in Aug. 1805. It is not improbable that the Niobe had one of those "despatches" in her letter-bag; and yet, what Niobe does her captain do? Why, according to the frigate's goes log, (for we have had no communication with a chase. single officer belonging to her,) on the 5th of August, in latitude 47° 6' north, longitude 14° 24' west, the Niobe fell in with a strange ship, which captain Scott pursued for three days and nights. At length the strange frigate, or whatever she was, escaped from the Niobe; and captain Scott, instead of joinJoins ing sir Robert Calder agreeably to the express Nelson tenour of his orders, joined lord Nelson, and returned instead with the latter to the Channel fleet. With whatever Robert private censure the Niobe's captain may have been Calder. visited for this deviation from his orders, a few lord of sir Lord Wil months only elapsed ere captain Scott received a public approval of his conduct in being appointed, as the lists inform us, to the Goliath 74. Since the publication by lord William Fitz-Roy, liam's with so much seeming triumph, of the orders under publi- which he sailed, we are still more surprised that he of his should have considered his junction with sir Robert orders. Calder as the only object worthy of his serious at cation tention. Was he not directed to watch, and attend till he ascertained its route, any enemy's squadron he might fall in with, particularly one expected to be at sea from Rochefort, and another from Ferrol? Well, the Æolus falls in with the Rochefort squadron early in the morning, hovers to-windward of it till 5 P. M., then permits it to go its way. In a few days afterwards the Eolus falls in with a french manner frigate detached from the Ferrol squadron, also of com- named in lord William's orders.* The Eolus apwith proaches near enough to make out the stranger to be an enemy's frigate; then abandons her, for the sake, as alleged, of delivering in safety the letters with which she is charged. His plying them. But the most extraordinary circumstance of all, is * As upon these orders much of the gist of this case depends, we have inserted them in the Appendix. See Nos. 10 and 11. delu which Wil liam la the delusion under which lord William laboured as 1805. to the supposed effect produced by the due delivery Aug. of the packet he was carrying. "The Secret nature Appaof my orders," he gravely states, "none but myself rent on board were acquainted with, and the immense sion importance of the despatches in question, which by under recalling sir Robert Calder's whole squadron, and lord his being afterwards detached by admiral Cornwallis with a larger one, subsequently led to the important boured victory obtained by lord Nelson on the 21st of October of that year, sufficiently proves that in making them my first object I was attending more to the honour and interest of my country than if I had disobeyed instructions so plainly marked out, merely. for the chance of personal profit or distinction. It is, indeed, evident that the responsibility which would have attached to me, had such despatches failed of reaching their destination, involved consequences of greater magnitude than the censure of Mr. James, or of any ill-judging individual."* marks on lord liam's con To attempt a serious refutation of the statement Rethus (we will only say) unadvisedly put forth; would be wasting our own and the reader's time. WilWhat else but some such motive imposes silence upon the Dragon's captain, the present vice-admiral duct. Edward Griffith Colpoys? Was, may we ask, “the chance of personal profit or distinction" the only chance that captain lord William Fitz-Roy would have had to look to, had the Eolus succeeded in bringing the Didon to action? Of "personal distinction" there would have been an excellent chance; but, then, it must be the distinction that is founded, in a great degree, upon the personal danger, which is the never-failing attendant of a struggle for mastery between two fighting ships. Lord But the captain of the Eolus has recently found Wila champion, who, and he is of the naval profes- liam *A Brief Statement arising out of a passage contained in the 3d volume of James's Naval History of Great Britain, on the conduct and character of lord William Fitz-Roy, in the year 1805. de.. fended. 1805. sion too, will insist, that "the character of lord Aug. William Fitz-Roy remains as pure and unblemished as that of any of his most distinguished brother officers." After a few preliminary observations, among which is the following: "It is sometimes the duty of an officer not to fight; and the sacrifice of reputation, though painful, is indispensable," captain Brenton inserts at length the second order given to lord William Fitz-Roy, and then proceeds thus: "Let us next see what steps were taken by lord William in execution of these orders, for which purpose we turn to his log-book; where every transaction, in which his ship was concerned, is minutely related; and above all, that transaction which it is asserted should have covered him with disgrace, so clearly exposed and so openly stated as to leave us nothing to desire. His lordship explicitly declares, that the strange ship was a frigate; and he inserts in the public record of his ship every step which was taken while she was present." The writer then gives, as an extract from lord William's log, the following words, italicised and punctuated in the manner here shown: "At four o'clock, stood for a suspicious ship, in the S. S. E. which at six bore up and made all sail-the Eolus did the same-at half past seven, the stranger, still running away, shortened sail and hauled to the wind; the ship a frigate with yellow sides and royal yards; rigged aloft."+ Spuri ed by Bren ton. What will captain Brenton say when he finds, ous log that he has either made use, by mistake, of an expublish tract from some other ship's log, or that he has had captain palmed upon him, for the captain's log of the Æolus, (and certainly the description given of the Didon is a tolerably just one,) a spurious production? The readiest way to prove this will be to subjoin an extract from that which bears the signature of lord William Fitz-Roy, and is deposited at the navy-office as the genuine log kept by his lordship when captain of the Æolus. Here, then, follow the proceedings * Brenton, vol. iii. p. 388. + Ibid. p. 386. 1805. of the day on which the Didon was fallen in with, precisely as they are minuted in the log last referred Aug. to: "4, 5 saw a strange sail So. made sail in chace, 4, 30 the chace tacked & immediately bore up. 7,30 shortned sail & came to the wind on the st. tack. A. M. &c." Signed "William Fitz-Roy." The log of the master of the Æolus, Mr. Francis Prior, chiefly differs from the log of her captain, just quoted, by containing, after the entry of " shortened sail," the following words, as the reason for having done so: "The chase apparently an enemy's ship of war." Wil his line Although captain Brenton's third volume issued Lord from the press within little more than three, and liam the part devoted to the subject in question must shifts have been written within less than two, months of defrom the publication of lord William's pamphlet, fence. which was to remove the imputation cast upon his lordship's character by the facts disclosed in the first edition of this work, we find an abandonment of that line of defence upon which, to all appearance, lord William so confidently rested. For instance, by his pamphlet, lord William declares, in effect, that the secret nature of his orders, and the importance of the despatches of which he was the bearer, induced him to forego the pleasure of attacking the Didon; but, having since undeceived himself, apparently, as to his having been sent to recall sir Robert Calder, and thereby been in any way instrumental" to the important victory obtained by lord Nelson on the 21st of October,"* lord William instructs captain Brenton to dwell upon the necessity which he was under, to hasten to sir Robert Calder with the intelligence of his having fallen in with the Rochefort squadron. Accordingly his lordship's apologist says: "On his way to join the viceadmiral, he fell in with the Rochefort squadron, with whose movements it became a serious part of his duty to make himself acquainted; seeing them See p. 229. * Aug. 1805. burn a merchant vessel in the morning of the 6th, he watched them narrowly during the whole of that day, and having lost sight of them in the evening, lord William proceeded in search of the viceadmiral." captain 1 Passing by the (we will not say studied, but) highly advantageous obscurity thrown over the time when the french squadron was first discovered by the Æolus, as well as the error in the date of burning the merchantman, we will merely advert to what might have been the consequences to Ireland, had Case of captain Countess, of the Ethalion, in September, Coun- 1798, been contented with such a "narrow watching" tess in of the Hoche and her consorts.* An overweening zeal generally defeats its object. Why need captain Brenton have laid so much stress upon the necessity that lord William Fitz-Roy was under of acquainting himself with the movements of a french squadron, which he suffered to make sail from him without an effort to follow it, unless can be called so, the bearing up of the Eolus, for a short time, after the enemy had disappeared? stanced Captain Bren ton in continuation. In reference to the Didon, captain Brenton proceeds: "That lord William did not pursue her, was an exemplary act of obedience to his orders. A night's chase would have led him entirely off the station on which he was so urgently directed by his admiral to seek for sir Robert Calder, and on which he had, within 24 hours, seen an enemy's squadron, and gained intelligence of a british squadron being very near him." "On the following morning, at daylight, he fell in with sir Robert Calder, delivered his despatches, and gave him all the important intelligence of which, by his lordship's log, he appears to have been in possession."+ Well, what did sir Robert Calder do, on receiving this intelligence, for which, according to captain Brenton, the captain of the Eolus had "sacrificed * See vol. ii. p. 180. † Brenton, vol. iii. p. 387. |