Volume 1 — CHAP. VIII. NAVAL ADMINISTRATION SIXTY YEARS AGO.

POLITICAL FAVOURITISM.—REFUSAL OF FURTHER EMPLOYMENT.—NAVAL CORRUPTION.—DOCKYARD PRACTICES.—SHAMEFUL TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR.—ECONOMY THE REMEDY.—RESULTS OF MEDICAL ECONOMY.—EMPTY PHYSIC BOTTLES.—SEAMEN’S AVERSION TO THE SERVICE.—A POST CAPTAIN AT COLLEGE.

It will be evident on a perusal of the previous chapter, that there was no fixed principle for the promotion of officers who had distinguished themselves, but that however desirous the Board might be to reward their services, it was in the power of persons holding inferior offices to thwart the intentions of the Board itself.

Were such a principle admitted, nothing could be more detrimental to the service. Let every officer know the regulated reward for a national service, with the certainty that he cannot be deprived of it, and rely upon it, that whenever opportunity presents itself, the service will be performed. There is nothing mercenary, or even selfish about this; but, on the contrary, an ambition which should be carefully fostered.

In my own case, I can conscientiously avow my leading motive to have been that of exerting myself to the utmost in the hope of thereby attaining promotion in my profession, to which promotion the capture of 153an enemy’s frigate, as well as of a large number of privateers and other vessels, had entitled me, according to a judicious rule for the encouragement of efforts useful to the nation—to a place on the list, from which I conceived myself unjustly excluded by the promotion of a younger man, a junior commander too, for no great apparent reason than that of his father being a personal and political friend of the First Lord of the Admiralty.

To those who may think my conduct towards the First Lord and the Board disrespectful, I can only say, that were my life to begin anew, with my present experience of consequences, I would again pursue the same course. I cannot imagine anything more detrimental to the interests of the Navy and the nation, than political favouritism on the part of the Admiralty—of itself sufficient to damp that ardour which should form one of the first requisites for future command. I would rather say to the young officer—“If you have, in the exercise of your profession, acquired a right which is wrongfully withheld—demand it, stick to it with unshaken pertinacity;—none but a corrupt body can possibly think the worse of you for it; even though you may be treated like myself—you are doing your country good service by exposing favouritism, which is only another term for corruption.”

Favouritism on the part of the Admiralty must ever be the bane of the Navy, and may prove its ruin. Either let it be understood that the institution is a parliamentary vote market, or that it is what it ought to be—an institution for the promotion of zeal by the reward of merit. Only let it not sustain both characters, 154or between the two stools the country may one day go to the ground.

Such was the offence taken by the authorities at my persistence in my own right, and in that of the officers under my command, that an application to the Board for another ship met with refusal; and as it was clear that Lord St. Vincent’s administration did not again intend to employ me, the time on my hands was devoted to an investigation of those abuses which were paralysing the Navy; not that this was entered upon from any spirit of retaliation on the Admiralty, but as preparatory to the more ambitious aim of getting into Parliament, and exposing them.

One of the most crying evils of our then naval administration had fallen heavily upon me, though so young in command—viz. the Admiralty Courts; but for the peculations consequent on which, the cruise of the Speedy ought to have sent home myself, officers, and crew, with competence. As it was, we got all the fighting, whilst the Admiralty Court and its hungry parasites monopolised the greater portion of our hard-won prize-money. In many cases they took the whole! and in one case brought me in debt, though the prize was worth several thousand pounds!

Hitherto no naval officer had ventured to expose, in Parliament or out of it, this or indeed any other gross abuse of the naval service; and having nothing better to do, want of employment appeared to offer a fitting opportunity for constituting myself the Quixote of the profession; sparing no pains to qualify for the task, though well aware of its arduous, if not hopeless nature—as 155directed against a mass of corruption, such as—it is to be hoped—may never again strike at the noblest arm of our national safety a blow worse than any enemy can inflict.

After what has been stated with regard to my unpleasant relations with Lord St. Vincent and his Board of Admiralty, it will perhaps be better not personally to enter on the subject of then existing naval abuses, lest I might be suspected of exaggerating their extent. Some such explanation is necessary in justification of the course which I subsequently thought it my duty to pursue, but it will answer every purpose to have recourse to the experience of a contemporary officer—Captain Brenton, the biographer of Lord St. Vincent—in justification of my self-imposed task:—

“In the first edition of the Naval History, I have commented on the profligate system of hired vessels and transports. In this—borough influence reigned paramount, and the most solid information was disregarded when the perpetrator of the greatest frauds was a supporter of Government.”—(Brenton’s Life of Lord St. Vincent, p. 167.)

“A ship purchased by a man of influence was a certain fortune to him. He cleared his money in the first year at the rate of 400l. per month, and if the ship were coppered at 7500l. per annum. About twenty copper-bottomed transports were lying for three years in the harbour of Messina, without being employed in any duty.”—(p. 169.)

The expense of these alone, no doubt all owned by “men of influence” as Captain Brenton terms them, was for the three years 270,000l. As these transports formed only a trifling illustration of the system, there 156is little wonder at the enormous accumulation of the national debt, for results so inadequate.

Captain Brenton might have gone farther, and stated with great truth, that not only were transports hired from men of influence, but that vessels utterly worthless were purchased by the Government from their political supporters, and then patched up into ships of war! It was my misfortune to be subsequently appointed to a collier so converted—with what result will appear in the sequel.

From the ships let us follow Captain Brenton into the dockyards:—

“When Mr. Colquhoun, in his celebrated police reports, stated that the Government was plundered from the dockyards at the rate of a million a year, he was supposed to have exceeded all probability. I am satisfied he was under the mark, and if the consequences of these frauds are added to the amount of peculation, the aggregate will be frightful. The manner in which the villany was carried on was dreadful indeed. Whole ships’ crews were destroyed at one fell swoop. Every ship was supposed to have a certain number of bolts driven to secure her fabric. The tops and points of the bolts only were driven, and the rest was carried away. It is probable that the loss of the York of 64 guns, and the Blenheim of 74 guns, was the consequence. The Albion, 74, we know to have been nearly lost by this hellish fraud.”—(Brenton, pp. 159, 160.)

“I can remember what our slop clothing was, for which the poor seamen were charged an extravagant price; the contract being always given as a matter of favour for electioneering purposes.”—(p. 156.)

“Not only were the grossest impositions practised in the supply of the most important stores, by sending in damaged 157goods, but even the raw materials were again sold before they reached their destination.”—(p. 157.)

“At the cooperage of Deptford, 1020l. 10s. 5d. was charged for work proved to be worth only 37l. 2s. 3d. At the cooperage at Plymouth, the king’s casks were stolen, and sixty-four of them were found in one brewery.”—(p. 183.)

“It was a common expression with the receiving clerks that they ‘had not been hampered,—’ when they refused to receive articles into store. The ‘hampering’ meant a bribe in the shape of wine or other articles, as the price of their certificates.”—(p. 155.)

“It would scarcely be believed to what extent peculation was carried on in every department.”—(p. 155.)

“Hampers of wine and ale were liberally supplied to the inspectors of timber, and I conclude that the same treatment was applied to the measuring clerks of the dockyard.”—(p. 179.)

“From the foregoing it may be inferred that the dockyards were the most fruitful sources of plunder and national ruin.”—(p. 180.)

“Report No. 6 relates to the dockyards, wherein a shameful system of plunder had long existed.”

“Reports 10 and 11 state other abuses to an enormous extent, so that Lord St. Vincent used the elegant expression that ‘our dockyards stank of corruption.’”—(p. 190.)

From this disgraceful picture let us pass on to another still more revolting:—

“The victualling establishment at home was not less corrupt. The charge for the supply of prisoners of war was ample, but three-fourths of the amount was pilfered. The same nefarious system pursued in the hospitals abroad was followed at home in a more guarded manner, and fortunes were made by cheating the sick and wounded seamen out of the comforts and necessaries allowed them by a grateful country. Lord Cochrane endeavoured to procure better 158rations and treatment for the French prisoners, but the charge of sick and wounded prisoners of war fell in its administration into the hands of a set of villains whose seared consciences were proof against the silent but eloquent pleadings of their fellow-creatures.”—(p. 165.)

“Report No. 7 relates to the hospitals, beginning with Stonehouse at Devonport. Here was discovered waste, corruption, fraud, extravagance, and villany to a disgusting extent. Four thousand gallons of porter were consumed in six months, being more than four times the proportion used in Haslar. On board the Calne hulk, appropriated to sick prisoners of war, the surgeon’s chief assistant kept a table for the officers at the cost of 1500l. or 2000l. a year. He could afford the purser a large salary, in lieu of his share of the profit of the concern. The worst and most scandalous feature was, that when the wretches in the wardroom were rioting in luxury they were consuming the necessaries which the Government had liberally supplied for the use of the sick prisoners of war.

“I hope there is sufficient virtue in Parliament to punish great delinquents, if not the country will not stagger long under the practice of these blood-sucking leeches.”—(Letter of Lord St. Vincent, quoted by Brenton.)

Abroad the condition of affairs was infinitely worse, both as regarded the navy and army. The following extract from the “Annual Register,” at a period when the press hardly dared to speak truth, will serve as a sample of the practices prevailing wherever an official staff was to be found:—

“The abuses committed in the West Indies are said to exceed everything that was ever stated in romance. The commissioners are stated to have discovered that forged bills and receipts, for articles never purchased, and bills drawn on Government indorsed under forged and fictitious names, were 159common and notorious. They found a most base collusion between the officers of Government and the merchants and contractors, by which the latter were allowed to charge stores at a much higher rate than they might have been obtained for in the market. In one instance it was discovered, that to conceal this iniquity, a bribe of 18,000l. had been given; in another a bribe of 35,000l. Vessels, houses, stores, &c. were usually hired at most extravagant rates, in consequence of fraudulent contracts, where others might have been obtained much cheaper. But worse than either of these iniquities was the diabolical fraud of suffering the merchants and contractors to furnish His Majesty’s troops with inferior and bad rum, and other articles, at an extravagant rate, by which the lives of the troops were endangered, as well as the country defrauded. And, for the purpose of committing these practices, all free competition for the supply of articles was prevented; and every obstacle was put in the way, even of the purchase of bills on the Treasury. They were dated in one island and negotiated in another; and they were sold at a much more advantageous exchange than that at which the officers debited themselves in their accounts.”

There is no doubt but that Lord St. Vincent was desirous of putting a stop to this national plunder, and the wholesale destruction of sick, wounded, and prisoners, which was its direct consequence; but the means he took were inadequate. His lordship’s remedy was “economy!” leaving the influential delinquents in quiet possession of their places. The most extravagant contracts and profuse expenditure of the public money were thus to be cured by no expenditure at all on necessary objects.

One of Lord St. Vincent’s agents in this notable scheme, was a Dr. Baird, who possessed his lordship’s highest confidence. To this person was confided the 160task of regenerating the hospitals. As may be supposed, from his profession, economy in medicine was the first step. An order was issued that blue ointment and pills, requisite only for complaints that might be avoided, were doled out in minimum quantity. The consequence was, that the captains and surgeons of ships of war had to purchase these essential medicines out of their own pockets! more especially as a subsequent order was issued that no such complaints, should be treated in the hospitals!

A more barbarous regulation was enforced, viz, that from the expense of lint in dressing wounds, sponge should be substituted, as it might be used over again! The result was that even slight cases became infected by the application of sponges which had been used on putrescent sores, and this shameful practice cost the lives or limbs of many. I was myself on a survey at the Devonport hospital, where seven persons had lost limbs from this cause! and proposed to the other surveying captains to draw up a representation to the Admiralty on the consequences of applying infected sponge; but the advice was not followed for fear of giving offence.

One of the unfortunate sufferers, amongst others, was a son of the boatswain or gunner of the then flagship, the Salvador del Mundo. The poor boy had bruised his shin, to which an infected sponge was applied, and he lost his leg! Persons so mutilated had no claim on the service for pension or reward. It was this very hospital to which Captain Brenton, in the preceding extracts, applied the terms “waste, corruption, 161fraud, extravagance, and villany to a disgusting extent.” The remedy was the application of infected sponge!!

Dr. Baird had the oddest possible notions of the mission with which he was entrusted. As to striking at the root of an evil he had not the most remote conception, otherwise than by saving. He one day said to me; “The extravagance of this place is incredible. I have to-day found what will save one thousand pounds.” “Ah, Doctor,” said I, “what is that?” “Why,” replied he, “would you believe it, in the cellars under the hospital I have found tens of thousands of empty physic bottles! Did you ever hear of such waste!” And the doctor set busily to work to dispose of the empty bottles in order to pay for his medicines,—this being his idea of correcting the most crying evil of the hospital.

A still more absurd instance of the doctor’s economy gave rise at the time to considerable amusement. Everybody knows that a sailor requires as much looking after as a child. It was Jack’s practice when sick in hospital, to get out and scale a wall for the purpose of smuggling in spirits, these of course undoing the little that medical treatment could effect. To put an end to the practice, the authorities had ordered the wall to be raised, but Dr. Baird stopped the work, because a coating of broken glass-bottles on the top of the old wall would be more economical to the nation and equally effectual! A chevaux de frise of broken glass was accordingly put on, but, to the doctor’s annoyance, Jack, with a brickbat, pounded up the broken glass, and got to the 162spirit shop as before. Whereupon the doctor declared his belief that “sailors were as far gone in wickedness as the hospital authorities themselves.”

These were the kinds of reform adopted, the ultimate result being that Lord St. Vincent was more blamed than had been any of his predecessors, and was, on quitting the Admiralty, driven to the undignified alternative of filing a string of affidavits in the King’s Bench in defence of his character!^[30]

Much has been said about the difficulty of manning the Navy, by persons who had not a knowledge of the arbitrary and cruel practices above mentioned, and of many others on which it would be tedious to dilate, but which, under pretence of zeal for the promotion of the service, rendered the service at that time almost intolerable. No man acquainted with the facts can wonder that interminable cruises, prohibition to land in port, constant confinement without salutary change of food, and consequent disease engendering total debility, should have excited disgust, and even terror of a sailor’s life; to which may be added, the condemnation of invalids to harbour-duty, far more severe than duty afloat, with no chance of escape but by a return to actual service, where, strange to say, though unfit, such men were again received!

The instances of abuses just given form but a brief outline of the state of the Navy at that period. From these the reader may imagine the rest. Suffice it to say, that I used all diligence to store both my memory 163and note-book with facts, to be used when I might be able to expose them with effect.

No opportunity, however, immediately occurring, I betook myself to the College of Edinburgh, then distinguished by possessing some of the most eminent professors in the kingdom. In the early part of this volume the desultory and imperfect education which fell to my lot has been noticed. It had, nevertheless, sufficed to convince me of the truth of the axiom that “knowledge is power,” and also to decide that in my case power if proportioned to knowledge could be of no very high order. It was therefore my determination to increase both to the best of my ability.

It was, perhaps, an unusual spectacle for a post-captain fresh from the quarter-deck, to enter himself as a student among boys. For my self-imposed position I cared nothing, and was only anxious to employ myself to the best advantage. With what success may be judged from the fact of my never being but once absent from lectures, and that to attend the funeral of a near relative.

Whilst at Edinburgh, I made few acquaintances, preferring secluded lodgings and study without interruption to the gaiety of my contemporaries. Besides which, if my object of getting into Parliament were to be accomplished, it was necessary to be economical, since all that the Admiralty Court had been pleased to leave me of my prize-money would not more than suffice to satisfy the yearnings of a small borough, for which the only hope of election was by outbribing my antagonists.

164Amongst my contemporaries at the Edinburgh College was Lord Palmerston, who resided with the most eminent of the then Scotch professors, Dugald Stewart, and attended the classes at the same time with myself.

I might also mention others, of whose society in after life I should have been proud, had not the shameful treatment which it was afterwards my lot to experience from a corrupt faction, driven me from society at a time when it ought to have afforded me a welcome relaxation from hard and unintermitting exertions in the service of my country.

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