your first was the Asp, I remember. We will look for the Asp,'

" ' You will not find her there. Quite worn out and broken up. I was the last man who com- manded her. Hardly fit for service then. Re- ported fit for home service for a year or two, and so I was sent oft to the West Indies.'

'* The girls looked all amazement.

** ' The Admiralty,' he continued, * entertain themselves now and then with sending a few hun- dred men to sea in a ship not fit to be employed. But they have a great many to provide for ; and among the thousands that may just as well go to

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The Peterel Sloop

the bottom as not, It is impossible for them to distinguish the very set who may be least missed.'

**'Phoo! phoo!' cried the Admiral. * What stuff these young fellows talk! Never was there a better sloop than the Asp in her day. For an old built sloop you would not see her equal. Lucky fellow to get her ! He knows there must have been twenty better men than himself apply- ing for her at the same time. Lucky fellow to get anything so soon, with no more interest than his.'

** * I felt my luck. Admiral, I assure you,' replied Captain Wentworth seriously. * I was as well satisfied with my appointment as you can desire. It was a great object with me at the time to be at sea ; a very great object. I wanted to be doing something.'

" * To be sure you did. What should a young fellow like you do ashore for half a year together ? If a man has not a wife, he soon wants to be afloat again.'

** * But, Captain Wentworth,' cried Louisa, *how vexed you must have been when you came to the Asp, to see what an old thing they had given you.'

" * I knew pretty well what she was before that day,' said he smiling. * I had no more discoveries to make than you would have as to the fashion

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

and strength of an old pelisse, which you had seen lent about among half your acquaintance ever since you could remember, and which at last on some very wet day is lent to yourself. Ah ! she was a dear old Asp to me. She did all I wanted. I knew she would. I knew that we should either go to the bottom together, or that she would be the making of me ; and I never had two days of foul weather all the time I was at sea in her ; and after taking privateers enough to be very entertaining, I had the good luck in my passage home the next autumn to fall in with the very French frigate I wanted. I brought her into Plymouth ; and here was another instance of luck. We had not been six hours in the Sound when a gale came on which lasted four days and four nights, and which would have done for poor old Asp in half the time, our touch with the Great Nation not having improved our condition. Four and twenty hours later and I should only have been a gallant Cap- tain Wentworth in a small paragraph at one corner of the newspapers ; and being lost in only a sloop, nobody would have thought about me.'

** The girls were now hunting for the Laconia ; and Captain Wentworth could not deny himself the pleasure of taking the precious volume into his own hands to save them the trouble, and once more read aloud the little statement of her name and rate, and present non-commissioned class-

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The Peterel Sloop

Observing over it that she too had been one of the best friends man ever had.

'* 'Ah, those were pleasant days when I had the Laconia ! How fast I made money in her ! A friend of mine and I had such a lovely cruise to- gether off the Western Islands. Poor Harville, sister ! You know how much he wanted money : worse than myself. He had a wife. Excellent fellow ! I shall never forget his happiness. He felt it all so much for her sake. I wished for him again next summer, when I had still had the same luck in the Mediterranean.' "

One cannot but feel, when one comes on such a conversation in Jane Austen's novel, how per- fectly she understood the details of her brothers' lives. Her interest and sympathy were so great that we can almost hear Francis and Charles re- counting experiences to their home circle, with a delicious dwelling on the dangers, for the sake of inward shudders, or "more open exclamations of pity and horror " from their hearers, with sidelong hits at the Admiralty, and with the true sailor's love of, and pride in, the vessels he has com- manded.

77

CHAPTER VI

THE PATROL OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

It will be remembered that at the close of 1796 scarcely a British man-of-war was to be seen in the Mediterranean. To estimate the work that St. Vincent and Nelson had since accomplished, it is only necessary to say that by the summer of 1799 the British Navy was everywhere, blockading Genoa and Malta, patrolling the Egyptian and Syrian coasts, and in possession of Minorca, while Nelson was stationed at Palermo. The French armies in Italy were cut off from re- inforcements by our ships before Genoa. Bona- parte's soldiers in Egypt were equally helpless, though he himself managed to get home in spite of the danger of capture.

Attempts were of course made by the French to change this position. Rear-Admiral Perree had served on the immense fleet which Bonaparte took to Egypt in 1798, and there was appointed to the command of the light flotilla intended to patrol the Nile. Most of his seniors were shortly

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The Patrol of the Mediterranean

afterwards killed or captured by Nelson's fleet in Aboukir Bay, and he then took charge of the remaining frigates which had safely anchored at Alexandria, and which were compelled to remain there, as Captain Troubridge had established a blockade of the coast. When Bonaparte marched for Syria, early in 1799, Perree was ordered to bring battering cannon to Haifa for the attack on Acre. It was some time before he got the oppor- tunity to slip out of Alexandria, and he then found Jaffa the only place available for landing the guns. Accomplishing this, he vainly endea- voured to co-operate in the siege of Acre, but was driven off by the Tigre and Theseus under Sir Sydney Smith. The blockade made it impossible for Perr6e to re-enter Alexandria. The five vessels therefore sailed for Toulon, and on June 18 we have in the log of the Peterel the account of the capture of this unlucky squadron, within a few hours of their French haven.

June 17. — ** Admiral (Lord Keith) and fleet in company. The Emerald made signal for five sail in sight. The Admiral signalled for general chace. Answered his signal to us to keep between the Admiral and the chacing ships in N.E., to repeat signals. At 8 p.m. Emerald N.E., six or seven miles. Admiral west, four miles.

June 18. — *'One o'clock p.m. Saw four sail bear- ing N.W. At six, five sail of strangers in sight.

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At seven, perceived the Centaur open a fire on the chace, which was returned. Saw two of them strike and shorten sail. Half-past seven, the Emerald got up with, and took possession of, another. At eight o'clock the Centaur brought to a fourth. The Success and the Triton in chace of the fifth.

June 19. — ''At daylight, ten of the fleet and five prizes in company. Boats of the fleet em- ployed on the 19th getting the prisoners out of the prizes. These ships proved to be a squadron which had escaped out of Alexandria on the 19th of March, and, after cruising a considerable time off Joppa, were returning to Toulon. Their names are as follows :

Lajunon .	38 guns, 600 men (with a Rear-Admiral
	on board).
VAIceste .	36 guns.
La Courageuse .	32 guns, 300 men.
VAlerte .	i6-gun brig.
La Salamine	i6-gun ditto."

Marshal Suwarrow, in command of the Russian and Austrian armies, was now making use of Bonaparte's enforced detention in Egypt to drive the French out of Italy. By June, after the battle of the Trebbia, he had not only shut up Moreau's army in Genoa, but had driven Macdonald back into Tuscany. It was only with the greatest difficulty that the two French

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The Patrol of the Mediterranean

commanders were able eventually to join forces in Genoa. With characteristic want of confidence in their generals, the French Directory sent out General Joubert to take command in the place of the two who had been worsted. Almost immediately after his arrival, he was himself utterly defeated and killed at the battle of Novi. Nothing was left of the French possessions in Italy except Genoa, and a few smaller fortified places. To Genoa Massena came after his suc- cessful exploits in Switzerland, and made his memorable stand, against the Austrian army besieging by land and the British blockading by sea.

With these events during 1799 and 1800, the Peterel was in constant touch. On one occasion, off Savona, a vessel was taken containing two hundred and fifty wounded soldiers, who were being conveyed from Genoa back to France after the indecisive battle of the Trebbia. On this Captain Austen remarks, ''As many of them were in such a state as not to be moved but at the risque of their lives. Captain Caulfield (of the Aurora), from motives of humanity, let the vessel proceed."

Another capture shows how much the French were hampered by our blockade, their general being unable to reach his army excepting by sea. In Francis Austen's own words :

8r F

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

August 2, 1799. — " Last night at 9 p.m. the Minerves boats came alongside ; sent them along with our own, armed, under the command of the first lieutenant to cut out some vessels from the Bay of Diano.

** About midnight saw a very heavy fire of cannon and musketry in Diano Bay. Towards dawn the boats returned on board, having brought out a large settee laden with wine, and a French armed half-galley, mounting six guns, and rowing twenty-six oars. This galley had lately arrived from Toulon with General Joubert, appointed to supersede Moreau in the command of the French army of Italy, and was to have proceeded to-day with the general to the headquarters, near Genoa. She was manned with thirty-six people, twenty of which jumped overboard and swam ashore as soon as our boats attacked them. The other sixteen were made prisoners, amongst which was the commander of her, having the rank of ensign de vaisseau in the service of the Republic. The vessel is called La Virginie^ is Turkish built, and was taken by the French at Malta when they got possession of that place last year."

Another time the chace is described as follows :

July 14. — ''This vessel proved to be the El Fortunato Spanish ship polacre of about 100 tons burden, from Cagllari bound to Oneglia, laden with wine, and having on board an officer

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The Patrol of the Mediterranean

charged with despatches from the King of Sar- dinia to General Suwarrow, Commander-in-Chief of the combined armies of Russia and Austria in Italy."

The autumn and winter of 1 799 were spent by the Peterel cruising again in the west of the Mediterranean, chiefly off Minorca ; but in the spring of 1800 they were again near Marseilles. The capture of the French brig La Ligurienne, described in the following letter, is another witness to the fruitless attempts of the French to get help to the army which Bonaparte had left behind in Egypt.

" Peterel at Sea, March 22, 1800.

" Sir, — I have to inform you that the vessels with which you saw me engaged yesterday after- noon near Cape Couronne, were a ship, brig, and xebecque, belonging to the French Republic ; two of which, the ship and xebecque, I drove on shore, and, after a running action of about one hour and a half, during the most of which we were not more than two cables length from the shore, and frequently not half that distance, the third struck her colours. On taking possession, we found her to hQ La Lzgurzenne, French national brig, mount- ing fourteen six-pounders, and two thirty-six- pound howitzers, all brass, commanded by Fran9ois Auguste Pelabon, lieutenant de vaisseau, and had on board at the commencement of the action

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

one hundred and four men. Though from the spirited conduct and alacrity of Lieutenant Packer, Mr. Thompson, the master, and Mr. Hill, the purser (who very handsomely volunteered his ser- vices at the main deck guns), joined to the gal- lantry and determined courage of the rest of the officers, seamen and marines of his Majesty's sloop under my command, I was happily enabled to bring the contest to a favourable issue ; yet I could not but feel the want, and regret the absence, of my first lieutenant, Mr. Glover, and thirty men, who were at the time away in prizes. I have a lively pleasure in that this service has been per- formed without a man hurt on our part, and with no other damage to the ship than four of our carronades dismounted, and a few shots through the sails. La Ligurienne is a very fine vessel of the kind, well equipped with stores of all sorts, in excellent repair, and not two years old. She is built on a peculiar plan, being fastened through- out with screw bolts, so as to be taken to pieces and put together with ease, and is said to have been intended to follow Bonaparte to Egypt. I learn from the prisoners that the ship is called Le Cerf, mounting fourteen six-pounders, xebecque Le Joillet, mounting six six-pounders, and that they had sailed in company with a convoy (two of which, as per margin, I captured in the forenoon) that morning from Cette, bound to Marseilles. I

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The Patrol of the Mediterranean

enclose a return of the killed and wounded, as far as I have been able to ascertain it,

** And am, your very humble servant,

" Francis Wm. Austen.

** To Robert Dudley Oliver, Esq.,

** Captain of H.M. Ship Mermaid,

" Return of killed and wounded in an action between his Britannic Majesty's sloop Peterely Francis Wm. Austen, Esq., Commander, and the French national brig La Ligurienne, commanded by Fran9ois Auguste Pelabon, lieutenant de vaisseau.

'' Peterel: Killed, none; wounded, none.

^' La Ligurienne : Killed, the captain and one seaman ; wounded, one gardemarin and one seaman.

''(Signed) Francis Wm. Austen."

The captures, **as per margin," are of a French bark, name unknown, about two hundred and fifty tons, and of a French bombarde. La Vestic, about one hundred and fifty tons, both laden with wheat, and both abandoned by their crews on the Petered s attack.

If, as is stated. La Ligurienne was intended to go to Egypt, it seems not improbable that the reason for her peculiar construction was that she might be taken to pieces, carried across the

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

desert, and launched again in the Red Sea, there to take part in an attempt on India.

This exploit, though related in a matter-of-fact way by Captain Austen in his letter, was not in- considerable in the eyes of the authorities, and the result was his immediate promotion to post rank. He himself knew nothing of this advance- ment until the following October; only an instance of the slowness and difficulty of communication, which was so great a factor in the naval affairs of that time.

It should be mentioned that the frigate Mer- maid was in sight during part of this action, which perhaps had something to do with the two French vessels running themselves ashore, also that the capture of La Ligurienne was within six miles of Marseilles. The Peterel took her three prizes to Minorca, where the prisoners were sent on board the Courageuse, one of Perrde's frigates captured in 1799 as already described.

The next voyage was to Malta, where the for- tress of Valetta was still in French hands, with a few ships under the command of Rear-Admiral Villeneuve. The British blockading squadron had just taken the Guillaume Tellm the endeavour to escape from Valetta harbour, after eighteen months' stay. This ship of the line was the only one remaining to the French from Bonapartes expedition to Egypt and the Battle of the Nile.

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The Patrol of the Mediterranean

The P^/^r^/ took on board, in the Bay of Marsa Sirocco, thirty-five of the crew of the Guillaume Tell, by orders of Commodore Troubridge of the CullodeUy and with these prisoners made sail for Palermo, where for a few days she hoisted Nelson's flag. Arrived once more at Port Mahon, in Minorca, the French sailors were added to the number on the Courageuse, and the Peterel found her way to Lord Keith's fleet, now closely invest- ing General Massena in Genoa.

The great events of the campaign of Marengo are matters of European history. The British fleet's blockade of the coast was clearly a deter- mining factor in the choice of the St. Bernard route by the First Consul, inasmuch as the Riviera road was commanded from the sea. It must remain a question whether Bonaparte deli- berately left Massena's army to risks of starvation and capture, in order that the destruction of the Austrian forces in Piedmont might be complete. Massena had been compelled to extend his lines too far, so that he might secure from a moun- tainous country the supplies which could not reach him from France. This made it possible for the Austrians to press their advantage, and to isolate the fortresses of Nice, Savona, and Genoa. The unceasing patrol of the sea completed the circle of hostile forces. The French army was entirely shut up in Genoa, and throughout the

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

month of May the town was several times bom- barded by the ships and the armed boats of the fleet. These armed boats had already reduced the small garrison of Savona. It Is recorded in the Peterel log that a **polacre laden with artillery and ammunition for the army of General Baron d'Ott " came from that port. The Peterel was detailed by Lord Keith to cruise in shore as near as possible to Genoa, and Captain Austen received the thanks of this Admiral for his energetic per- formance of that duty. One night the vessel was under fire from the lighthouse forts, and received several shots. A feature of the blockade was the plan of ''rowing guard" each night, in order to prevent access to the harbour after dark. The Peterel^s pinnace was frequently on this duty in turn with the other boats of the fleet, and took part in cutting out the Prima galley after mid- night on the 2 1 St of May. This galley was intended to take part in an attempt on the smaller vessels of the British fleet, but was attacked by the boats^ crews at the Mole when just ready to come out. She was boarded in the most gallant manner, in spite of a large force of fighting men on board, and of a heavy fire from the harbour forts. The capture was greatly helped by the conduct of the 300 galley slaves, who rowed out so fast that they almost outstripped the boats that were towing her. These slaves were allowed on

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The Patrol of the Mediterranean

deck when the prize was out of gunshot range from the harbour, and great were their manifesta- tions of joy at their release. The sequel of the incident was tragic. Lord Keith sent most of them back to Genoa with the other French prisoners, no doubt with the idea of forcing their support on the half-starved garrison. The galley slaves were shot as traitors in the market-place.

During the preliminary conference with General d'Ott and Lord Keith, preceding the French sur- render at Genoa, it is said that some contempt for Austria was expressed by Massena, who went on as follows : " Milord, si jamais la France et TAngleterre s'entendre, elles gouverneraient la monde." This almost foreshadows the ** entente cordiale " of 1904.

On June 4 the French army capitulated. Genoa town was handed over to the Austrians under General Melas, and the port was occupied by Lord Keith in his flagship Minotaur.

But already the First Consul had descended into Italy, had taken possession of Milan, and was in full march to defeat Baron d'Ott at Montebello. On the 14th Marengo was fought, and the tide of fortune turned. Genoa, Savona, and all the fortresses of Piedmont were made over to the French. Massena came back on June 24, and Lord Keith had just time to move out of the harbour and to resume his

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

blockade. The victorious First Consul was again in full possession of Northern Italy.

Before the end of May the Peterel was already on her way southward, and the log records the transport of thirty-two men to H.M.S. Guillaume Tell (recently captured) off Syracuse, then another call at Malta (St. Paul's Bay) where the blockaders were busy with the later stages of the reduction of Valetta. The destination of the Peterel was the coast of Egypt, where Sir Sydney Smith was locally in command. Alexandria and other har- bours were still held by the French, now quite cut off from outside support. A Turkish fleet of twelve ships was at anchor off Alexandria, and the blockade was supposed to be maintained by them, but in actual practice the burden devolved upon the three British vessels, Tigre, Transfer y and Peterel They appear to have joined forces at Jaffa, and to have cruised off the Egyptian coast, with an occasional visit to Cyprus, for some months. They were all this time without news from England.

The allied fleets of France and Spain were by no means inactive, and, though they did not accomplish much in the Mediterranean, there was always a serious risk for a single vessel, and despatch-boats were particularly unsafe carrying, as they did, intelligence that might be useful to the enemy. At this time the Spanish ports in

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The Patrol of the Mediterranean

the neighbourhood of Gibraltar were strongly held, and it was a great object with the British Government to relieve this pressure, which seri- ously threatened their communications with the whole of the Mediterranean. Algeciras was spe- cially dangerous, and we find constant attacks upon the enemy there, in which Charles Austen as Lieutenant of the Endymion had a considerable part, under Sir Thomas Williams and his successor Captain Philip Durham. His service was varied by the capture of several privateers, among others of La Furze, The Endymion afterwards convoyed ten Indiamen home from St. Helena, for which service Captain Durham received the thanks of the East India Company. On the occasion of the capture of the Scipio, Lieutenant Charles Austen specially distinguished himself The en- counter took place in a violent gale, but, in spite of wind and weather, he put off in a boat with only four men, and boarded the vessel, which had just surrendered. The Scipio was a fine craft of 1 8 guns, manned by 140 men.

Charles was particularly lucky at this time in his shares of prize-money. Jane tells us in one of her letters to Cassandra how generously he spent it.

"Charles has received ;^30 for his share of the privateer, and expects £\o more ; but of what avail is it to take prizes if he lays out the produce

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

in presents for his sisters ? He has been buying gold chains and topaz crosses for us. He must be well scolded. I shall write again by this post to thank and reproach him. We shall be unbearably fine."

It is a good instance of the way in which Jane Austen '' worked up " her incidents that the brother's present of a cross and a gold chain should form the groundwork on which is built up the story of Fanny's flutterings of heart over her adornments for the ball at Mansfield.

**The *how she should be dressed' was a point of painful solicitude ; and the almost solitary orna- ment in her possession, a very pretty amber cross which William had brought her from Sicily, was the greatest distress of all, for she had nothing but a bit of riband to fasten it to ; and though she had worn it in that manner once, would it be allowable at such a time, in the midst of all the rich ornaments which she supposed all the other young ladies would appear in ? And yet not to wear it ! William had wanted to buy her a gold chain too, but the purchase had been beyond his means, and therefore not to wear the cross might be mortifying to him. These were anxious con- siderations ; enough to sober her spirits even under the prospect of a ball given principally for her gratitfication."

Then follows Miss Crawford's gift of a necklace

92

t^.M ikM

mt%M^

THE TOPAZ CROSSES GIVEN TO

CASSANDRA AND JANE BY

CHARLES AUSTEN

.c ,€:••»<

The Patrol of the Mediterranean

to wear with the cross, with all its alarming associa- tions with Henry Crawford ; then Edmund's gift of a chain ; her resolve to wear Miss Crawford's gift to please him ; and lastly the delightful dis- covery that the necklace was too large for the purpose. Edmund's chain, ** therefore, must be worn ; and having, with delightful feelings, joined the chain and the cross, those memorials of the two most beloved of her heart ; those dearest tokens so formed for each other by everything real and imaginary, and put them round her neck, and seen and felt how full of William and Edmund they were, she was able, without an effort, to resolve on wearing Miss Crawford's necklace too. She acknowledged it to be right. Miss Crawford had a claim ; and when it was no longer to en- croach on, to interfere with the stronger claims, the truer kindness of another, she could do her justice even with pleasure to herself. The neck- lace really looked very well ; and Fanny left her room at last, comfortably satisfied with herself and all about her."

93

CHAPTER VII

AT HOME AND ABROAD

The truism that absence strengthens more ties than it weakens is clearly demonstrated by the letters of the Austen family. In spite of the diffi- culty of sending letters, and the doubt of their reaching England, the brothers managed to get news through whenever it was possible. To know that their efforts were appreciated one has only to read how every scrap of this news was sent from one sister to the other in the constant letters they interchanged on those rare occasions when they were parted. The Austen family had always a certain reserve in showing affection, but the feel- ing which appears in this longing for tidings, in the gentle satires on small failings or transient love-affairs of their brothers, combined with the occasional ** dear Frank" or "dear Charles," was one which stood the test of time, and was transmitted to the brothers' children in a way that made the names of "Aunt Jane" and "Aunt Cassandra" stand for all that was

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At Home and Abroad

lovable in the thoughts of their nephews and nieces.

The scarcity of letters must have been a severe trial. Just at this time, when those at home knew of Frank's promotion, and he had as yet no idea of it, the longing to send and receive news must have been very great. He was hard at work in the summer of 1800 with Sir Sydney Smith's squadron off Alexandria. From there, early in July, he wrote to Cassandra. This letter was received at Steventon on November i, when Cassandra was at Godmersham with Edward, so Jane sent her word of its arrival. '* We have at last heard from Frank ; a letter from him to you came yesterday, and I mean to send it on as soon as I can get a ditto (that means a frank), which I hope to do in a day or two. En attendant, you must rest satisfied with knowing that on the 8th of July the Peterel with the rest of the Egyptian squadron was off the Isle of Cyprus, whither they went from Jaffa for provisions, &c., and whence they were to sail in a day or two for Alexandria, there to await the English proposals for the eva- cuation of Egypt. The rest of the letter, accord- ing to the present fashionable style of composi- tion, is chiefly descriptive. Of his promotion he knows nothing ; of prizes he is guiltless."

An event which would no doubt have made a point of interest in this letter happened the day

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

after it was sent, but is recorded in the log for July 9 :

** Received two oxen and fifty-two gallons of wine, being the PetereFs portion of a present from the Governor of the Island."

The same letter from Jane to her sister con- tains news of Charles, who had been at home comparatively lately, and was on the Endymion, which was '* waiting only for orders, but may wait for them perhaps a month." Three weeks later he was at home again.

'* Naughty Charles did not come on Tuesday, but good Charles came yesterday morning. About two o'clock he walked in on a Gosport hack. His feeling equal to such a fatigue is a good sign, and his feeling no fatigue a still better. He walked down to Deane to dinner, he danced the whole evening, and to-day is no more tired than a gentle- man ought to be. Your desiring to hear from me on Sunday will, perhaps, bring you a more parti- cular account of the ball than you may care for, because one is prone to think more of such things the morning after they happen, than when time has entirely driven them out of one's recollection.

**Itwas a pleasant evening; Charles found it remarkably so, but I cannot tell why, unless the absence of Miss Terry, towards whom his con- science reproaches him with being now perfectly indifferent, was a relief to him.

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At Home and Abroad

'* Summers has made my gown very well indeed, and I get more and more pleased with it. Charles does not like it, but my father and Mary do. My mother is very much resigned to it, and as for James he gives it the preference over everything of the kind he ever saw, in proof of which I am desired to say that if you like to sell yours Mary will buy it.

" Farewell ! Charles sends you his best love, and Edward his worst. If you think the distinction improper, you may take the worst yourself. He will write to you when he gets back to his ship, and in the meantime desires that you will consider me as your affectionate sister J. A.

** P.S. Charles is in very good looks indeed. . . .

** I rejoice to say that we have just had another letter from our dear Frank. It is to you, very short, written from Larnaca in Cyprus, and so lately as October 2nd. He came from Alexan- dria, and was to return there in three or four days, knew nothing of his promotion, and does not write above twenty lines, from a doubt of the letter's ever reaching you, and an idea of all letters being opened at Vienna. He wrote a few days before to you from Alexandria by the Mercury, sent with despatches to Lord Keith. Another letter must be owing to us besides this, one if not two ; because none of these are for me."

The scenes of home life which these extracts

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

give us form a strong contrast to the readings in the log of the Peterel between the dates of Frank's two letters.

In spite of the fact that viewed as a whole this was a breathing space between engagements, each side standing back to recover and to watch for the next movement on the part of the other, yet, in detail, it was a time of activity.

Now and then, in the log, occurs the chace of a germe (or djerm) carrying supplies for the French, and a boat expedition is organised to cut out one or two of these craft, from an inlet where they had taken refuge.

*' At twelve the boats returned without the germe, having perceived her to be under the protection of a field piece and a body of soldiers." Next day one was captured *' with only 17 bales of tobacco on board" (Captain Austen was not a smoker). Then *' condemned by survey the remaining part of the best bower cable as unserviceable." ** Held a survey on and condemned a cask of rice." ** The senior lieutenant was surveyed by the surgeons of the squadron and found to be a fit object for invaliding."

The next incident is described in the following

report :

^* Peterel, off Alexandria, ^w^ws^ 14, 1800.

'* Sir, — On the morning of the loth, the day subsequent to my parting with the Tigre, I joined

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At Home and Abroad

the Turkish squadron off this place, consisting of one ship of the line, and three corvettes under the command of Injee Bey, captain of the gallies, with whom I concerted on the most proper distri- bution of the force left with him. It was finally agreed that one corvette should be stationed off Aboukir, a second off Alexandria, and the third off the Tower of Marabout, the line-of-battle ship and the /*^/f^r^/ occasionally to visit the different points of the station as we might judge fit. It blowing too hard to admit of any germes passing, I thought it advisable to stretch to the westward as far as the Arab's Tower, off which I continued till the afternoon of the 12th, when I stood back to the eastward, and was somewhat surprised to see none of the Turkish squadron off Alexandria. At 8 o'clock the following morning, having an offing of three or four leagues, I stood in for the land, and in about an hour saw three of the Turkish ships a long way to the Eastward, and the fourth, which proved to be the line-of-battle ship, laying totally dismasted, on the Reef, about halfway between the Castle and Island of Aboukir. Thinking it possible, from what little I knew of Aboukir Bay, to get the Peterel within gunshot of her, and by that means to disperse the swarm of germes which surrounded her, and whose crews I could plainly discern busy in plundering, I stood in round the east side of the island, and anchored

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in quarter less four fathoms, a long gun-shot dis- tance from her, and sent Mr. Thompson, the master, in the pinnace to sound in a direction towards her, in order to ascertain whether it was practicable to get any nearer with the ship, and if he met with no resistance (the germes having all made sail before we anchored) to board and set fire to the wreck. Though it blew very strong, and the boat had to row nearly two miles, almost directly to windward, yet by the great exertions of the officers and boat's crew, in an hour and twenty minutes I had the satisfaction of seeing the wreck in a perfect blaze, and the boat returning. Mr. Thompson brought back with him thirteen Greek sailors, part of the crew, and one Arab left in their hurry by the germes.

** From the Greeks I collected that the ship went on shore while in the act of wearing about 9 o'clock on the night of the nth, that about half the crew had been taken on board the cor- vettes, and the Bey, with the principal part of the officers and the rest of the crew, having surren- dered to the French, had landed the next evening at Aboukir. At the time we stood in, the French had 300 men at work on board the wreck, endea- vouring to save the guns, but had only succeeded in landing one from the quarter-deck.

*' Shortly after my anchoring I sent an officer to the corvette, which had followed us in, and an-

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chored near to us, to inform their commander what I proposed doing, and to desire the assistance of their boats in case of resistance from any persons who might be remaining on board the wreck, a demand which they did not think proper to comply with, alleging that, as all the cloathes, &c., had been landed, there was nothing of value remaining, and besides that it would be impossible to get on board, as the French had a guard of soldiers in her.

** I cannot sufficiently praise the zeal and acti- vity with which Mr. Thompson and the nine men with him performed this service, by which I trust the greatest part, if not all, of the guns, and other useful parts of the wreck, have been prevented from falling into the hands of the enemy. The thirteen Greeks I sent on board one of the Turkish corvettes, and intend, as soon as I have commu- nication with the shore, to land the Arab. ** I have the honour to be. Sir,

*' Your obedient servant,

" Francis Wm. Austen.

" To Sir Sydney Smith, K.S.,

" Senior officer of H.M. Ships and Vessels "employed in the Levant."

The French were quite ready to take possession of all that the predatory Arab germes were likely to leave on board the Turkish line-of- battle ship.

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There was of course much less difficulty in getting the Peterel into Aboukir Bay than in navigating the larger corvettes of the Turks ; but, where Nelson had brought in his fleet, before the Battle of the Nile, there was water enough for any vessel, if properly handled.

The following letters give the conclusion of the matter :

•♦ His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Peterel, off Alexandria,

"August 1 6, 1800.

**SiR, — I avail myself of the present flag to set on shore with an unconditional release eleven Arabs, prisoners of war. Should it be not incon- sistent with the instructions you may be acting under, the release of an equal number of the sub- jects of the Sublime Porte will be considered as a fair return.

'* I have the honour to be, &c., " Your obedient servant,

** F. W. Austen. ** To General Lanusse,

** Commandant of Alexandria."

" Peterel, off Alexandria, August 7.

" Sir, — The King George transport is this morning arrived here from Rhodes, and as I find, by the report of the master, that the object of his mission in landing the powder has not been accom- plished, I shall send him off directly with orders to

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follow you agreeable to given rendezvous. ... I enclose herewith a letter received five days ago by a Turkish transport from Jaffa ; one from myself containing the particulars of the loss of the Turkish line-of-battle ship, a copy of my letter to General Lanusse, which accompanied the Arabs on shore yesterday (the first day since my leaving the TtgrCy that the weather has been sufficiently moderate to admit of communicating with the shore), and lastly a letter from the Vizir, which I received yesterday from Jaffa by a Turkish felucca. As the weather becomes more settled I hope to annoy the germes, though I must not count on any support or assistance from the Turks, as Injee Bey, when I first joined him, declared he had received directions from the Capitan Pacha not to molest them. Two of the corvettes are gone to join the Capitan Pacha, but this I learnt only two days after they went. The officer who accompanied the flag yesterday could not obtain any certain intelligence of Captain Boyle and his people, for in answer to his inquiries he was told they were still at or near Cairo.

** I have the honour to be, &c.

"To Sir Wm. Sydney Smith, K.S.,

" Senior officer of H.M. Ships and Vessels " employed in the Levant."

This Capitan Pacha was a man of some note.

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His career is an example of the inefficacy of the greatest talents under such a government as that of Turkey. He was in every way an able man — strong and determined — considering all circum- stances not to be called cruel — enlightened in his ideas. His chief lack was that of education, but he was anxious to learn from all. He had great respect for Europeans and sympathy with their outlook. Altogether, though he did a great work for the Turkish navy — improving the construction of the ships — taking care that the officers should be properly educated, and drawing the supply of men from the best possible sources, and all this in a country where reform seemed a hopeless task, yet, so great was the power of his personality, that one is more surprised that he did so little than that he did so much.

The Captain Courtney Boyle spoken of in this letter was evidently an acquaintance of the family, as we find him mentioned in one of Jane's letters. His ship, the Cormorant, had been wrecked on the Egyptian coast, and the whole crew made prisoners by the French. He must have obtained his release very shortly afterwards, for the following letter from Jane to Cassandra was clearly written when the family at Steventon were looking for- ward to Frank's return, but before they had direct news from himself :

''I should not have thought it necessary to write

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to you so soon, but for the arrival of a letter from Charles to myself. It was written last Saturday from off the Start, and conveyed to Popham Lane by Captain Boyle, on his way to Midgham. He came from Lisbon in the Endymion, I will copy Charles's account of his conjectures about Frank : * He has not seen my brother lately, nor does he expect to find him arrived, as he met Captain Inglis at Rhodes, going up to take command of the Peterel as he was coming down ; but supposes he will arrive in less than a fortnight from this time, in some ship which is expected to reach England about that time with despatches from Sir Ralph Aber- crombie.' The event must show what sort of a conjurer Captain Boyle is. The Endymion has not been plagued with any more prizes. Charles spent three pleasant days in Lisbon. When this letter was written, the Endymion was becalmed, but Charles hoped to reach Portsmouth by Monday or Tuesday. He received my letter, communi- cating our plans, before he left England ; was much surprised, of course, but is quite reconciled to them, and means to come to Steventon once more while Steventon is ours."

Captain Charles Inglis, who was to succeed Francis Austen, had served as lieutenant in the Penelope, and specially distinguished himself in the capture of the Guillaume Tell.

While these conjectures as to Frank's where-

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abouts and the possible date of his return were passing between his relations at home, he had been still pursuing the ordinary round of duties such as are described in this letter, quite ignorant until the actual event of any approaching change either for them or for himself.

''Sir, — I have to inform you that I anchored with his Majesty's sloop under my command at Larnaca on the evening of the ist instant, where I completed my water, and purchased as much wine as the ship would stow, but was not able to procure any bread, as from the great exports of corn which have been lately made to supply the Vizir's army in Syria, the inhabitants are almost in a state of famine. I sailed from Larnaca the evening of the 6th, and anchored here on the 9th at noon. As I had only five days' bread on board I have judged it proper to take on board 50 quintals of that which had been prepared for the Tigre, and not being acquainted with the price agreed on, have directed the purser to leave a certificate with the Dragoman of the Porte, for the quantity received, that it may be included with the Tigres vouchers, and settled for with the purser of that ship.

'* The Governor of Nicosia made application to me yesterday in the name of the Capitan Pacha for assistance to enable him to get a gun on shore

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from one of the gun-boats which has been wrecked here, which, tho' I knew would detain me a day, I thought it right to comply with ; the gun has been to-day got on shore, and I am now going to weigh. I propose stretching more towards Alexandria if the wind is not very unfavourable, and should I find no counter orders, shall after- wards put in execution the latter part of yours of the 23 rd ult.

'* I have directed the captain of the Kir ling Geek, which I found here on my arrival without orders, to wait till the i6th for the arrival of the Tigre, when, if not otherwise directed, to proceed to Rhodes, and follow such orders or information as he may obtain there.

** I have the honor to be, &c.,

" To Sir Sydney Smith."

'* The latter part of yours of the 23rd " possibly refers to instructions to proceed to Rhodes, for we find in the log that the Peterel went on there early in October, and there at last Captain Austen was greeted with the news of his promotion to Post Rank. The /^^/^r^/ anchored in the Road of Rhodes at ten o'clock on the morning of October 20, where the Tigre was 2 1 days at anchor, and at this point the private log of the Pe^ere/ stops short.

Although we have no account from Francis

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Austen himself of his meeting with Captain Inglis, he evidently wrote a lively description of the inci- dent to his sisters. Jane writes from Steventon on January 21st to Cassandra: '*Well, and so Frank's letter has made you very happy, but you are afraid he would not have patience to stay for the Haarlem, which you wish him to have done, as being safer than the merchantman." Frank's great desire was clearly to get home as soon as possible after an absence of nearly three years. It is curious to think of the risks supposed to be incurred by passengers on board a merchantman.

The following comment on the colour of the ink is amply borne out in the log : ** Poor fellow ! to wait from the middle of November to the end of December, and perhaps even longer, it must be sad work ; especially in a place where the ink is so abominably pale. What a surprise to him it must have been on October 20th to be visited, collared, and thrust out of the Peterel by Captain Inglis. He kindly passes over the poignancy of his feelings in quitting his ship, his officers, and his men.

**What a pity it is that he should not be in England at the time of this promotion, because he certainly would have had an appointment, so everybody says, and therefore it must be right for me to say it too. Had he been really here, the certainty of the appointment, I dare say, would not

108

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^'^- %r1f'^'':

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k'

'M

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I

THE WAY TO CHURCH FROM PORTSDOWN LODGE

(When the forts were constructed, this avemte was ait down.)

At Home and Abroad

have been half so great ; as it could not be brought to the proof, his absence will be always a lucky source of regret."

The ** promotion " spoken of in this letter was extensive, and took place on January i, 1801, on the occasion of the union of Great Britain and Ireland. At the same time there was an increase in the number of line-of-battle ships which is com- mented on with reference to Charles.

** Eliza talks of having read in a newspaper that all the ist lieutenants of the frigates whose cap- tains were to be sent into line-of-battle ships were to be promoted to the rank of commanders. If it be true, Mr. Valentine may afford himself a fine Valentine's knot, and Charles may perhaps become ist of the Endymion, though I suppose Captain Durham is too likely to bring a villain with him under that denomination."

The letters give no account of the homecoming, but from the story of William Price s return in ** Mansfield Park," we can see that Jane knewsome- thing of the mingled feelings of such a meeting.

''This dear William would soon be amongst them. . . . scarcely ten days had passed since Fanny had been in the agitation of her first dinner visit, when she found herself in an agitation of a higher nature. . . . watching in the hall, in the lobby, on the stairs, for the first sound of the car- riage which was to bring her a brother,

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*' It was long before Fanny could recover from the agitating happiness of such an hour as was formed by the last thirty minutes of expectation and the first of fruition.

"It was some time even before her happiness could be said to make her happy, before the dis- appointment inseparable from the alteration of person had vanished, and she could see in him the same William as before, and talk to him as her heart had been yearning to do through many a past year.**

no

CHAPTER VIII

BLOCKADING BOULOGNE

Francis Austen's first appointment on his pro- motion to post rank was to the Nepttme, as Flag-Captain to Admiral James Gambier. It was not usual for an Admiral to choose as his Flag- Captain one who had so lately gained the step in rank. It is clear from the letters of Francis Austen at this time that he, in common with many officers in the Navy, was bent on improvements in the food and general comforts of the crews. Francis Austen's capacity for detail would here stand him in good stead. There is one letter of his concern- ing the best way of preserving cheeses, which is a good example of his interest in the small things of his profession. He had, on the advice of Ad- miral Gambier, made the experiment of coating some cheeses with whitewash in order to keep them in good condition in hot weather, and had found it very successful. He thereupon wrote to the Admiralty Commissioners recommending that all cheeses should be so treated before being

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shipped, in order that the men might have *' more wholesome and nutritive food," and also ** that a material ultimate saving to the public may be effected at an inconsiderable first cost."

We have not far to look for a parallel to this love of detail in the works of Jane Austen. Ad- mirers and detractors are agreed in saying that she thought nothing too unimportant to be of in- terest, and in allowing the justice of her own description of her work — ** the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour." There is no doubt that naval officers must often have felt in their dealings with the Admiralty that they produced ** little effect after much labour."

A curious point of etiquette in connection with these letters is that the Commissioners invariably signed themselves ** Your affectionate friends," followed by the names of those concerned in the business.

At the peace of Amiens, Francis Austen, among many other officers, went on half-pay ; but when war broke out again in 1803, we find him at Ramsgate, employed in raising a body of '' Sea Fencibles." This service was instituted chiefly on the advice of Captain Popham, who had tried something of the same kind in Flanders in 1793.

The object, of course, was to protect the coast from invasion. The corps was composed of fisher-

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men, commanded in each district by an officer in the Navy, whose duty it was to quarter the men on the beach, exercise them, and to have the beaches watched whenever the weather was favourable for the enemy to land. The men were exercised once a week, and were paid at the rate of a shilling a day, with a food allowance when on service.

Captain Austen's report on the coast of the district lying between the North Foreland and Sandown is a document of considerable detail, dealing with the possible landing-places for a hostile army. He comes to the conclusion that in moderate weather a landing might be effected on many parts of this coast, particularly in Pegwell Bay, where ** the enemy would have no heights to gain," and, further, " that any time of tide would be equally favourable for the debarkation of troops on this shore." But ** in blowing weather, open flat boats filled with troops would doubtless many of them be lost in the surf, while larger vessels could not, from the flatness of the coast, approach sufficiently near." Of course, all is subject to ** the enemy's evading our cruisers, and getting past the ships in the Downs."

This time at Ramsgate was of importance to Francis, for it was here that he met, and became engaged to, Mary Gibson, who was his wife for seventeen years. This engagement, though

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** Mrs. F. A." became one of the best loved of the sisters-in-law, must at the outset have been a slight shock to Jane and Cassandra, who for long had been cherishing a hope that Frank would marry their beloved friend Martha Lloyd. A few extracts taken from the letters will show their affection and their hopes.

" I love Martha better than ever, and I mean to go and see her, if I can, when she gets home. . . . I shall be very glad to see you at home again, and then — if we can get Martha — who will be so happy as we ? . . . I am quite pleased with Martha and Mrs. Lefroy for wanting the pattern of our caps, but I am not so well pleased with your giving it to them. Some wish, some prevailing wish, is necessary to the animation of everybody's mind, and in gratifying this you leave them to form some other which will probably not be half so innocent. I shall not forget to write to Frank."

The connection of ideas seems very clear. Per- haps it may have been some memory of these old times, and the wishes of his sister who had passed away, that induced Francis to make Martha his second wife in 1828.

That their religious life was the mainspring of all their actions is sufficiently clear throughout the whole lives of the two brothers. During this time at Ramsgate, Francis was noticed as ''the officer who knelt in church," and up to the day

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of his death there is one entry never absent from the diary of Charles Austen — ** Read the Lessons of the Day."

In May 1804 Captain Francis Austen was appointed to the Leopard, the flagship of Rear- Admiral Louis, who held a command in the squadron blockading Napoleon's Boulogne flotilla. This flotilla, begun in 1802, had by 1804 assumed very large proportions. With the object of stir- ring up the descendants of the Norman con- querors to a new invasion of England, Napoleon, always dramatic in his effects, made a progress through the maritime provinces attended by the Bayeux Tapestry, the display of which was ex- pected to arouse much martial ardour. It was assumed that his great army of veteran soldiers, encamped above the cliffs of Boulogne, was only waiting for favourable weather to embark on board the two thousand flat-bottomed boats. His review of this fleet in August 1804 was, however, so seriously disturbed by one or two of the British men-of-war that the new Emperor was obliged to recognise the impossibility of crossing the Channel unless he had the command of (at least) the narrow seas.

All the naval history that follows, up to the day of Trafalgar, was t he outcome of his attempt to obtain this superiority for his ''Grand Army of England/' The failure of Villeneuve, on his return

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from the West Indies, to reach the appointed ren- dezvous with Ganteaume off Brest, broke up Napoleon's combination ; the army marched to Austeriitz and Vienna, the flotilla was left to decay, and the site of the two years' camp is commemorated only by the Column of Napoleon himself.

The work of watching Boulogne and the neigh- bouring ports was, in common with all other blockades, as a contemporary writer says, **a trial to the temper, spirits and health of officers and men." There was a strong feeling in England against this system, which seems to have been popular with naval authorities. This opinion is voiced in the following cutting from the Naval Chronicle of that date :

** Were it indeed possible to keep so strict awatch on the hostile shores that every effort of the enemy to escape from the ports would be unavailing, that the fortuitous circumstances of calms, fogs, gales, the obscurity of the night, &c., would not in any degree advance his purposes, then would the eventual mischief inseparable from a blockade, by which our marine is threatened, find a compensa- tion in our immediate security. But until this can be effected with a certainty of success, the national interests ought not to be compromised, and our future offensive and defensive means unnecessarily abridged." This extract is perhaps of greater

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Blockading Boulogne

interest as an example of the journalese of the date, than for any unusual depth in the ideas which it expresses, which merely amount to the fact that it was considered that the *' game was not worth the candle."

Against this we may set another view of the blockades as expressed by Dr. Fitchett :

" It was one of the compensations of these great blockades that they raised the standard of seamanship and endurance throughout the British fleets to the highest possible level. The lonely watches, the sustained vigilance, the remoteness from all companionship, the long wrestle with the forces of the sea, the constant watching for battle, which for English seamen marked those block- ades, profoundly affected the character of English seamanship. When, indeed, has the world seen such seamen as those of the years preceding Trafalgar? Hardy, resolute, careless alike of tempest or of battle ; of frames as enduring as the oaken decks they trod, and courage as iron as the guns they worked ; and as familiar with sea-life and all its chances as though they had been web- footed.

** If the great blockades hardened the seaman- ship of the British fleets, fighting for long months with the tempests of the open sea, they fatally enervated the seamanship of the French navy. The seaman's art under the tri-colour decayed in

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the long inaction of blockaded ports. The sea- man's spirit drooped. The French navy suffered curious and fatal loss, not only of nautical skill but of fighting impulse.*'

Nelson's comment is opportune : " These gentlemen are not accustomed to a Gulf of Lyons gale, which we have buffeted for twenty-one months, and not carried away a spar."

Captain Austen's idea of the best w^ay to mini- mise the evils of a blockade was to give the men as much work to do as possible in the care of the ship. At one time this took the form of having the boats re-painted. Over this question we have the following characteristic letter ;

*' Leopard, Dungeness,/««^ 23, 1804,

'* Sir, — I have received your letter of 21st in- stant, relative to the paint and oil I have demanded for the preservation of the boats of his Majesty's ship under my command, and in reply to it beg leave to inform you that I did not make that demand without having previously stated to the Navy Board by letter the situation of the boats of the Leopard, and the necessity of an extra propor- tion of paint being supplied for them ; and as by their answer they appeared to have approved of my application, inasmuch as they told me orders had been sent to Deal to issue it, I concluded nothing more remained for me than to demand

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the necessary quantity. Presuming, however, from the tenor of your letter, that you have re- ceived no direction on the subject, I shall write to renew my application.

** With respect to ' no colour than white being allowed for boats,' I would only ask you, as know- ing something of the King's naval service, how long one of our six-oared cutters would look decent painted all white, and whether a darker colour would not be both more durable and creditable ? If, however, such be the regulation of the Board (from which I know there is no appeal), I have only to request, when you receive any order to supply the paint, that you will give an additional quantity of white in lieu of black.

'* The paint to which you allude in your letter as having been supplied on the 9th and 12th June, was sea store, and ought to have been furnished to the ship months ago. Nor is it more than sufficient to make her decent and fit for an Admiral to hoist his flag in.

** I am, Sir, your humble servant,

'' Francis Wm. Austen.

** Geo. Lawrence, Esq., &c., &c."

Shingle ballast was one of the grievances of naval officers at that time. It was, naturally, much cheaper than iron ballast, but it had a particularly awkward habit of shifting, and the larger stones

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occasionally drilled holes in the ship. It was also very bulky and difficult to stow.

Francis Austen was neither slow to enter a pro- test, nor easily put off his point. He writes :

"Though the ship is deep enough in the water, she can only acquire the proper stability by having the weight placed lower. By a letter which I have this day received from the Navy Board in answer to my request, I am informed that the Leopard cannot be supplied with more than the established proportion of iron ballast, but if I wish for more directions shall be given for supplying shingle. I have, therefore, to request you will be pleased to move their Lordships to give direc- tions for the Leopards being supplied with the additional iron ballast as requested in my letter to the Navy Board."

About this time Francis Austen began to keep a private note-book, which is still in existence, In which he recorded (not always seriously) points of interest in the places he visited. He seems to have kept this note-book while he was in the Leopard, then laid it aside for three years, and begun it again when he was Captain of the St, Albans. His notes on the ** Anchorage Off Boulogne " contain some interesting details.

"• Directions for Sailing into the Roads. — There is no danger whatever in approaching the an- chorage usually occupied by the English squadron

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employed at the blockade of Boulogne, as the water is deep and the soundings are regular. There is a bank called the ' Basse du Basse,' which lies about a mile off Ambleteuse, extending in a direction nearly parallel to the shore, but rather diverging outwards to the westward of Boulogne Pier ; on it there are in some places as little as three fathoms at low water, and within it considerably deeper water." He goes on with some special advice for the various types of vessel.

" The situation usually occupied by the British squadron off Boulogne is, with the town bearing from S.S.E. to E.S.E., distant about four miles, in from i6 to 20 fathoms water; coarse sandy bottom, with large shells and stones, which would probably injure the cables materially, but that from the depth of water and strength of the tides, little of them can ever drag on the bottom,

*' From Cape Grisnez to Portel the coast is little else than one continual battery, and I con- ceive it to be absolutely impregnable to any attack from the sea. Of its defences towards the land I know nothing. I had no means of knowing anything relative to the landing-places.

*' Trade. — On this point I had no means of acquir- ing any certain information, but believe, previous to the war with England, it was a place of great resort for our smuggling vessels from the Kentish coast. As it is a tide harbour, and completely dry

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at low water, no vessels of very large draught of water can go in, nor anything larger than a boat until nearly half flood.'*

A hundred years have wrought great changes. The Folkestone and Boulogne steamers have some larger dimensions than the Leopard herself, and they go in and out at all states of the tide.

One heading is always devoted to *' Inhabitants," and under this Francis Austen remarks : ** The inhabitants are French, subjects to Napoleon the First, lately exalted to the Imperial dignity by the unanimous suffrages of himself and his creatures." The sarcastic tone of the reference to Napoleon was characteristic of the general tenor of publica- tions in England at the time. '* The Tom Thumb egotism and impudent bulletins of the Corsican usurper continue almost without a parallel in his- tory," says the Naval Chronicle. The language in which this protest is couched is hardly that we should use now in speaking of Napoleon.

Charles, when the war broke out again, was re- appointed to the EndymioUy and served on her with some distinction until October 1 804, when he was given the command of the Indian sloop.

Among other prizes taken under Captain Paget, who finally recommended Lieutenant Charles Austen for command, the Endymion had captured the French corvette Bacchante on the return voyage from St. Domingo to Brest ; she had left

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France about three months before, meeting with \ki^ Endymion on June 25, 1803. This prize was a remarkably fine corvette, and was added to the British Navy.

Somewhere about this time Charles had come across Lord Leven and his family, and was evi- dently useful to them in some way, besides being doubtless extremely agreeable. When Lord and Lady Leven were in Bath, they made some effort to become acquainted with the family of Mr. Austen, and Jane writes to Cassandra describing a visit paid one morning by her mother and her- self:

** When I tell you I have been visiting a countess this morning, you will immediately (with great justice, but no truth) guess it to be Lady Roden. No ; it is Lady Leven, the mother of Lord Bal- gonie. On receiving a message from Lord and Lady Leven through the Mackys, declaring their intention of waiting on us, we thought it right to go to them. I hope we have not done too much, but friends and admirers of Charles must be at- tended to. They seem very reasonable, good sort of people, very civil, and full of his praise. We were shown at first into an empty drawing- room, and presently in came his lordship (not knowing who we were) to apologise for the servant s mistake, and to say himself — what was

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untrue — that Lady Leven was not within. He is a tall, gentleman-like looking man, with spec- tacles, and rather deaf. After sitting with him ten minutes we walked away, but Lady Leven coming out of the dining-parlour as we passed the door, we were obliged to attend her back to it, and pay our visit over again. She is a stout woman, with a very handsome face. By this means we had the pleasure of hearing Charles's praises twice over. They think themselves excessively obliged to him, and estimate him so highly as to wish Lord Balgonie, when he is quite recovered, to go out to him.

"There is a pretty little Lady Marianne of the party to be shaken hands with, and asked if she remembered Mr. Austen. ... I shall write to Charles by the next packet, unless you tell me in the meantime of your intending to do it.

*' Belize me, if you chuse,

" Your affectionate sister."

In January 1805, j^st before Francis Austen was moved from the Leopard to the Canopus, and a few months after Charles had taken command of the Indian, a family sorrow came upon them. Jane wrote twice to tell the news to Frank, as the first letter was directed to Dungeness, in the belief that the Leopard was there, instead of at Portsmouth.

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MRS. AUSTEN

Blockading Boulogne

•' Green Park Buildings,

" Monday, January 21, 1805.

** My dearest Frank, — I have melancholy news to relate, and sincerely feel for your feelings under the shock of it. I wish I could better pre- pare you for it, but, having said so much, your mind will already foretell the sort of event which I have to communicate. Our dear father has closed his virtuous and happy life in a death almost as free from suffering as his children could have wished. He was taken ill on Saturday morn- ing, exactly in the same way as heretofore — an oppression in the head, with fever, violent tremu- lousness, and the greatest degree of feebleness. The same remedy of cupping, which had before been so successful, was immediately applied to, but without such happy effects. The attack was more violent, and at first he seemed scarcely at all relieved by the operation. Towards the evening, however, he got better, had a tolerable night, and yesterday morning was so greatly amended as to get up, join us at breakfast as usual, and walk about without the help of a stick ; and every symptom was then so favourable that, when Bo wen saw him at one, he felt sure of his doing perfectly well. But as the day advanced all these com- fortable appearances gradually changed, the fever grew stronger than ever, and when Bowen saw him at ten at night he pronounced his situation

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to be most alarming. At nine this morning he came again, and by his desire a physician was called in, Dr. Gibbs. But it was then absolutely a lost case. Dr. Gibbs said that nothing but a miracle could save him, and about twenty minutes after ten he drew his last gasp. Heavy as is the blow, we can already feel that a thousand com- forts remain to us to soften it. Next to that of the consciousness of his worth and constant prepara- tion for another world, is the remembrance of his having suffered, comparatively speaking, nothing. Being quite insensible of his own state, he was spared all pain of separation, and he went off almost in his sleep. My mother bears the shock as well as possible ; she was quite prepared for it, and feels all the blessing of his being spared a long illness. My uncle and aunt have been with us, and show us every imaginable kindness. And to-morrow we shall, I dare say, have the comfort of James' presence, as an express has been sent for him. We write also, of course, to Godmersham and Brompton. Adieu, my dearest Frank. The loss of such a parent must be felt, or we should be brutes. I wish I could give you a better pre- paration, but it has been impossible.

*' Yours ever affectionately,

"J. A.'^

As this letter was wrongly addressed, it was

126

Blockading Boulogne

necessary for Jane to write a second one to send direct to Portsmouth.

" Green Park Buildings,

** Tuesday Evening, January 22, 1805.

*' My dearest Frank, — I wrote to you yesterday, but your letter to Cassandra this morning, by which we learn the probability of your being by this time at Portsmouth, obliges me to write to you again, having, unfortunately, a communication as necessary as painful to make to you. Your affec- tionate heart will be greatly wounded, and I wish the shock could have been lessened by a better preparation ; but the event has been sudden, and so must be the information of it. We have lost an excellent father. An illness of only eight and forty hours carried him off yesterday morning be- tween ten and eleven. He was seized on Saturday with a return of the feverish complaint which he had been subject to for the last three years — evidently a more violent attack from the first, as the applications which had before produced almost immediate relief seemed for some time to afford him scarcely any. On Sunday, however, he was much better — so much so as to make Bowen quite easy, and give us every hope of his being well again in a few days. But these hopes gradually gave way as the day advanced, and when Bowen saw him at ten that night he was greatly

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

alarmed. A physician was called in yesterday morning, but he was at that time past all possibility of cure ; and Dr. Gibbs and Mr. Bowen had scarcely left his room before he sunk into a sleep from which he never awoke. Everything, I trust and believe, was done for him that was possible. It has been very sudden. Within twenty-four hours of his death he was walking about with only the help of a stick — was even reading. We had, however, some hours of preparation, and when we understood his recovery to be hopeless, most fervently did we pray for the speedy release which ensued. To have seen him languishing long, struggling for hours, would have been dreadful — and, thank God, we were all spared from it. Except the restlessness and confusion of high fever, he did not suffer, and he was merci- fully spared from knowing that he was about to quit objects so beloved and so fondly cherished as his wife and children ever were. His tenderness as a father, who can do justice to .^^ My mother is tolerably well ; she bears up with the greatest fortitude, but I fear her health must suffer under such a shock. An express was sent for James, and he arrived here this morning before eight o'clock. The funeral is to be on Saturday at Walcot Church. The serenity of the corpse is most delightful. It preserves the sweet, benevolent smile which always distinguished him. They kindly press my mother

128

Blockading Boulogne

to remove to Steventon as soon as it is all over, but I do not believe she will leave Bath at present. We must have this house for three months longer, and here we shall probably stay till the end of that time. We all unite in love, and I am

** Affectionately yours,

"J. A."

This was followed in a few days by another.

" Green Park Buildings,

"Tuesday, /awwafj/ 29, 1805.

" My dearest Frank, — My mother has found among our dear father's little personal property a small astronomical instrument, which she hopes you will accept for his sake. It is, I believe, a compass and sun-dial, and is in a black shagreen case. Would you have it sent to you now — and with what direction ? There is also a pair of scissors for you. We hope these are articles that may be useful to you, but we are sure they will be valuable. I have not time for more.

** Yours very affectionately,

"J. A."

129

CHAPTER IX

THE PURSUIT OF VILLENEUVE

For a little over a year Francis Austen was Flag-Captain in the Canopus. This ship, which had been captured from the French at the Battle of the Nile, had originally been called Le Franklin, and was one of the best built vessels in the Navy of that day, carrying eighty guns.

On March 29, 1805, Rear- Admiral Louis hoisted his flag in the Canopus, and soon after- wards became second in command to Nelson.

Perhaps few, even among British captains of that day, were engaged in search of French fleets across the Atlantic twice within a twelvemonth, but the story in the log-book of the Canopus for that year tells of the chase of Villeneuve before Trafalgar, of the second cruise and of the battle of St. Domingo, followed by the return voyage to England with three French line-of-battle ships as prizes.

The subtle strategy of the Emperor Napoleon, with the counter-strokes of Nelson and the British

130

The Pursuit of Villeneuve

Admiralty, have been often described ; but the history of those months, told day by day in the log-book of the Campus, has a freshness of detail which gives reality to such stock phrases as *' contrary winds " or ** strange sails," and makes one recognise that it was the men at sea who really did the work.

The escape of Villeneuve's fleet from Toulon begins the series of events in 1805 which led up to the Battle of Trafalgar. Napoleon s original plan has since become well known.

Villeneuve was to be joined in the West Indies by the combined fleets under Ganteaume from Brest, and Missiessy from Rochefort. The force thus gathered was to cross the Atlantic, gain possession of the narrow seas by overpowering the Channel fleet, and then the long-threatened invasion of England was to be attempted by the Grand Army, embarked in the Boulogne flotilla.

The plan was so far forward that the fleet from Toulon was already at sea, and the Rochefort squadron had reached the West Indies. It only remained to get the Brest fleet out of harbour. This was, however, exactly where the plan failed. The blockading force was not to be moved and could not be eluded. False news of troubles in India and false declarations of intentions were all unavailing ; and even the bluff in the French papers that, so far from waiting till the British

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would let them go, the French fleet could and would sail whenever it was convenient, did not effect the withdrawal of a single British ship from Ushant. At the same time the fact that the Toulon fleet was at large was enough to cause anxiety to Nelson, especially as it was quite impossible to tell what might be Villeneuve's orders. Nelson supposed him to be making for Egypt, and took up a position accordingly mid- way between Sardinia and Africa.

The fleet with Nelson at this time is recorded in the log of the Canopus as follows :

100 Victory Rt. Honble. Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B.,

Vice-Admiral of the White, &c. &c. Rear-Admiral George Murray, Capt. of

the Fleet. Captain Thomas Hardy. 100 Royal Sovereign Sir Richard Bickerton, Baronet, Rear- Admiral of the Red. Captain John Stuart. 80 Canopus Thomas Louis, Esq., Rear- Admiral of the

Blue. Captain F. W. Austen. „ Richard G. Keats. „ Honble. Robert Stopford. „ Mark Robinson. „ William Hargood. „ Israel Pellew. „ Benjamin Hallo well. „ H. W. Baynton. „ Pulteney Malcolm.

The Royal Sovereign was found unfit to make the voyage across the Atlantic, and went home

132

74	Superb
74	Spencer
74	Swift sure
74	Belleisle
74	Conqueror
74	Tigre
74	Leviathan
74	Donegal

ORDER OF BATTLE AND OF SAILING

		/•NO	ships' names.
		I.	Caiiopus
	o u.	2. 4-	Superb
Repeating	G
Frigates	a	'	Victory ,
	< >	7- 8.	Donegal
		9-	Spencer
		JO.
		r ^'
	^	2.
	o pi Q <	3- 4-	Tigre .
Repkating		5-	Royal Sovereign
Frigates	CO '	6.
	c2	7-	Leviathan .
	Z	8.

WO.

captains. r Rear- Admiral Thomas Louis \ Captain Francis Wm. Austen

Richard Goodwin Keats

TThe Commandc-in-Chief -| Rear-Admiral George Murray 1^ Captain Thomas Hardy Pulieney Malcolm

Hon. R. Stopford

Benjamin Hallowell

/Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton/^ \Captaiu John Stuart

Henry Wm. Baynton

o

>

Repeating Frigates

	I.
z	2.
c	3-
a	4«
<	5-
o>	6.
in	7-	Excellent ,	. Frank Sotheron
<	8.	i5^//^/x/^ .	. William Hargood
bS W	9-	Conqueror .	. Israel Pellew
	Lio.	Swiftsnre	. Mark Robinson

u o

>

d

To FRANCIS AUSTEN, Esq. Captain of His Majesty's Ship Canopus

Dated on board the

Victory, in Palma Bay,

March 26, 1805

{Signed) NELSON AND BRONTE

The Pursuit of Villeneuve

from Lagos in May for thorough repairs, which were so effective that she carried ColHngwood's flag into action, before any other of the fleet, at Trafalgar.

The narrative begins at the Bay of Palma in Sardinia, amid general preparations throughout the fleet.

On the 4th of April the Admiral signalled **to prepare for action, as the enemy's fleet from Toulon is at sea." After this the fleet cruised for some days between Sardinia and Sicily, waiting for news of the enemy's movements. If, as was thought possible, they were bound for Egypt, the position taken up by Nelson was a strong one. There were daily consultations of the admirals and captains on board the Victory, After about a fortnight of this uncertainty, ** intelligence is gained " that the sixteen French ships of the line were spoken on the 7th of April, off Cartagena, going west. On the i8th this news was confirmed, with the addition that they had passed Gibraltar on the 9th, and were joined by five Spanish two- deckers, and had continued westward with fair winds. Now ensued an anxious time. The enemy were well started ten days in advance, with the wind behind them, while the British fleet were still battling with adverse winds in the Mediterranean. Every breeze is carefully noted in the log, and the slow progress evidently gave the greatest concern.

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

On the 22nd and 23rd of April, the distance made was only fifteen miles in all : ** Extremely- variable baffling winds and squally weather, tack- ing or wearing every two or three hours, the squadron very much dispersed." Ordinarily the Victory was within half a mile, **but now four or six miles away." Majorca was In sight at one time, and the African coast at another, but the progress towards Gibraltar must have been scarcely perceptible. The Rock was seen for the first time on the 2nd May, still twelve leagues away, and on the 4th they anchored in Tetuan Bay. Here was hard work to be done in getting fresh water and provisions on board. At Gibraltar on the 6th the Canopus did not even anchor, as the wind was at last fair, and their stay was only for four hours.

On May 9th, the Victory signalled " to prepare demands to complete provisions for five months," which was accomplished off Lagos In Portugal by the morning of the nth. Then the Admiral made telegraph signal, "Rendezvous Barbadoes," and the whole fleet made sail for the West Indies.

With fair winds and a straight course, the distance of 3200 miles was accomplished by the 4th of June.

t^^

The Pursuit of Villeneuve

The sailing order of the squadron was :

FRIGATES ON WEATHER LINE. LEE LINE. VICTORY'S WEATHER BEAM.

100 Victory, 80 Canopus.

74 Superb. 74 Leviathan.

74 Donegal. 74 Belleisk. 32 Amphion.

74 Spencer, 74 Conqueror. 38 Amazon.

74 Tigre. 74 Swiftsure. 26 Decade.

There is very little in the log to indicate the intense expectation that must have been present as they made their entries of the diminishing distance.

** May 15. — Island of Barbadoes S. 64.46 W., dist. ^yy leagues.

''May 22. — S. 70.15 W., dist. 589 leagues."

The careful comparison of observations with the vessels of the weather line, repairs to spars and sails, and general preparation for what might happen on arrival, seem to fill up the days, while the north-east trade winds gave them fine and clear weather.

" Oh, the wonder of the great trade wind ! All day we sailed and all night, and all the next day, and the next, day after day, the wind always astern and blowing steadily and strong. The schooner sailed herself There was no pulling and hauling on sheets and tackles, no shifting of top- sails, no work at all for the sailors to do except to steer. At night, when the sun went down, the sheets were slackened ; in the morning when they

135

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

yielded up the damp of the dew and relaxed, they were pulled tight again — and that was all. Ten knots, twelve knots, eleven knots, varying from time to time, is the speed we are making. And ever out of the north-east the brave wind blows, driving us on our course two hundred and fifty miles between the dawns."

These words, taken from one of our popular modern novels,^ give us some idea of what sailing was in those days.

The usual record every twelve hours is ** Victory north one mile." Sometimes the flagship is rather more distant, and occasionally the ** Admiral (Louis) went on board the Victory'' Doubtless the impatience and excitement was not all on Nelson's part. Every man in the fleet must have felt that a battle was not far off. All this time the three frigates were almost daily out in chase, but no enemy was sighted, and it was not until June 3 that the Admiral signalled that the French and Spanish squadrons were at Mar- tinique, ** having gained this intelligence from two English letters of marque."

Next day they arrived at Barbadoes, where the

Admiral gave orders to embark troops. Nine

regiments had been sent out from England in the

spring, but had not arrived in time to prevent

Missiessy and his squadron from Rochefort from

<* The " Sea Wolf," by Jack London, Heinemann. 136

The Pursuit of Villeneuve

doing much as they chose during his stay among the islands. His troops had taken possession of Dominica, excepting a fort held by General Prevost's force, and he had laid under contribution Montserrat, Nevis and St. Kitt's.

Missiessy had then departed, according to the Emperor's instructions, for France, crossing Ville- neuve's fleet in Mid-Atlantic. Thus Napoleon's grand scheme of combination fell through. The fleets from Toulon and Rochefort missed each other, instead of meeting at the West Indies, and the Brest fleet did not succeed in getting past the British blockade. The Canopus log of July 17 records the return of Missiessy's squadron. " Five sail of the line and four frigates arrived at Roche- fort, on May 21. Vessels dismantled and remained."

The troops embarked by the squadron at Barbadoes were some of those despatched hither in the spring. There is a record of a characteristic order on June 3 :

** Admiral made telegraph signal — ' Troops to be victualled at whole allowance of provisions.'" The practice of the day was that soldiers at sea received smaller rations than the ship's company — just the sort of unreasonable orders which it would delight Nelson to set aside.

Early on the 5th the squadron was again under weigh, the Victory leading and the Canopus astern ;

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Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

but in consequence of wrong information received they were on a southerly course, and hourly increasing their distance from the combined enemy's fleet, which was still among the islands, but to the northward of Martinique. The signal at three o'clock ** to prepare for battle " was not to be followed by any immediate action.

On the 7th the Gulf of Paria, in Trinidad, was reached, but still no news of the enemy was obtained. The log merely mentions anchoring there for the night and sailing for the northerly islands next morning. The careful records of barometer and temperature are here interrupted, as " barometer taken down in clearing for action."

All through June 10, 11 and 1 2 the smaller craft were constantly detached to the various islands for intelligence, and finally they all anchored at Antigua.

^^ June 12. — Admiral made signal to prepare letters for England. At eight o'clock the Curieux brig parted company for England."

This brig had a history of some interest. She had been captured from the French on February 3, 1804. She was cut out by the Centa^ir from the harbour of Martinique, just after the Diamond Rock had been seized and garrisoned by the same man-of-war. The story is pathetically told by M. Cheminant, the only French officer who survived the action.

138

ORDER OF BATTLE AND OF SAILING

2.

4. Superb

Repeating a\ |* j^. ,

Frigates ^ ^' ^''^^'ry

NO. ships' names. I. Canoptii

Repeating ' Frigates tn '

U 9- .10.

7. Donegal • 8.

9. Spencef , 10.

I.

2.

3. 7X?^* .

4-

5. Northumberland

6.

7. Leviathan •

Repeating d

Relkisie , Excellent

8. Swiflsure

9, Spavtiate

CAPTAINS.

/Rear- Admiral Louis

\ Captain Francis W. Austen

Richard G. Keats

{Commander-in-Chief Rear-Admiral Murray Captain Thomas Hardy Pultenty Malcolm

Hon. R. Stopford

Benjamin Hallowell

/ Rear-Admiral Hon. A. Cochrane \ Captain George Tobin

Wm. Henry Baynton

William Hargood

Israel Pellew

W. G. Rutherford

Sir Francis Laforey, Bart.

To FRANCIS WILLIAM AUSTEN, Esq. Captain of His Majesty's Ship Canopus

Dated on board the Victory

in Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes,

June 5, 1805

{.Signed) NELSON AND BRONTE

The Pursuit of Villeneuve

" On board the Curieux, captured by the English,

" Pluviose 14, Year 12.

** The only officer remaining of those who com- manded the crew of the Curieux, I owe you a faithful report of the cruel tragedy which has delivered us up to the enemy.

** On the 13th instant, before one o'clock in the morning I was on deck with a midshipman and twenty men, according to the orders given by Captain Cordier. The weather was of the darkest, especially in the northern direction. Sentries were placed abaft at the ladder and forward. Our boarding nettings were triced up. We had hardly perceived the English boats before they boarded by the stern and the main shrouds. We had only time to discharge two guns with grape shot, one swivel and a wall piece, when the enemy were on board, and forced us to have recourse to the sabre, pike and musketry."

Lieutenant Bettesworth took a chief part in the attack, and was eventually rewarded with the command of the brig, which had been one of the best vessels of its kind in the French navy.

It was an important mission which was now entrusted to Captain Bettesworth. He was to sail for England with despatches from Lord Nelson for the Admiralty, steering a certain course in the hope that he would sight the enemy's

139

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

fleet Nelson was right in his conjecture, and Captain Bettesworth reached England with the news that Villeneuve was on the return voyage.

The Curieux anchored at Plymouth on July 7, and the Captain reached the Admiralty at 11 p.m. on the 8th, too late, in the officials' opinion, for the First Lord to be disturbed. Lord Barham, a sailor himself, knew well the value of time in naval matters, and was much annoyed at the loss of so many precious hours. Though over eighty years of age his judgment was rapid and accurate. Early on the 9th Admiralty messages were on the way to Portsmouth and Plymouth. Admiral Corn- wallis, off Ushant, received his orders on the nth to detach the squadron blockading Rochefort and send it to join Calder westward off Cape Finis- terre, while he himself was to cruise south of Ushant. To the amazement of Napoleon, only eight days after the arrival of the Curieux, Sir Robert Calder was ready with fifteen ships off Ferrol. There Villeneuve met him, and an action took place which should have been decisive, but by reason of excessive caution on the part of Calder, only caused loss of ships and men to both sides without advantage to either. Calder joined Cornwallis off Ushant, while Villeneuve went into Vigo Bay and afterwards Into Ferrol.

Nelson's squadron began the voyage back from the West Indies on June 15, and we have again

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The Pursuit of Villeneuve

in the log of the Canopus the matter-of-fact, day- to-day record of routine work, vessels spoken, ** no intelligence," small prizes, rigging out of gear, and so forth, behind which was the background of suppressed excitement, of unremitting watch, and of constant readiness. As the months went on and the situation developed, the excitement increased, and reached its climax only with Trafalgar Day.

One entry gives an idea of the difference in the conditions of warfare then and now. " On June 19, an English merchant vessel was spoken by the Amphion frigate. They signalled — * Have English papers to the 3rd of May. Interesting debates.' Admiral asked — * Who is First Lord of the Admiralty '^ ' Answer — ' Lord Barham.' Knowing so little as they did of affairs at home, they could not be sure that all might not be over before they got back.

''June 29. — The Amazon at daylight was seen to be towing a captured Spanish Tartan, from La Guayra. The people on board did not know of the war." This was undoubtedly an extreme case, and one feels some sympathy for the " people on board," who were captured before they knew that they were fighting.

The winds were naturally less favourable for the return voyage, but by taking a course near Bermuda, and tothe Azores, they made much better headway than Villeneuve had managed to do, and

141

Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers

reached Gibraltar on July 17. After a few days here they gained intelligence of the doings of the Curieux brig, and sailed northwards to join Admiral Cornwallis off Ushant.

** August 1 5. — Off Ushant. Lord Nelson saluted Admiral Cornwallis with fifteen guns, returned with thirteen. — Joined the Channel Fleet of twenty-four sail of the line. Answered our signal to follow orders of Admiral Cornwallis in the Ville de Paris''

** August 16. — Thirty-five sail of the line in com- pany. Victory and Superb parted company for England."

We read from a contemporary writer that Nelson arrived '* filled with mortification, which those who first conversed with him after his arrival state to have amounted almost to anguish, at his disappointment " at having missed Villeneuve in the West Indies.

''August 17. — Ville de Paris made signal to Prince of Wales (Sir R. Calder) to part company, on service previously denoted. Made sail (south- wards) in company with squadron of nineteen sail of the line."

*' On 20th Naiad brought intelligence that the French fleet had sailed from Ferrol on the 13th.'*

*' On 22nd, off Peninsular coast, Admiral Calder signalled * Prepare for battle.' "

This was almost on the very spot of his inde-

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The Pursuit of Villeneuve

cisive fight of July 23. Calder's ''order of battle" gives very full details