Volume 1 — CHAPTER I. MY BOYHOOD, AND ENTRANCE INTO THE NAVY.

YOUNGER BRANCH SUCCEEDS TO EARLDOM.—ALIENATION OF FAMILY ESTATES.—MY FATHER’S SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS.—HIS RUINOUS MANUFACTURING PROJECTS.—A NEGLECTED DISCOVERY.—COMMUNICATED TO JAMES WATT.—LORD DUNDONALD’S AGRICULTURAL WORKS STILL HELD IN ESTIMATION.—EARLY REMINISCENCES.—MY FIRST VISIT TO LONDON.—MY FATHER DESTINES ME FOR THE ARMY.—A COMMISSION PROCURED.—MY AVERSION TO THE MILITARY PROFESSION.—OUR RETURN TO SCOTLAND.—I AM PERMITTED TO ENTER THE NAVY.

My birth is recorded as having taken place on the 14th of December, 1775, at Annsfield in Lanarkshire. My father was Archibald, ninth Earl of Dundonald; my mother, Anna Gilchrist, daughter of Captain Gilchrist, a distinguished officer of the Royal Navy.^[16]

My father was descended from John, the younger son of the first earl—noticed in the introductory chapter as the compatriot of Argyll. On default of issue in the elder branch of the family the title devolved 35on my grandfather, Thomas, who married the daughter of Archibald Stuart, Esq., of Torrence, in Lanarkshire, and had issue one daughter and twelve sons, the most distinguished amongst whom, in a public capacity, was Admiral the Honourable Sir Alexander, father of the present Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane.^[17]

Some of my father’s earlier years were spent in the Navy, in which he became acting lieutenant. A cruise on the coast of Guinea gave him a distaste for 36the naval profession, which, in after years, postponed my entrance therein far beyond the usual period. On his return home he quitted the navy for a commission in the army, which was, after a time, also relinquished.

Of our once extensive ancestral domains I never inherited a foot. In the course of a century, and before the title descended to our branch, nearly the whole of the family estates had been alienated by losses incurred in support of one generation of the Stuarts, rebellion against another, and mortgages, or other equally destructive process,—the consequence of both. A remnant may latterly have fallen into other hands from my father’s negligence in not looking after it, and his unentailed estates were absorbed by expensive scientific pursuits presently to be noticed. So that my outset in life was that of heir to a peerage, without other expectations than those arising from my own exertions.

My father’s day was that of Cavendish, Black, Priestley, Watt, and others, now become historical as the forerunners of modern practical science. Imbued with like spirit, and in intimate communication with these distinguished men, he emulated their example with no mean success, as the philosophical records of that period testify. But whilst they prudently confined their attention to their laboratories, my father’s sanguine expectations of retrieving the family estates 37by his discoveries led him to embark in a multitude of manufacturing projects. The motive was excellent; but his pecuniary means being incommensurate with the magnitude of his transactions, its object was frustrated, and our remaining patrimony melted like the flux in his crucibles; his scientific knowledge, as often happens, being unaccompanied by the self-knowledge which would have taught him that he was not, either by habit or inclination, a “man of business.” Many who were so, knew how to profit by his inventions without the trouble of discovery, whilst their originator was occupied in developing new practical facts to be turned to their advantage, and his consequent loss.

An enumeration of some of my father’s manufacturing transactions, extensively and simultaneously carried on, will leave no doubt as to their failure in a pecuniary sense. First, the preparation of soda from common salt, as a substitute for barilla,—till then the only alkali available for soap and glass making. Secondly, a manufactory for improvement in the production of alumina, as a mordant for silk and calico printers. Thirdly, an establishment for preparing British gum as a substitute for gum Senegal, these products being in use amongst calico-printers to the present day; the latter especially being at that distant period of great utility, as the foreign gum was scarce and expensive. A fourth manufactory had for its object the preparation of sal ammoniac. At a fifth was carried on the manufacture of white lead, by a process then new to productive science. A sixth establishment, on a ruinous scale as compared with his resources, was for a new 38process of extracting tar and other products from pit-coal; the former as an effective agent in protecting timber from decay, whilst the refuse coke was in request amongst ironfounders, whose previous operations for its manufacture were wasteful and unsatisfactory.^[18]

After this enumeration, it is unnecessary to dilate on its ruinous results. It is simply the old adage of “too many irons in the fire.” One by one his inventions fell into other hands, some by fair sale, but most of them by piracy, when it became known that he had nothing left wherewith to maintain his rights. In short, with seven children to provide for, he found himself a ruined man.

In the present state of manufacturing science, by which the above objects are accomplished through improved means, the mention of such matters may, at first sight, appear unnecessary. Yet, seventy years ago they bore the same relation to the manufacturing processes of our time as at that period did the crude attempts at the steam engine to its modern perfection. In this point of view—which 39is the true one—reference to my father’s patents, though now superseded by improvements, will fairly entitle him to no mean place amongst other inventors of his day, who deservedly rank as benefactors to their country.

One of my father’s scientific achievements must not be passed over. Cavendish had some time previously ascertained the existence of hydrogen. Priestley had become acquainted with its inflammable character; but the Earl of Dundonald may fairly lay claim to the practical application of its illuminating power in a carburetted form.

In prosecution of his coal-tar patent, my father went to reside at the family estate of Culross Abbey, the better to superintend the works on his own collieries, as well as others on the adjoining estates of Valleyfield and Kincardine. In addition to these works, an experimental tar-kiln was erected near the Abbey, and here coal-gas became accidentally employed in illumination. Having noticed the inflammable nature of a vapour arising during the distillation of tar, the Earl, by way of experiment, fitted a gun-barrel to the eduction pipe leading from the condenser. On applying fire to the muzzle, a vivid light blazed forth across the waters of the Frith, becoming, as was afterwards ascertained, distinctly visible on the opposite shore.

Strangely enough, though quick in appreciating a new fact, Lord Dundonald lightly passed over the only practical product which might have realised his expectations of retrieving the dilapidated fortunes of our house; considering tar and coke to constitute the legitimate 40objects of his experiments, and regarding the illuminating property of gas merely as a curious natural phenomenon. Like Columbus, he had the egg before him, but, unlike Columbus, he did not hit upon the right method of setting it on end.

The incident just narrated took place about the year 1782 and the circumstances attending it are the more vividly impressed on my memory from an event which occurred during a subsequent journey with my father to London. On our way we paid a visit to James Watt, then residing at Handsworth, near Birmingham, and amongst other scientific subjects discussed during our stay were the various products of coal, including the gas-light phenomenon of the Culross Abbey tar-kiln. This gave rise to some interesting conversation, which, however, ended without further result.

Many years afterwards, Mr. Murdoch, then one of Watt’s assistants at Soho, applied coal-gas to the illumination of that establishment, though even with this practical demonstration its adoption for purposes of general public utility did not keep pace with the importance of the fact thus successfully developed, until, by the persevering endeavours of Mr. Winsor, its advantages overcame prejudice.^[19]

41It is no detraction from Mr. Murdoch’s merit of having been the first to turn coal-gas to useful account, to infer that Watt might, at some period during the interval, have narrated to him the incident just mentioned, and that the fact accidentally developed by my father had thus become the subject of long and careful experiment; for this must have been the case before the complete achievement shone forth in perfection. Mr. Murdoch, so far as I am aware, never laid claim to a discovery of the illuminating property of coal-gas, but to its useful application only, to which his right is indisputable. As it is not generally known to whom an earlier practical appreciation of gas-light was in reality due, I have placed these facts on record.

One notice more of my father’s investigations may be permissible. To Sir Humphry Davy is usually ascribed the honour of first pointing out the relation between Agriculture and Chemistry. Reference to a work published in 1795, entitled “A Treatise showing the intimate connection between Agriculture and Chemistry, by the Earl of Dundonald,” will decide the priority. Davy’s work may in a theoretical point of view surpass that of my father, inasmuch as the analytical chemical science of a more modern date is more minute than that of the last century; but in point of patient investigation from countless practical experiments, my father’s work is more than equal to that of his distinguished successor in the same field, and is, indeed, held in no small estimation at the present time.^[20]

42The reader will readily pardon me for thus devoting a few pages by way of a tribute to a parent, whose memory still exists amongst my most cherished recollections; even though his discoveries, now of national utility, ruined him, and deprived his posterity of their remaining paternal inheritance.

During boyhood we had the misfortune to lose our mother^[21], and as our domestic fortunes were even then at a low ebb, great difficulty was experienced in providing us with the means of education—four of us being then at an age to profit by more ample opportunities. In this emergency, temporary assistance was volunteered by Mr. Rolland, the minister of Culross, who thus evinced his gratitude for favours received in the more auspicious days of the family. Highly as was the offer appreciated, family pride prevented our reaping from it the advantage contemplated by a learned and truly excellent man.

Perceiving our education imperilled, the devotedness of my maternal grandmother, Mrs. Gilchrist, prompted her to apply her small income to the exigencies of her grandchildren. By the aid thus opportunely afforded, 43a tutor was provided, of whom my most vivid recollection is a stinging box on the ear, in reply to a query as to the difference between an interjection and a conjunction; this solution of the difficulty effectually repressing further philological inquiry on my part.

We were, after a time, temporarily provided with a French tutor, a Monsieur Durand, who, being a Papist, was regarded with no complacent eye by our not very tolerant Presbyterian neighbours. I recollect this gentleman getting into a scrape, which, but for my father’s countenance, might have ended in a Kirk Session.

As a matter of course, Monsieur Durand did not attend church. On one side of the churchyard was the Culross Abbey cherry-garden, full of fine fruit, of which he was very fond, as were also the magpies, which swarmed in the district. One Sunday, whilst the people were at church, the magpies, aware no doubt of their advantage, made a vigorous onslaught on the cherries—provoking the Frenchman, who was on the watch, to open fire on the intruders from a fowling-piece. The effect of this reached farther than the magpies. To fire a gun on the Sabbath was an abomination which could only have emanated from a disciple of the Scarlet Lady, and neither before nor after did I witness such a hubbub in the parish. Whatever pains and penalties were to be found in Scottish church law were eagerly demanded for Monsieur Durand’s benefit, and it was only by my father’s influence that he was permitted to escape the threatened martyrdom. Annoyed at the ill-feeling thus created, he relinquished his engagement before we had acquired the rudiments of the French language.

44Even this inadequate tuition was abruptly ended by my father taking me with him to London. His object in visiting the metropolis was to induce the Government to make use of coal-tar for protecting the bottoms of inferior ships of war—for in those days copper sheathing was unknown. The best substitute—by no means a general one—was to drive large-headed iron nails over the whole ship’s bottom, which had thus the appearance of being “hobnailed.” Even this indifferent covering was accorded to superior vessels only, the smaller class being entirely left to the ravages of the worm. It was for the protection of these small vessels that my father hoped to get his application adopted, and there is no doubt of the benefit which would have resulted had the experiment been permitted.

But this was an innovation, and the Board of Admiralty being then, as too often since, opposed to everything inconsistent with ancient routine, refused to entertain his proposal. It was only by means of political influence that he at length induced the Navy Board to permit him, at his own expense, to cover with his composition one side of the buoy at the Nore. The result was satisfactory, but he was not allowed to repeat the process. As compared with the exposure at that time of ships’ bottoms to rapid destruction, without any effort to protect them, my father’s plan was even a greater improvement than is the modern substitution of copper-sheathing for the “hobnail” surface which it tardily superseded.

Failing to induce the Government to protect their ships of war, he applied to the mercantile interest, 45but with no better success. I remember going with my father to Limehouse, in the hope of inducing a large shipbuilder there to patronise his composition; but the shipbuilder had even a greater horror of innovation than the Admiralty authorities. His reply was remarkable. “My Lord,” said he, “we live by repairing ships as well as by building them, and the worm is our best friend. Rather than use your preparation, I would cover ships’ bottoms with honey to attract worms!”

Foiled in London, my father set on foot agencies at the outports, in the hope of inducing provincial shipbuilders to adopt his preservative. Prejudice, however, was not confined to the metropolis, and the objection of the Limehouse man was everywhere encountered. Neither they, nor any artisans in wood, would patronise a plan to render their work durable.

Unsuccessful everywhere, my father turned his attention to myself. My destination was originally the army, whether accordant with my taste or not—for he was not one of those who considered it necessary to consult the inclinations of his children in the choice of a profession; but rather how he could best bring family influence to bear upon their future interests. Unfortunately for his passive obedience theory, my penchant was for the sea; any hint, however, to this effect was peremptorily silenced by parental authority, against which it was useless to contend.

My uncle, the Hon. Captain, afterwards Admiral, Sir Alexander Cochrane, had the sagacity to perceive, that as inclination became more rooted with my growth, passive obedience on this point might 46one day come to an end. Still further, he was kind enough to provide against such contingency, should it arise. Unknown to my father, he had entered my name on the books of various vessels under his command; so that, nominally, I had formed part of the complement of the Vesuvius, Carolina, La Sophie, and Hind; the object—common in those days—being, to give me a few years’ standing in the service, should it become my profession in reality.

Having, however, a relative in the army, who possessed influence at the Horse Guards, a military commission was also procured for me; so that I had simultaneously the honour of being an officer in his Majesty’s 104th Regiment, and a nominal seaman on board my uncle’s ship.

By way of initiation into the mysteries of the military profession, I was placed under the tuition of an old sergeant, whose first lessons well accorded with his instructions, not to pay attention to my foibles. My hair, cherished with boyish pride, was formally cut, and plastered back with a vile composition of candle-grease and flour, to which was added the torture incident to the cultivation of an incipient queue. My neck, from childhood open to the lowland breeze, was encased in an inflexible leathern collar or stock, selected according to my preceptor’s notions of military propriety; these almost verging on strangulation. A blue semi-military tunic, with red collar and cuffs, in imitation of the Windsor uniform, was provided, and to complete the tout ensemble, my father, who was a determined Whig partisan, insisted on my wearing yellow waistcoat and 47breeches; yellow being the Whig colour, of which I was admonished never to be ashamed. A more certain mode of calling into action the dormant obstinacy of a sensitive, high-spirited lad, could not have been devised than that of converting him into a caricature, hateful to himself, and ridiculous to others.

As may be imagined, my costume was calculated to attract attention, the more so from being accompanied by a stature beyond my years. Passing one day near the Duke of Northumberland’s palace at Charing-Cross, I was beset by a troop of ragged boys, evidently bent on amusing themselves at the expense of my personal appearance, and, in their peculiar slang, indulging in comments thereon far more critical than complimentary.

Stung to the quick, I made my escape from them, and rushing home, begged my father to let me go to sea with my uncle, in order to save me from the degradation of floured head, pigtail, and yellow breeches. This burst of despair aroused the indignation of the parent and the Whig, and the reply was a sound cuffing. Remonstrance was useless; but my dislike to everything military became confirmed; and the events of that day certainly cost His Majesty’s 104th Regiment an officer, notwithstanding that my military training proceeded with redoubled severity.

At this juncture, my father’s circumstances became somewhat improved by a second marriage^[22], so that my 48brother Basil and myself were sent to Mr. Chauvet’s academy in Kensington Square, in order to perfect our military education—Basil, like myself, being destined for the army. At this excellent school we only remained six months; for with slightly increased resources my father resumed his ruinous manufacturing pursuits, so that we were compelled by the “res angusta domi” to return to Scotland.^[23]

Four years and a half were now wasted without further attempt to secure for us any regular training. We had, however, during the short advantage enjoyed at Kensington, studied diligently, and were thus enabled to make some progress by self-tuition, our tutor’s acquirements extending only to teaching the rudiments to the younger branches of the family. Knowing that my future career depended on my own efforts, and more than ever determined not to take up my military commission, I worked assiduously at the meagre elements of knowledge 49within my reach, in the hope that by unremitting industry my father might be convinced that opposition to his views was no idle whim, but the result of conviction that I should not excel in an obnoxious profession.

Pleased with my progress, and finding my resolution in favour of the naval service unalterable, he at length consented that my commission should be cancelled, and that the renewed offer of my uncle to receive me on board his frigate should be accepted.

The difficulty was to equip me for sea, but it was obviated by the Earl of Hopetoun considerately advancing 100l. for the purpose. With this sum the requisite outfit was procured, and a few days placed me in a position to seek my fortune, with my father’s gold watch as a keepsake—the only patrimony I ever inherited.

The Dowager Countess of Dundonald, then meditating a journey to London, offered to take me with her. On our arrival in the metropolis, after what was at that time the formidable achievement of a tour through Wales, her ladyship went to reside with her brother, General James Stuart, in Grosvenor Street; but, anxious to become initiated in the mysteries of my profession, I preferred going on board the Hind at Sheerness; joining that ship on the 27th of June 1793, at the mature age, for a midshipman, of seventeen years and a half.

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