The Ely miner., 1924-07-11

| CAPTAINS OF
ADVENTURE
BY ROGER POCOCK
Copyrigh Bobbs derriuC
By ROGER POcOCK

frigate The fleet and batteries had
two neutral ships protected themselves
with a display of lanterns arranged as
signal, please don't hit me" That's
good enough for me-" said Cochrane,
and copied those lights which protect
ed the neutrals. When the bewildered
Spaniards saw his lanterns also, they
promptly attacked the neutrals. So
Cochrane stole away with his prize.
Although the great sailor delivered
Chill and Peru from the Spaniards, the
patriots ungratefully despoiled him of
all his pay and rewards. Cochrane
has been described as "a destroying
angel with limited income and a turn
for politics" Anyway, he was misun-
derstood, and left Chilli disgusted, to
attend to the liberation of Brazil from
the Portuguese. Reporting to the
Bazilian government that all their
cartridges, fuses, guns, powder, spars
and sails were alike rotten, and all
their men an membranes, he disman-
tied squadron to find equipment for
single ship, the Pedro Primeiro.
This he manned with British and YAM
kee adventures. He had two other
small but fairly effective ships when
he commenced to threaten Bahia.
There lay thirteen Portuguese war
ships, mounting four hundred and
eighteen guns, seventy merchant ships
and q garrison of several thousand
men. Ell Diablo's blockade reduced the
whole to starvation, the threat of his
fireworks sent them into convulsions,
and their leaders resolved on flight to
Portugal. So the troops were en-
barked, the rich people took ship with
their treasure, and the squadron es-
corted them to sea, where Cochrane
grinned in the offing. For fifteen days
he hung In the rear of that fleet, cut
ting off ships as they struggled. He
had not a man to spare for charge of
his prizes, but when he caught a ship
he STAYED her water casks, disabled her
rigging so that she could only run be-
fore the wind back to Bahia, and threw
every weapon overheard. He captured
oCNSiis Ouu hoiI lAiC lioopo, aii
the treasure, fought and out-maneu-
vered the war fleet so that he could
not be caught, and only let thirteen
wretched vessels escape to Lisbon.
Such a deed of war has never been
matched in the worlds annals, and
Cochrane followed it by forcing the
whole of northern Brazil to an abject
surrender.
Like the patriots of Chilli and Peru,
the Brazilians gratefully rewarded
their liberator by cheating him out Of
Ills pay; so next he turned to deliver
Greece from the Turks. Very soon he
found that even the Brazilians were
perfect gentlemen compared with the
Greek patriots, and the heart-sick man
went home.
England was sorry for the way she
had treated her hero, gave back his
naval rank and made him admiral
with command-in-chief of a British
Knight of the Bath in Henry Wis
chapel, granted pension and, at the
end, found him a resting-place In. the
Abbey. On his fathers death he sue
ceeded to the earldom of Dundonald,
and down to 1860, when the old man
went to his rest, his life was devoted
to untiring service. He was among the
first inventors to apply coal gas to
light English streets and homes; he de-
signed the boilers long In use by the
English navy; made bitumen con-
crete for paving, and offered plans for
the reduction of Sebastopol which
would have averted all the horrors of
the siege Yet even to his eightieth
year he was apt to shock and terrify
all persons. and when he was buried
In the nave of the Abbey, Lord Brough-
am pronounced his strange obituary.
What" he exclaimed at the grave
side, mo cabinet minister, no officer
of state TO grace this great mans fu.
neral!" Perhaps they were still
scared Of the poor old hero.