CROCKFORD'S; OR, LIFE IN THE WEST. DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO THE

RIGHT HON. ROBERT PEEL, M.P...........

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260

THE

LONDON MAGAZINE.

FEBRUARY 1, 1828.

CHARACTER OF LORD COLLINGWOOD.

A Selection from the Public and Private Correspondence of Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood; interspersed with Memoirs of his Life. By G. L. Newnham Collingwood, Esq. F.R.S. London. Ridgway. 1828.

THE Editor of Lord Collingwood's Correspondence lays the letters of this admirable man before the public, in the confident belief that few occasions will ever be found of presenting to the navy and the world at large a more perfect example of an English sailor. This is true. Lord Collingwood's private letters exhibit all the qualities requisite for the governing a ship, for directing a fleet, for subduing an enemy; and more than this, they show him not merely the perfect sailor but the perfect gentleman-generous, warmhearted, judicious, gentle, brave, affectionate, simple, and honourable. The gross ideas vulgarly entertained of the characteristics of a naval officer will justify some exposition of what that person ought to be, and some exemplification of what he actually was in the person of Collingwood.

Nautical skill, acquired only by time, attention, and with the aid of previous collateral instruction, is of course a most essential qualification: a mere seaman may, however, make a tolerable subordinate officer; but the duties of a commander of a ship's crew require moral qualities as valuable as they are rare. If, indeed, he choose the easier task of playing the tyrant, by the aid of the lash, and by violence of temper and insolent hauteur, he may contrive, in ordinary circumstances, to control the people under his command: he becomes, however, the first devil of a pandæmonium, where the milder spirits lead a life of torture, and the fiercer enjoy the smothered indulgence of hateful passions. An occasion is only wanted to blow all this bad feeling into a flame. If circumstances favour the commander, he may perhaps succeed in subduing it at the expense of a few deaths at the yard-arm, and a few floggings, imprisonments, and short allowances. If he fail, his own life and those of his officers is sacrificed; or should he be able to keep under control the inflamed tempers and rancorous feelings FEB. 1828.

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that corrode the hearts of his crew, his ship is unfit for real service, shows itself wanting in the hour of need, and both men and chief get a black name in the navy. In this Correspondence we find several instances of ships, from the ill-government of the captain, being considered worse than useless; and the admiral beseeching the ministers to withdraw their pernicious aid. Such passages as these occur:

" I once intimated that it would be very agreeable to me if the were ordered to England from the fleet. I have directed inquiries into the causes of the complaints which are made on all sides, without yet knowing where to fix the source of them; whether in the want of a proper government, or in the perverseness of those who are to be governed. But in her present state I expect no good service from her; and her example may be pernicious. It is for this reason that I am anxious she should be removed to England; for, even without a ship in her stead, I shall consider the squadron as much strengthened by her being withdrawn from it."

"It is known to you how much trouble I had with the -, from the dissatisfaction in the ship's company. I am very glad to find that there are now no symptoms of it remaining. Every thing appears to be quiet; but in preparing for battle last week, several of the guns in the after part of the ship were found to be spiked, which had probably been done when that contentious spirit had existed."-p. 51.

He also stated more than once, that some of the younger captains, endeavouring to conceal by great severity their own unskilfulness and want of attention, beat the men into a state of insubordination. "We have lately," he says, in writing to a friend, "had two courts martial, in which such conduct was proved as leaves it doubtful whether it was founded in cruelty or folly. The only defence which was urged, was the plea of youth and inexperience; and yet it is to such youth and inexperience that the honour and interests of our country are intrusted."

Collingwood was captain of the Excellent, in the Mediterranean fleet, when Lord St. Vincent subdued that spirit of mutiny in it which had broken out at the Nore. It was the practice of this admiral to draft the most ungovernable spirits into the Excellent. "Send them to Collingwood," he used to say, "and he will bring them to order." Now, while capital punishments were frequently taking place in other ships, Captain Collingwood, simply by the force of moral power, governed his ship and maintained discipline, not only without the necessity of bringing the men to trial for their lives, but almost without the infliction of any corporal punishment whatever.

On one occasion, a seaman was sent from the Romulus, who had pointed one of the forecastle guns, shotted to the muzzle, at the quarter-deck, and, standing by it with a match, declared that he would fire at the officers, unless he received a promise that no punishment should be inflicted upon him. On his arrival on board the Excellent, Captain Collingwood, in the presence of many of the sailors, said to him, with great sternness of manner, " I know your character well, but beware how you attempt to excite insubordination in this ship; for 1 have such confidence in my men, that I am certain I shall hear in an hour of every thing you are doing. If you behave well in future, I will treat you like the rest, nor notice here what happened in another ship: but if you endeavour to excite mutiny, mark me well, I will instantly head you up in a cask, and throw you into the sea." Under the treatment which he met with in the Excellent, this man became a good and obedient sailor, and never afterwards gave any cause of complaint.

Properly to estimate this triumph, it must be recollected, to use Lord Collingwood's own words, " how large a proportion of the crews of the ships are miscreants of every description, and capable of every crime; and when these predominate, what evils may we not dread from the demoniac councils and influence of such a mass of mischief!" His repugnance to corporal punishments strengthened with his experience; and his biographer gives a picture of his conciliating conduct, which will explain to all similarly situated, how they may avcid this dangerous resource of the weak and the cruel. Some one has said of a general, that when he knows not what to do he fights a battle. It is the same with a captain, who only resorts to flogging because his incapacity does not suggest other means of compassing his end.

"As his experience in command and his knowledge of the dispositions of men increased, his abhorrence of corporal punishment grew daily stronger; and, in the latter part of his life, more than a year has often passed away without his having resorted to it even once. 'I wish I were the captain for your sakes, cried Lieutenant Clavell one day to some men who were doing some part of their duty ill: when shortly after, a person touched him on the shoulder, and turning round, he saw the Admiral, who had overheard him. 'And pray, Clavell, what would you have done if you had been captain?' 'I would have flogged them well, sir.' 'No you would not, Clavell; no you would not,' he replied: 'I know you better.' He used to tell the ship's company that he was determined that the youngest midshipman should be obeyed as implicitly as himself, and that he would punish with great severity any instance to the contrary. When a midshipman made a complaint, he would order the man for punishment the next day; and, in the interval, calling the boy down to him, would say, 'In all probability the fault was yours; but whether it were or not, I am sure it would go to your heart to see a man old enough to be your father disgraced and punished on your account; and it will, therefore, give me a good opinion of your disposition, if, when he is brought out, you ask for his pardon.' When this recommendation, acting as it did like an order, was complied with, and the lad interceded for the prisoner, Captain Collingwood would make great apparent difficulty in yielding; but at length would say, 'this young gentleman has pleaded so humanely for you, that, in the hope that you will feel a due gratitude to him for his benevolence, I will for this time overlook your offence.'

"The punishments which he substituted for the lash were of many kinds, such as watering the grog, and other modes now happily general in the navy. Among the rest was one which the men particularly dreaded. It was the ordering any offender to be excluded from his mess, and be employed in every sort of extra duty; so that he was every moment liable to called upon deck for the meanest service, amid the laughter and jeers of the men and boys. Such an effect had this upon the sailors, that they have often declared that they would much prefer having three dozen lashes: and, to avoid the recurrence of this punishment, the worst characters never failed to become attentive and orderly. How he sought to amuse and occupy the attention of the men appears in some of these letters. When they were sick, even while he was an admiral, he visited them daily, and supplied them from his own table; and when they were convalescent, they were put into the charge of the lieutenant of the morning watch, and daily brought up to the Admiral for examination by him. The result of this conduct was, that the sailors considered him and called him their father; and frequently, when he changed his ship, many of the men were seen in tears for his departure. But with all