Star. — London, England, 1805-12-27 00:00:00

TRIAL OF VICE-ADMIRAL SIR ROBERT CALDER, BART. THIRD DAY, PORTSMOUTH, DEC 25. DEFENCE. The Court opened at a quarter pall ten o'clock.— Sir Robert Calder tequelled that his written defence might be read by -- Gafelee, Efq. his Comilla ; and the Court intimating their confent, the defence was read accordingly, of which the following is a correct copy : " Mr. Prelident and Gentlemen of the Court, " I appear before you in a fingular, I may almnfl fay an unprecedented fituation having ferved my King and Country not only without reproach, but 1 may add, with fume degree of reputation for up waTds of forty-fix years, during which I have been more than once honoured with marks of approba tion from my Sovereign ; having for the lall ten months been employed on a moft fevere and critical fervice, without once being in port, and having in the courfe of it, with a very inferior fleet, forced a fuperior one of the enemy, who had the advantage of wind and fituation, into anion, and obtained a decifive viaory over them, 1 felt myfelf impelled to folicit the prefent inquiry, for the purpofe of vindi cating my honour and my charafter from a variety of injurious and unfounded afperfions which have been call upon me, in confequence of not having renewed the engagement during the two days that the enemy afterwards remained in fight. The con feinufnefs of my having done my duty would, how ever, have induced me to treat thefe afperfions with contempt, had they not become fo general, that I was apprehenfime that filence on my part would be conlirued into an acknowledgment of their truth, and an admiffion of my own mircondult ; I found therefore, under the neceffity of applyinkto the Lords of the Admiralty, to order an inquiry into my conduct, that I might be enabled to Rate pub licJy the reafons which eat:aced it throughout, and to refute the illiberal and unfounded afrertions that bad been made againft me. To this they have been pleafed to affent—and although in a fubfequent letter to that which accompanies the order for your affem bling, I requefled that the Court might be empower. ed to inquire into the whole of my cond uct, even pritoel to my falling in with the enemy, while in their pram , fence, and fubfequent thereto; they have thought it right to confine it to the 23d of July, and my luifegsiate mama and joroceediegs, until I finally IDA fight of the enemy's thips, and to direft me to be tried for not having done my utmoft to renew the engagement, and to take or deffiroy every fhip of the enemy, which the charge airerts it was my duty to engage. I confider this, therefore, as a declara.l tion by their Lordfhips, that this is the only part of my conduit upon which any particle of doubt can, by pnffibility, attach, or of which any explanation can poffibly be requifite. At the fame time, howe ver, I cannot but lament that the inquiry is fo limit ed, as it prevents my giving evidence of the circum fiances of the adlion, which I have po doubt I thould have proved to have been fuch as to add to the reputation of the Britifh navy. " As in defending myfelf againft this charge, I truft, I fhall be able to tatisfy the Court and the pub. lic, that the not renewing . the engagement, if it was prafticable to have done it, was not duly juaifiable, but the moft proper and prudent mode, under all the eircumflances, to be adopted, and that the at tempting to force a renewal of the anion, might not ',only have endangered the fafe...y of my own fizet, but 'eventually that of the Country itfelf, I fhall requeft .be indulgence of the Court, to be permitted to enter Tully into all the circumfiances, and to laybefore them he particular fituation in which I was placed. the orders I had from time to time received, and the rea fdas which induced me not to attempt a renewal of the aaion, confident that when 1 have done fo, all the prejudices which have been hitherto entertained, will be diflipated, and that by your judgment I [ball be rebored to the gond opinion of my Country, that Country for which I have bled, and for which I have conquered. 66 Before, however, I enter into the particular flatements, permit me to make an obfervation or two on the fpecific charge, which is the principal objea ' of your inquiry. It does not range itfelf precifely within any of the Articles of War, though it in part adopts the language of one of them: It afrumes as a principle, that it was my duty to renew the en• gagement, and to endeavour to take or deftroy every {hip of the enemy. " I am ready to admit that it is fo much the duty . of an Officer to engage the enemy wherever he meets with them ; that it is incumbent on him to explain, fatisfaacwily, why he does not; but in making that explanation, it is nut neceffitry for him to prove the frA . Veal impnflibility of doing fo. It may be poflible, and yet there may be very many rearm, why hei fhould not. •Indeed, the abfurdity of a contrary po. noon is fuch, that it would be an idle wage of time to trouble the Court with many obfervations upon it. " They will, however, permit me to obferve that mine is not the only inftanee where a Britifh fleet has laid in fight of that of the enemy without renewing an engagement. 6 In proot of this affertion, if it be necefrary, I pees, only recal to your men,nry out ofmany others, t h e example of two very great and gallant Officers, ho, aftpr having obtained moll brilliant victories can the enemy, did not think themtelves juftified in ,},tinging them a fecund time to af ian. although they were in fight of them fully as long as I was. The two meritotinus officers to whom I allude are, Earl Howe. in the aaion of the ill of June, 1794; and 740 St. Vincent. in that of the 27th of February; z797.—0f the latter lam competent to (peak from my own knowledge, having had the honour to ferve un cle, his Lordfltip as Captain of the Eleet in that en- sagement. " Of the propriety of the conduit of there Noble Lords, in both inflances, no doubt has at any mo ment been entertai ned by any body. They certainly e'ercifed a found dilcretiofle'ercifed upon the occafion ; but it may lint be itripioper for me to remark, that al tiviiigh the advantages they had acquired were cer tainly ftiper int. to mine, that mine was a fituation in whicn it was in every repel more necerrary to era. Rife that difcretion, which, in every care, mull be in veiled the Commander of a rquadron, to judge of the propriety or improptiity of offering battle to a Inr.:00! flee;. In the ittlifPcci ;bow wiepOon.f,4 SRC was no otber/nrce to contend with, no other quitter from which an attack was to be apprehended than the fleets which had been abeady engaged : In mine it behnved me to be particularly on my guard againit the Ferrol and Rochefort fquadronc, confining a twenty-one fail of the line, b )th which, I had radon to believe, were out, and one of which appears to have been altually on the fes, and to which the fqua dron oppofed to me might eafily have given notice of their fituation,as will be hereafter morefully Rated. " With thefe obfervations I than difmifs this part of the cafe for the prefent ; and proceed to lay before the Court a flatement of the Etas, to which I am to requelt their ferious attention : In the month of February I was difpatched by Admiral Cornwallis from the Fleet off Wham, to blockade the harbours of Ferrol and Corunna. Al- though at that time there were five French (hips of the line, and three frigates, and five Spanifh (hips of the line, and four frigates nearly ready for Sea, ha lides three Spani(h line of battle (hips which were juR come out of the arfenal, and were getting ready —(even fail of the line were all that could be fpared me, which were afterwards increafed to nine ; and though I repeatedly made application for two fri- gates and two (mall valeta to plate at the entrance of thefe harbours, I only obtained one of each. I do not mention this by any means as complaining of the commis of the Admiralty, or imputing to them any inattention to my fituation, or to the public fervice. I well know, that at that critical period they had abundant means of employing all the force they could celled : and 1 have no doubt but that they (applied me with as many as they could, confiftently with their attention to the other parts of the fervice. I am defending myfelf, not imputing blame to others ; and my foie objed in making this ftatement is, that the Court may be aware of the very critical &patio° in which I was plazed. 44 With my fmall force, however, I kept my Ra tion, and from time to time, reported to the Com mander of the fleet off Uthant, and to the Admiralty, the information I received refpeding the tlste of the enemy's fleet. 44 About the month of Apia the Toulon and Ca diz fleets joined ; and it being then uncertain what would be their deftination, and the Brett fleet being alfo on the move, my fituat;on became fo dangerous that Lord Gardner gave me diredions, upon per. ceiving the enemy's (hips to dire& their courts to the northward, or on receiving intelligence that could be depended upon, of their taking that route, to pro ceed to join his Lordthip either at the tendezvous off Breft, or wherever elfe I might learn with, certainty that he might be with the fquadron. 4 6 The combined fquadrons, however, went to the Weft Indies ; and it being waled that they would return and attempt to form a jundion with the fleet at Ferrol, I was direded both by Lord Gardner, and the Admiralty, to be on sly guard, in cafe of that event. 46 In the mean time, the preparations at Ferrol continued. On the sth July I received information that there was a French Admiral expelled daily from Paris or Brea, to fuperfede the Admiral then at Ftrrol ; that :he Combined fquadrons, confiding of 13 fail of the line, befides frigates and corvettes, had orders to leave Ferrol, and to be at Corunna by the middle of the mouth. •' A report made to me by Captain Prowfe a few days before, that agreed with fo mach of this intern- Knee as refpeited the number of (hips ready for (ea, and added that three other lice of battle (hips were getting ready. On the loth of July, I received a farther report from him, that the (hips had adually began to move. From fubfequent events, it appears that thefe reports were accurate. 4 4 In addition to this, I had learned that the enemy had ere&ed fignal pods from Cape Finifterre and Cape Ortegal, to Ferrol, fo that the Combined feria dron, on their return from the Weft Indies, might, by fending forward a frigate or corvette to one of the fmall bays near Cape Finifterre, communicate by land their :approach to the fq'iadron at Corinna or Ferrol, and dired them to be ready to path out upon the fignal polls announcing their being off the coati." The Defence tben proceeds to Rate, that, By an order (tom Admiral Cornwallis, Rear Ad miral Stirling was ordered to join Sir ,Robert, and they were ordered to cruize 3o or 4o leagues to the wettward for fix or eight days, and then to return.. The enemy's force was then Hated to be t 6 fail,with whom, if the prifoner did not fall in, they were im mediately to repair to their refpedive Rations off Ferrol and Rochfort. On the teth he was joined by Rear Admiral Stirling. The fame wind, however, which enabled Admiral Stirling to leave Rochefort, enabled the fleet which he had been blockading there to efcape, which it did, as appears from the evidence of Admiral Stirling himfelf, on the tBtb, to Corun na, whence it could get out ahnoft at any time.— The wind had continued nearly for two days to be fair for their departure, and if the, had taken ad• vantage of the night they might have joined the ene my. It was out of difpute, that on the 24th the wind was at N. E. which was a favettrable wind for going out : and it was known to all the Court, that partial land winds occatirmally blew, which might even en able them to effoft a fimilar purpofe. At this time a letter was received, written by I..c.rd Nelfon, then bound to Europe, to Lord Gardner, and tranfinir• ted to Sir Robert, Itrongly recommending a care ful watch to be kept on Ferrol, as a prat into which the Combined Fleets might be fups.ofed to attempt to enter. Accordingly, on the 2111, they came in fight, much more numerous, however, than had been (nppofed, not coofifting of (lateen fail of the line, as Admiral Cornwallies'accounts led to ex. ped, but of 20 fail of the line, 7 frigates, 2 brigs, and a lugger: while to oppofe them, there were only s fail of the line, 2 frigates, and a cutters Notwith (landing this fuperiority, and every difachrantage of wind and weather, he effeded his objed of forcing the enemy to battle ; and, amidli the numberlefs infinuat tions which had unwarrantably been thrown oil. againft his conduet, he had never yet heard any o b jedion flatted as to the triode of his commencing the adion that day, or to his condult in the comic of it. By the valour of the Admiral, who was fe cund in command on that day, and by the bravery of his fleet in general, he had heat enabled to achieve, what he prefumed to think W:44, in filch circumftan • ces, a great and important loamy; a vidory, than ' which, few intlances, and thofe of modern date, more important, or more decifive in their nature, had peen 4 4 NOmPlifile4 9O Path:* diffuritY or Ausags• At • • the time the firing ceafed, the enemy were to wind ward. The Vice-Admiral then balled the Windforl Cattle, which was in a damaged dale, (hiking her So prepare for action. He kept in the fame tack during the whole of the night, to prim& her, keep ing. at the fame time, as clot: as poflible to the .enemy. During the night, he was engaged in repair ing the damage the fquadrnn had fuffittned; and bang then ignorant of the extent of the damage, he ex pe&ed it would he in his power to renew the engage ment. He accordingly fent the Frilk cutter, and the Nile luggee. to colic& the returns of the date of the different (hips. There returns would be laid be fore this Court, and it would be for them to judge, whether he would have been warranted, labouting under the difadvantages which he (hould have tar prove to them, and with his fleet to much damaged, to attempting tc renew the aftion ? It was not till about eight in the morning of the 23J, that the Ad , miral law the Malta greatly to leeward. He then I made fignal for her to quit the prizes, and for the Egyptienne to take them in tow. The enemy were' then teen at a diflance ' about eight or nine miles to windward, He found, that of 15 (hips of the line, the Windfor Cattle only was declared incapable of failing, and requiring to lie -to, yet that many of them were very much crippled ; and, in his judgment, and 4 relying on the returns which had been made to him, without a mail which could be relied on in a prefs of fail. That this belief was cnrreft, no other evidence fiemed occefrary, than the fad that the Repulfe fprung her bowfprit, and the Malta her mainmad, on the 23tb, being the very fird prefs of fail they had made fence the aiding. Capt. Inman, ton, of whole evidence the Court were already in poffeffion, has afforded his teffiniony, that he expected, when fent to chafe a fri gate of the enemy, on the day after the Ohm, that his mall would have gone by the board. Another circum. Rance. which mud have relished from a renewal of the ;dion, was the capture of the Vs'indlor Critic, of the prizes and the frigates, three or four fail of the line of the enemy's fleet, apparently in order, being obferved watching on the weather beam, ready to cut off the fcparated (hips. This it was the Vice Ad miral's duty to prevent, and to preferve the advan• tage he had got. Another difadvantage under which he laboured, in attempting to renew the ac tion, was the want of frigates, on which it was un neceffary for him to enlarge to that Court. It was far from being his intention to attempt to adduce any thing which might tend to diminiffi that fpii it which induces Brides Commanders to contemn every danger when their country's intereft was at Rake; but he mull deprecate the idea that it was in cumbent on them, at all times. and in all cafes, to combat with unequal numbers, to the utter molt, without regard to any circumßances which. might elfin. Every cafe mutt be governed ,by its own circtimftances, and mutt depend on the judgment of the Commander, fubjed to !hat refporifibility which always attaches to Inch fi tuations. it appeared to him, that the alma was highly important, even if the capture of the t wo prizes had been the only object attained. There were, however, intern fail of the line at Ferrol, which, if they were not already at lea, would, in the event of his being unable to refume his limits's off that port, be left at full liberty to purfue any courfe they pleated, and even to etre& a landing in Ireland. He really did not feel, in thefe cii cum dances, that be was juflified in running the rifle which mull have attended a renewal of the action, unlefs an opportunity prefented itfcif far more fa vourable than that which he declined to attempt, re- • folved as he was to return in fearch of them, In loon as he bad placed his crippled (hips in a place of fafety. He certainly had not offered, but, at the fame time, he had never avoided, a renewal of the engagement ; and though the enemy, vauntingly, as one gallant Commander had reprefented it, and with a view to cover the moil leeward part of their fleet, as it had been dtfcribed by another gallant Officer, had borne on the Britifit fleet, he was con vinced, had they been ferious in coming to affirm, they would have received a proper revenge. But, during the whole of the z3d, the enemy. as appeared from the evidence before the Court, had the wind, And, of courfe, could not he forced into action. On the zatb, at day-break, the enemy was feen only from the mart head, there being fume light breezes. But, even then, fuppufing it to have been poflible to I bring the enemy to action, that could only be as crimplithed by a feparation of the fquadron ; and cer tainly, even then, not in his opinion, without the con tent of the enemy. At fix o'clock of the evening of the 24th, the enemy was entirely out of fight. fit. Vice-Admiral accompanied the Windfor Cattle to a ?laic of fafety, refolved to return to his nation, and, if poffible. to bring the enemy to action. In cafe of not India; them in Ferrol, his refolution was to repair to the rendezvous off Cape Finiflerre. He accordingly returned to Ferrol, and there re fumed the blockade; the Malta returned to England to refit; and Admiral Stirling, agreeably to his , orders, to Rochefort. The Vice-Admiral had, :n the propriety of his conduit in thefe different refpefts, the approbation of the Commander-in-Chief, who not only transmitted to him a letter of appro. bation and thanks, after the action of the z3d. but, as an additional proof of confidence, on the (7th of Auguit, put under his command a fleet of twenty fail of the line to blockade Fermi, and with farther inaruftions, if they had failed. The enemy , bad failed from Ferrol; but the Vice - Admiral fur- ' tutiately arrived time enough at Cadiz to enable Ad 'Ural Collingwond to fecure them there. Having tilted to the bell of his judgment, in all thefe par- Oculars, he little expected to have met the reception which he found awaiting him in this country. The Court were already in poffeflion of the tellimonial of the gallant Admiral, who was fecond in command on the sad of July, to the propriety of his (the Vice Admiral's) conchs& A fimilar teflimonial he had alio received from his Commander in Chief; and be Slittered himfelf the country in general would agree, on his return home, in heflowing the ulna% tokens of approbation on his conduct, and that of his gallant af fociates. This, at lead, they deferved, however much he himfelf might have merited a contrary treatment. Judge then of his feelings, on findin himfelf accufed, even by the mod'moderate of his af failants, of having trifled with the feelings of the public. This, however, proceeded not from any fault of his. hot from the mode in which his difpatchcs were publifbed in The krdoes Gazette. They were nat publillicd wholly and entire i ; t &yet they were not publifhed as extract; from, but as copies (4,114 letters. lie difclaim'ed all idea of refleaing on the Admiralty in this particular. They probably meant to convey gt4tifyieg intelli gence to the public, without being aware of the in terpretation which might be put on it, or that it would militate to his &advantage. That they could not mean fo, was apparent (ton the readinefs with which they had allowed him to Hate the abilince of that part which was omitted. In doing fa, how ever, he fhonld take care not ti prejudice the ptiblic, but rather himfelf to tOffer any odium which might arife from want of explanation. He then read an ad. ditional paragraph in his letter to the Commander is Chief, giving an account of the athon of the axti, is which he Pays, " at the fame time it will behove me to be on my guard. on account of the fquadrfln at Ferrol, and the two captured thips. I have fent them and the Windfnr Callle away." If this had been slated, the public could not have expefied 14 much. They would rather have contemplated with fati,lar. tion what had been done. His letter of the a6tb July too, in which he canceled the unfortunate omnon relative to Admiral Stirling, breathed fim;lar laa. gnage, and [hewed that a renewal of the engagement, tor the time, was at an end: As to the report circa. t hated by Lieutenant Nicholfon, that the Vice Admi. ral had aifured him and authorifed him to declare to the Commanding Officer, that be had it in hit power; and was determined to force the combined fleets to renew the affirm—Why wss not Lieutenant Nicholfon called on to prove the fait ? He could not. The Vice Admiral declared, on his honour, that he never did fend loch a meffage. Sir R. Calder—" That I do molt folemnly." Every letter (hewed his intention not to renew the aaion, till he had conveyed the Windfor Cattle to a place of fafety. There, he hoped, would junify him in wi(hing to have an opportunity to vindicate his character and condua. The queltion divided Wilt into two heads t—Firll, Could he renew the aajon, if he had inclined ?—Second, whether it would-have been prudent fo to do ? and whether he did not ad wifely, and exeraife a found judgment in declining to renew it ? It was evident, that on the 23d he could not renew the aaion ; and that, cn the aeth, Omagh the wind was favourable, he could not renew it, without feparating the fquadron, and evep then it was doubtful with what (heed's. This he fhould prove; and that it was impoffible to take the ptiforiers out of the captured (hips, had it been fohnd Tieceffary to deltroy them. He lamented the abfence of Captain Pronfe, as he would have been a material - wieners to prove the faits in the cafe. The fignal which he made for a return of the damages which the different (hips had fuftained, did not impair his determie,ation to renew the aElion. His only objea was to form a line of battle, if the enemy had chofen to advance. It was plain that Captain Inman made the fame dininetion that he did; for, though crippled, he gave a negative to the figisal to lie-by, well knowing the difference between the W. lky to lie-by for an enemy, and that of carrying a prefs of fail for the purpofe of renewing the action. He could fulfieiently admire that fpirit of beroifm by which a Britifli Officer was withheld from making fignal of inability, or dillies; but he contendedthat it would have ill'become him, and that he would - have ill difcharged his duty to the public, if, to Inch feel ings however magnanimous in themfelves, he had facrificed other more important conliderations. As to what-Captain Durham fail, he declared that he had already formed his plah, which was not to cepa rate the fleet; and to have ordered Captain Durham to keep fight of the enemy, could orly have had the effect of feparating him from the remainder of our fquadron. He declared, indeed, that , het was furprifed at Captain D.'s havin .? , made the signal he did. Had he (the Vice Admiral) required it, he would have made a fi gnal for it. In fad, the fignal made to Capt. Durham, was 77, the Cigna! to bring to, and not 19, the fignal to reconnoitre. A variety of letters and other dnchments were then put in and read ; and among the reitohe firft difpatch of Sir R. Calder to the hdmiralty, after the aflion, as it originally Rood, without their curtailment, The fallowing paragraph from a private letter to Sir it Calder, from Admiral Cornwallis, dated July 29, was then read : /3tit it was not behaved that they (the enemy) had In many line of battle (tips ; lateen being all we heard of, from a floop - which fpoke them, as they laid, on board, after they left the Welt Indies." Queltion, to the Hon. Capt. GARDI4 Eft, of the Hero. —ls this your report of the damages Whined by the Hero ?—Yes, it is. The Report was then read. Did the enemy ever chafe, or make any attempt to force me to aeinn on the 23d of July lag ?—No. Could I haee forced them ta come to attion on that day?—Not if they chofe to avoid it. If I had gone towards the enemy on the :4th, with intention to renew the aEtion, could I have compelled them to do fo, if they had chofen to avoid it, without approaching fo neat- the time as to have enabled them to communicate ley fignals with Ferrol ?—I am not acquainted with the rela tive fairing of the two fleets; butt I am of opinion, they could have communicated with the flume, be fore they could have been brought to anion, had they withed to do fit. Was the Britifli fleet always kept by me between that of the enemy and the port of Ferrol, while the enemy kept, in fight ?—The Britith lytadion wit always nearer to the port of Ferrel titan that of di: enemy. Were you mon in danger, fty carrying fail, when fent by me to Admiral Cornwallis, on our r-turn to Uthant ? In carrying fail to accnmpli(h that ditty, which was only performed on Sir R. Calder' , appear ing in fight of Admiral Calder's fleet, the foremait of the Hero was in danger of going over the. fide. Court—From the manner in which you have (ll fcribed the Rate of the foremalt of the Hero, at the time you joined Admiral Cornwallis, what do you fuppofe would have been the contequence, had the Vice Admiral found it neceffary to carry fail in pur fuit of the enemy;?—l think the linetnall, particularly on the 2.ath, when there was a conliderable fw:11, had we tallied fail, mull have gone by the board, front its putting on In bad an appearance, alter we had flllted it to the extent of our meat's. What malls of the Hero were found neceffary fit be, and were taken out, when the Hero was repair:a in port ?—The foreman and mainman were booa taken out, and replaced by new ones. is 3, the Court—As the Britilh fleet was always it! P , ,