第38章 THE ENGLISH ADMIRALS(3)

Duncan, lying off the Texel with his own flagship, the VENERABLE, and only one other vessel, heard that the whole Dutch fleet was putting to sea.He told Captain Hotham to anchor alongside of him in the narrowest part of the channel, and fight his vessel till she sank."I have taken the depth of the water," added he, "and when the VENERABLE goes down, my flag will still fly." And you observe this is no naked Viking in a prehistoric period; but a Scotch member of Parliament, with a smattering of the classics, a telescope, a cocked hat of great size, and flannel underclothing.In the same spirit, Nelson went into Aboukir with six colours flying; so that even if five were shot away, it should not be imagined he had struck.He too must needs wear his four stars outside his Admiral's frock, to be a butt for sharp-shooters."In honour I gained them," he said to objectors, adding with sublime illogicality, "in honour I will die with them." Captain Douglas of the ROYAL OAK, when the Dutch fired his vessel in the Thames, sent his men ashore, but was burned along with her himself rather than desert his post without orders.Just then, perhaps the Merry Monarch was chasing a moth round the supper-table with the ladies of his court.When Raleigh sailed into Cadiz, and all the forts and ships opened fire on him at once, he scorned to shoot a gun, and made answer with a flourish of insulting trumpets.I like this bravado better than the wisest dispositions to insure victory; it comes from the heart and goes to it.God has made nobler heroes, but he never made a finer gentleman than Walter Raleigh.And as our Admirals were full of heroic superstitions, and had a strutting and vainglorious style of fight, so they discovered a startling eagerness for battle, and courted war like a mistress.When the news came to Essex before Cadiz that the attack had been decided, he threw his hat into the sea.It is in this way that a schoolboy hears of a half-holiday; but this was a bearded man of great possessions who had just been allowed to risk his life.Benbow could not lie still in his bunk after he had lost his leg; he must be on deck in a basket to direct and animate the fight.I said they loved war like a mistress; yet I think there are not many mistresses we should continue to woo under similar circumstances.Trowbridge went ashore with the CULLODEN, and was able to take no part in the battle of the Nile."The merits of that ship and her gallant captain," wrote Nelson to the Admiralty, "are too well known to benefit by anything I could say.Her misfortune was great in getting aground, WHILE HER MORE FORTUNATE COMPANIONS WEREIN THE FULL TIDE OF HAPPINESS." This is a notable expression, and depicts the whole great-hearted, big-spoken stock of the English Admirals to a hair.It was to be "in the full tide of happiness" for Nelson to destroy five thousand five hundred and twenty-five of his fellow-creatures, and have his own scalp torn open by a piece of langridge shot.Hear him again at Copenhagen: "A shot through the mainmast knocked the splinters about; and he observed to one of his officers with a smile, `It is warm work, and this may be the last to any of us at any moment;' and then, stopping short at the gangway, added, with emotion, `BUT, MARK YOU - I WOULD NOT BE ELSEWHEREFOR THOUSANDS.'"

I must tell one more story, which has lately been made familiar to us all, and that in one of the noblest ballads in the English language.I had written my tame prose abstract, Ishall beg the reader to believe, when I had no notion that the sacred bard designed an immortality for Greenville.Sir Richard Greenville was Vice-Admiral to Lord Thomas Howard, and lay off the Azores with the English squadron in 1591.He was a noted tyrant to his crew: a dark, bullying fellow apparently; and it is related of him that he would chew and swallow wineglasses, by way of convivial levity, till the blood ran out of his mouth.When the Spanish fleet of fifty sail came within sight of the English, his ship, the REVENGE, was the last to weigh anchor, and was so far circumvented by the Spaniards, that there were but two courses open - either to turn her back upon the enemy or sail through one of his squadrons.The first alternative Greenville dismissed as dishonourable to himself, his country, and her Majesty's ship.