In all the movements of the tented field They mix, and bear with pride, among the brave, Long, gallant leaders of this gallant race! Long may your hands our conquering squadrons grace; The 'pomp, pride, circumstance,' of glorious war!" From "Pleasures of the Naval Life." N a former Chapter has been collected the little that can be traced of the deeds of Marine Detachments when embarked during the 18th Century; Trafalgar will be dealt with in the ensuing chapter, and it is proposed now to put before the reader the few details of the experiences of the Corps in action afloat in the early part of the 19th Century which have come down to us, together with various instances of individual heroism in officers and men when serving under the pennant. The tendency for some years, possibly from the difficulty of getting seamen, had been to gradually increase the number of Marines on board our men-of-war. In 1742 a 100-gun ship carried a detachment of one Captain, three Subalterns, and one hundred men, but in 1810 a similar ship's complement of Marines was one hundred and sixty-six N.C.Os. and men with the same number of officers as before. The quality of the men had also improved. We have seen that Anson's Marines, and many of those who took part in Vernon's ill-fated and ill-managed attempt on Carthagena, were very raw warriors -bravely as they fought-and there is little or nothing to shew that they were any use as gunners on board ship or for Naval purposes not of a strictly military nature. This rawness is complained of both by Lieut. O'Loghlan and Lieut. McIntyre, writing in 1766 and 1763,1 and the former suggests that his Corps should be instructed in gunnery. But by the beginning of the 19th Century all this was changed. Not only had the Marines begun to assist at the great guns, but had acquired many of the accomplishments of seamen without losing their distinctly military character. The Naval Chronicle of 1803 relates the embarkation of a Captain, three Subalterns, six Sergeants, and one hundred rank and file, in March of that year, on board the Mars then fitting for sea in the Hamoaze. "The propriety of embarking Royal Marines thus early in the fitting out of men-of-war is perfectly obvious, as they are from long habit in the late wars, good seamen, and very fit for rigging and getting ready for sea ships put into commission." It is pretty evident therefore, that though officers were forbidden to order them aloft, they must very often have volunteered to go. There is even an instance of an officer of the Corps losing his life in going aloft on board a transport when none of the seamen could be induced to venture. The following is a contemporary account of this incident published in 1814: "The Bellerophon, on her passage home from Newfoundland, fell in with a transport, some officers who were on board of which, reported that the crew having refused to go aloft during some severe weather, when the safety of the ship required they should, Lieut. J. F. Jewers, R.M., volunteered to effect what the whole of the crew refused to undertake. In ascending the rigging a spar fell upon him and killed him instantly. He was on passage to England having been invalided from the Minden, and was a very promising young officer."2 But to return to our subject. The first case we have to mention of individual heroism afloat is that of Lieutenant Tait, on 3rd April, 1801, which is thus related in a print of the time: 66 On the last cruise off the coast of France, the Trent frigate, commanded by Sir Edward Hamilton, chased an English vessel that had been taken into Havrede-Grace in the night. Several officers volunteered their services to cut her out. One of these officers was Lieut. Tait of the Marines. They succeeded in the gallant enterprise, and the only person wounded was Mr. Tait, who unfortunately lost his leg. On the prize money being paid to the crew for the re-capture, they exhibited an instance of generosity truly great, for the whole of them went aft to the Captain, and begged he would take the shares they had received and apropriate them for the use of Lieut. Tait, as a testimony of the very high respect they had 1 Vide Chapter IX. 2 It is interesting to note that Major Shanks of the Royal Marines is the only soldier who ever stood on the main truck of a line of-battleships (one of the old three-deckers). This was performed on board the Queen (120 guns), on the way out to the Crimea, and several of those who witnessed this feat are now living.-Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood was a midshipman in the ship at the time. for his talents as an officer and his courage as a man, which he had evinced in the manner he had conducted himself on that occasion. The Captain declined accepting their very generous offer, and insisted on every man taking his share, saying Lieut. Tait's conduct had been represented and he had no doubt of its being adequately rewarded. Sir Edward Hamilton was so pleased with the Lieutenant's conduct that soon after the transaction he made him a present of one hundred guineas to purchase a sword. This is an instance of Naval Merit which leaves us entirely incapable of determining which deserves most the palm of honour, the crew for their laudable generosity, the Lieutenant for his spirit, or the Commander for his noble behaviour in taking the task upon himself of rewarding the bravery of the Lieutenant. He was awarded a pension of £40 a year for his wound, afterwards increased to £50. The gallant spirit of Lieutenant James Davis Williams, a young officer only 20 years of age, who was killed on board H.M.S. Hannibal in action in the Bay of Algeziras (6th July, 1801), is described in a letter from the surgeon of the ship to his father. "Captain Ferris and myself," he writes, "feelingly condole with you on the present occasion; yet it may be some consolation to you that he died like a hero. He was the first who was wounded upon the poop, and the same shot killed the Captain's clerk, knocked Captain Ferris down, and killed six Marines. Your son's right leg was entirely smashed to pieces, and the left very much shattered, besides being otherwise very much bruised. I amputated his right leg, and otherwise dressed and took every possible care of him till the action was over, which lasted five hours; after which the ship caught fire in three different places in the cock-pit; and I sincerely wish I could throw a veil over the dreadful catastrophe which then followed, as the French and Spanish soldiers and sailors in extinguishing the fire, trod great numbers of the wounded to death. Your son, however, survived, and late in the evening, I got him sent to the hospital at Algeziras; but from the loss of blood, the very dreadful contusions, etc., he was quite exhausted, and died the next day. He bore his misfortunes with the greatest courage; and often declared that he did not regard his own wounds, or even death, provided we were but successful. None of us saved any of our clothes in the general and dreadful confusion; and although I sent him to the hospital in a cot and mattress, yet they had taken away everything from him next day. He was buried with decency. Reading between the lines it would appear that this poor young fellow owed his death rather to the brutality of the enemy than to his wounds. The Marines participated in the attack on the Boulogne Flotilla on the night of 15-16 August, 1801, in which operation they suffered severe casualities. The whole conditions were against success. The enemy were fully prepared; every vessel was defended by long poles headed with iron spikes projecting from their sides, strong nettings were triced up to their lower yards, they were moored to the shore by train cables and crammed with soldiers. They were covered by the fire of batteries and the musketry of large bodies of troops who lined the shore. Nelson, who commanded the blockading fleet off the port would most probably not have ordered the attempt had it not been for the popular clamour in England aroused by the fear of invasion by the great assemblage of troops and small craft |