CHAPTER IV

THE SHIP OF UNHAPPY MEMORY

I did not like the _Defence_. I thought her a dreadful ship. After

the immaculate decks, the glittering perfection, the spirit and fire

and pride of the _Marlborough_, the "flagship of the world," I was

condemned to a slovenly, unhandy, tin kettle which could not sail

without steam; which had not even any royal-masts; and which took

minutes instead of seconds to cross topgallant yards, a disgusting

spectacle to a midshipman of the _Marlborough_. Instead of the

splendid sun and blue waters of the Mediterranean, there were the cold

skies and the dirty seas of the Channel. I wrote to my father asking

him to remove me from the Navy.

The _Defence_ was one of the iron-built, or iron-cased, armoured,

heavily rigged, steam-driven, broadside-fire vessels launched from 1860

to 1866. They represented the transition from the Old Navy to the New,

inasmuch as they retained large sailing powers and broadside fire,

combining with these traditional elements, iron construction and steam

propulsion. They were the _Warrior_, _Black Prince_, _Defence_,

_Resistance_, _Hector_, _Valiant_, _Achilles_, _Minotaur_, _Agincourt_,

and _Northumberland_. The _Defence_, launched in 1861, was (in modern

terms) of 6270 tons displacement, 2540 h.p., 11.6 knots speed, carried

22 guns, and had a complement of 450 men. She was commanded by Captain

Augustus Phillimore, and was one of the Channel Squadron, which, in the

year 1863, was commanded by Rear-Admiral Robert Smart, K.H.

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CHANNEL SQUADRON

(NAVY LIST, 1863, DESCRIPTION)

Rate H.P. Name Guns Tons Com. Officer Complement

2nd S. 800 Revenge (Flag) 73 3322 Capt. Charles 800

Fellowes

Iron-cased

ship S. 1250 Warrior 70 6109 Capt. Hon. A. 704

A. Cochrane,

C.B.

" S. 1250 Black Prince 40 6109 Capt. J. F. A. 704

Wainwright

" S. 600 Defence 16 3720 Capt. Augustus 457

Phillimore

" S. 600 Resistance 16 3710 Capt. W. C. 457

Chamberlain

Gunboat S. 60 Trinculo 2 --- Tender to 24

Revenge

The Channel Squadron at that time was employed in cruising round the

coasts of the British Isles, in order to familiarise people on shore

with the Fleet. In later life it fell to me, as commander-in-chief, to

conduct similar cruises, of whose object I thoroughly approve.

The _Warrior_ and _Black Prince_, in particular, were stately and noble

vessels whose beauty was a delight to behold. Their great spread of

sail, their long hulls and yacht bows, the vast expanse of flush wooden

decks, their solidity and grace, set them among the finest ships ever

built.

I was somewhat consoled in the _Defence_ by being placed in charge of

the cutter; in which I succeeded, by a small feat of seamanship, in

earning the rare commendation of the first lieutenant. I was about to

sail off to the Fleet from Devonport, when I discovered that the yard

of the dipping lug was sprung. This was serious, as it was blowing

fairly hard. Fortunately, I had one of those knives so dear to

boyhood, containing a small saw and other implements; and with this

weapon I shaped a batten and fitted it to the yard, woolded it with

spun-yarn and wedged it tight. I did not expect it to hold; but,

double-reefing the sail, I put off. All {43} the way to the ship I had

an eye on the yard, and it held. Of course I was late on board; and

the first lieutenant declined to believe my explanation of the delay

until he had had the yard hoisted on deck. Then he was kind enough to

say, "Well, my boy, if you can do a thing like that, there's hope for

you yet." Every little ray of hope is worth having.

But by reason of my love for the cutter, I fell into trouble. In the

dockyard at Devonport, there stood a mast newly fitted with beautiful

new white signal halliards, the very thing for the cutter. I should

explain that, as we were kept very short of stores, stealing in the

Service from the Service for the Service, used to be a virtue. There

was once an admiral who stole a whole ship's propeller in order to melt

the brass from it; and it was another admiral who boasted to me of his

brother officer's achievement. Of course, no one ever steals anything

nowadays; nothing is ever missing out of store; and no midshipman would

dream of attempting to convey signal halliards from the dockyard into

his boat.

But I did. I brought an end of the halliard into an adjacent shed,

concealed in which I revolved swiftly upon my axis, winding the rope

about me. Then I put on an overcoat, borrowed for the purpose. But my

figure presented an appearance so unnaturally rotund that a policeman

experienced in diagnosing these sudden metamorphoses, compelled me to

divest and to revolve, unwinding, in the public eye. He also reported

me for stealing Government stores. "Zeal, all zeal, Mr. Easy!"

It was during my time in the _Defence_ that I was so fortunate as to be

enabled to save two lives. On one occasion, the ship was lying in the

Mersey, and visitors were on board. A party of these was leaving the

ship, when their boat was slewed round by the strong tide, and one of

them, a big, heavy man, fell into the water. I dived after him.

Luckily there was a boat-keeper in the galley secured astern of the

ship. He held out a boat-hook, {44} which I caught with one hand,

holding up my man with the other.

I received the gold medal of the Liverpool Shipwreck Humane Society,

and the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society. The name of the man

who fell overboard was Richardson. More than forty years afterwards,

the son of Mr. Richardson sent me a kind letter, enclosing a photograph

of his father, who had died in 1882, nineteen years after his rescue.

"My mother," wrote Mr. J. Richardson, "was in very great terror, as my

father could not swim a stroke. He was a very fine man, and this made

your task you so quickly undertook not any the easier.... The clothes

he wore on that memorable occasion were, after their thorough wetting,

too small for him to wear again, so they were cut down for my elder

brothers, and were called by them their 'Channel Fleet' clothes, and

jolly proud they were to wear them too."

The boys' sentiment is pleasing, whether it arose from the exciting

fact that Mr. Richardson had fallen overboard in them--a thing which

might happen to any gentleman--or from his having in them been picked

out by an officer (however junior) of the Channel Fleet.

The second occasion when I was successful in saving a man from drowning

was in Plymouth Sound. A string of boats from the Fleet carrying

liberty men was pulling ashore, when a shore-boat crossed their bows

and was run down by the leading boat. I jumped in and held up one of

the passengers; and was again awarded the bronze medal of the Royal

Humane Society.

In the _Defence_, as in my other ships, my Service transgressions were

few and venial, as in the case of the signal halliards. My troubles

arose from my intervals of relaxation on shore. It is now so long ago

that perhaps I may without imprudence relate a sad episode in which I

fell under the condemnation of the law, with all that attendant

publicity which--as one journalist rather unctuously remarked at the

time--is so often worse than the penalty.

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"_Defence_, PLYMOUTH

"MY DEAREST FATHER,--I am writing to you at once to tell you what a sad

scrape I have just come out of. On Friday night I was with some other

wild fellows on the outside of a cab, pea-shooting, myself the worst,

when unfortunately I hit a lady who was leaning on a gentleman's arm in

the face. The man chased us and with a good deal of difficulty, caught

us; we were then taken to the station-house, and given into custody.

The hotel-keeper we always go to, very kindly bailed us for the night.

In the morning we went to the station-house according to promise; and

were tried; the result was my paying £2, 10s. and costs, or one month's

imprisonment, and another £1, or 7 days. The other two got off, no

peas being found upon them. You will see all about it in the papers I

am sending you. I am writing to you in such a hurry, as I am afraid

you might believe the papers if you saw them before my letter. I most

_solemnly swear_ to you on my honour that I was _quite_ sober the whole

of the day that this took place. And as for behaving unbecoming a

gentleman in the Court, I certainly did laugh, but the judge made me,

and all did so, as he was chaffing all the time. The reason I did not

apologise to the man was because he swore on his oath that I was drunk;

which was a lie. I had been dining with Hutchinson (see in the paper),

who was giving a dinner as he was leaving the ship. All I drank was

two glasses of Moselle. The papers I sent you are Radical so of course

they run me down.... All that remains to be said is, I hope you will

look upon it as a boyish lark and not as a disgraceful action ... and

will you send me 5 pounds as I have but 3 shillings left; and I must

have some money to pay mess, wine, etc. etc. So now write soon to your

prodigal son,

"CHARLIE BERESFORD"

I received in reply a severe but affectionate reproof from my father.

The gentlemen of the Press took upon themselves to {46} improve the

occasion, having first taken care, of course, to describe the affair as

a great deal worse than it was. "Let this lesson be taken," says one

kind journalist, "it may be a guide and a warning for the future. The

days are gone--gone for ever--when the pranks of a Waterford would be

tolerated; but while we would hope his follies are lost, we would

likewise hope that his manly, frank, chivalrous nature is still

inherited by his kinsmen."

Another reporter did me the justice to record that, on being called on

for my defence, I said: "I certainly do apologise if I did strike the

lady, because it was not my intention to do so; but I certainly don't

apologise for striking Mr. Yates." I trust he bears me no malice.

Yet another guardian of public morals observed that "his Worship, in

announcing the penalties, called attention to the inequalities of the

law, which exacted fines for the same offence alike from the man with

whom sovereigns were plentiful as hours and the man whose night's spree

must cost him a week's fasting." Had his Worship taken the trouble to

refer to the scale of pay granted by a generous country to midshipmen,

comparing it with the scale of rations and the price we paid for them,

and had he (in addition) enjoyed the privilege of perusing the

financial clauses of the letter addressed to me more in sorrow than in

anger by my father, he might perhaps have modified his exordium.

As an illustration of the strict supervision exercised by the senior

officers, I may record that I received--in addition to my other

penalties and visitations--a severe reproof from Captain Stewart, my

old captain in the _Marlborough_.

The Channel Fleet visited Teneriffe. It was the first iron fleet ever

seen in the West Indies.

In the cutting-out action off Teneriffe, Nelson lost his arm, and

several ensigns of the British boats were captured by the French. Ever

since, it has been a tradition in the Navy that the flags ought to be

recaptured. A party of bluejackets did once succeed in taking them

from the {47} cathedral and carrying them on board; but the admiral

ordered their restoration. They were then placed high up on the wall,

out of reach, where I saw them. We held a meeting in the gun-room of

the _Defence_ to consider the best method of taking the flags. But the

admiral, who was of course aware that all junior officers cherished the

hope of recovering the relics, issued orders that no such attempt was

to be made.

I was invited by an old friend of my father, a religious old gentleman

living in Cornwall, to a couple of days' rabbit-shooting. I was

overjoyed at the opportunity, and was the object of the envy of my

brother midshipmen. Arriving after lunch, I was brought into the great

room where the old gentleman was sitting in an arm-chair, with his

feet, which were swathed in masses of cotton-wool, resting on

gout-rests. Near him was a turn-table laden with books.

"Don't come near me, my boy," he shouted, as I entered. "I am very

glad to see you, but don't come near me. I have a terribly painful

attack of gout, the worst I ever had in my life. Go and sit down on

that chair over there."

With the breadth of the polished floor between us, we chatted for a

while; and then the old gentleman, pointing to the table of books,

asked me to give him a particular volume.

"Now be very careful," said he.

Full of ardour, delighted to think that I should now escape to the

keeper and the rabbits, I jumped up, ran to the table, my foot slipped

on the parquet, and I fell face forward with my whole weight upon the

poor old man's feet, smashing both foot-rests. The agonising pain shot

him into the air and he fell on my back. I have never heard such

language before or since. As he rolled off me, he shouted:

"Ring the bell, you ---- ----!"

In came the butler.

"Take that ---- ---- out of my house! Send him back to his ---- ship!

Never let me see his ---- face again!" screamed my host.

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So I departed in the dog-cart. It was many a long day ere I heard the

last of my rabbit-shooting from my messmates.

A few months afterwards, when I had been less than a year in the

_Defence_, Rear-Admiral Charles Eden appointed me to the _Clio_ as

senior midshipman. He said he wanted me to learn responsibility.

NOTE

_The New Ships_.--The predecessors of the _Defence_ and her class were

wooden vessels plated with iron armour. The first iron-built,

armoured, sea-going British vessel was the _Warrior_, launched in 1860.

She was laid down in the previous year, in which Lord Charles Beresford

entered the Navy. Several wooden ships (_Royal Oak_, _Caledonia_,

_Prince Consort_, _Ocean_, _Royal Alfred_, _Repulse_, _Favorite_,

_Research_) were converted into armoured ships during their

construction. These were launched from 1862 to 1864. For some years

the Admiralty built wooden armoured ships and iron armoured ships

simultaneously. From 1860 to 1866, ten iron-built, armoured, sail and

steam ships were launched: _Warrior_, _Black Prince_, _Defence_,

_Resistance_, _Hector_, _Achilles_, _Valiant_, _Minotaur_, _Agincourt_,

_Northumberland_. In 1864 and 1865, five wooden-built, armoured ships

were launched: _Lord Clyde_, _Lord Warden_, _Zealous_, _Pallas_,

_Enterprise_. The _Royal Sovereign_, launched in 1857 as a wooden

line-of-battle ship, was converted in 1862 to an armoured vessel and

was equipped with four turrets. She was thus the first turret-ship in

the British Navy. The next step was to group the guns in a central

armoured battery, and to belt the ship with armour along the

water-line. At the same time, more turret-ships were constructed.

Earnest controversy was waged among naval authorities as to what were

the most important qualities of the fighting ship, to which other

qualities must be partially sacrificed; for, broadly speaking, all

warships represent a compromise {49} among speed, defence and

offence--or engines, armour and guns. The controversy still continues.

The disaster which befell the _Captain_ decided, at least, the

low-freeboard question in so far as heavily rigged sailing steam

vessels were concerned, for the Captain, a rigged low-freeboard

turret-ship, capsized on 6th September, 1870. (_The Royal Navy_, vol.

i., Laird Clowes.)

Lord Charles Beresford, entering the Navy at the beginning of the

changes from sails to steam, from wood to iron, and from iron to steel,

learned, like his contemporaries, the whole art of the sailing ship

sailor, added to it the skill of the sailor of the transition period,

and again added to that the whole body of knowledge of the seaman of

the New Navy. He saw the days when the sailing officers hated steam

and ignored it so far as possible; as in the case of the admiral who,

entering harbour under steam and sail, gave his sailing orders but

neglected the engineer, and so fouled the wharf, and said, "Bless me, I

forgot I was in a steamship!"

Admiral Penrose Fitzgerald, who entered the Navy five years before Lord

Charles Beresford, describes the transitional period in his _Memories

of the Sea_. Speaking of the _Hercules_, one of the new

central-battery, armoured-waterline ironclads, to which he was

appointed first lieutenant when she was first commissioned in 1868,

Admiral Fitzgerald writes:--"The _Hercules_ was the most powerful

ironclad afloat, in this or any other country. She carried 18-ton

guns--muzzle-loaders--and nine inches of armour, though this was only

in patches; but she had a good deal of six-inch armour, and her

water-line and battery were well protected, as against ordnance of that

date. She was full-rigged, with the spars and sails of a

line-of-battle ship, and she could steam fourteen knots--on a pinch,

and could sail a _little_. In fact she was the masterpiece of Sir

Edward Reed's genius.

"Up to the advent of the _Hercules_ the three great five-masted ships

of 10,000 tons, the _Minotaur_, _Agincourt_ and {50} _Northumberland_,

had been considered the most powerful ships in the British Navy, and

probably in the world, and Sir Edward Reed's triumph was, that he built

a ship of about 8500 tons which carried a more powerful armament,

thicker armour, fifty feet shorter and thus much handier, steamed the

same speed, and I was going to say--sailed better; but I had better

say--did not sail quite so badly; and it must ever be borne in mind

that at this transition stage in the development of the Navy, our

rulers at Whitehall insisted that our ships of all classes should have

sail power suitable to their tonnage. 'For,' said they, 'the engines

might break down, and then where would you be?'" (_Memories of the

Sea_, Admiral Penrose Fitzgerald, chap. xiv.)

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