HARPING ON
A.I.B. Stewart
Part Two
McNeill returned to the ship's office and recounted Mann's conversation which caused Turnbull to laugh heartily. However he stressed that Mann's remarks however expressed were not without foundation and explained that the Boatswain had seen much service, that he knew what good officers were and what they ought to do. However according to Turnbull merit and long service seemed to be ignored and mere boys were set over the heads of officers old enough to be their fathers and who had spent their lives in the Service. Parliamentary interest was everything and the aftermath of the 27th July - the date of the battle of Ushant - had bred such discontent and animosity in the Navy that those who at any other time would have regarded command of the Channel fleet as a great honour had declined to serve.
Turnbull continued:
"During this lowering gloom that overcasts our naval hemisphere it is politically natural for those who are at the head of affairs to serve themselves the best way they can. Hence the cause which has produced your messmate's severe strictures relative to our present officers on board, nor can they be deemed conjugal when young lads, with nothing to recommend them but the interest already mentioned, are placed here with the view of immediate promotion, which the two men your messmate noticed will in all likelihood be unprovided for at the end of the war with wives and families to maintain. Nothing can be more ruinous to the service than this injustice, and I must confess that exclusively of this, I like not at all the aspect of affairs abroad, particularly that sullen sulkiness which seems to reign among our men. Our Captain who is really a man of abilities and penetration sees this spirit as clearly as I do, and thinks to effect a cure by the application of a medicine of which I have my doubts. Punishment aboard a King's ship is indispensible, but punishment for trifles, and often repeated, does more harm than good, especially with those who under the mild command of Keppel and Campbell experienced opposite treatment. For my part, I heartily wish we had more of the Fiddle and the dance among us and much less of the gangway."
A small specimen of old Navy Discipline, 1780:
"The very next morning we had a punishment on board, and as every circumstance connected with this new scene of life naturally excited my curiosity I failed not when all hands were piped to a hand at the gangway. The cause of this punishment was the following. One of the men was shaking his bedding in the booms over the longboat when unfortunately for him one of our gay young lieutenants, (a lad of about 16) chanced to be officer of the watch. This operation as it was executed in view, and by a mite too near the station of our young bean, was by him considered extremely offensive, and instantly reproved: but amidst the surrounding noise of duty this prohibition was not distinctly heard by the seaman, who on turning round to ascertain what the officer said, happened to give an additional shake to his bedding, at the very time he looked his enraged commander in the face. As this was immediately construed into contempt and disobedience, a complaint was instantly preferred against the culprit by the accuser, and without further loss of time the seaman was ordered abaft to answer the charge before the Captain. In vain did the poor fellow protest that he heard not the officer's first prohibition. and in giving the last unfortunate shake to his bedding he meant no offence whatever, far less contempt and disobedience to orders. The young gentleman's testimony was positive, clear and decided. Evidence was produced to prove that while the seaman looked the officer full in the face, he shook his bedding. A dozen lashes were sentenced by the Captain for the insolence of the offence and the imprudence of denying it."
"When he was brought to the gangway and stript my feelings were considerably awakened. I had never witnessed anything of the kind before and from my total ignorance of naval laws and regulations for the suppression of disorder, viewed everything through the medium of humanity. The Boatswain's mate who was to inflict the punishment was among the number of the culprit's friends of whom on account of his good behaviour he had many on board, he was besides a particular favourite of my messmate the Boatswain and esteemed one of the best seaman in the ship. Whether the mate was like myself impressed with the injustice of the sentence, or wished to favour his comrade as much as the nature of the offence would permit, is hard to say, but he certainly flourished his cat with more dexterity than accorded with the Captain's inclination, who after the first four or five lashes ordered his to stop. 'Bring another boatswain's mate and tie up that fellow' said the Captain sternly, 'I'll teach you sir, what it is to trifle with punishments when I order it', 'I hope and please your honor' said the mate with much humility 'you will not disgrace me!' Tie him up instantly' said the Captain, 'I'll have no trifling with punishments while I have the command of this ship'.' 'I have served his Majesty for two and twenty years' resumed the mate, 'and never had a cat on my back in my life. I hope your honor will not think of disgracing me now', 'Well, Sir' said the Captain, 'for this offence I will forgive you; but remember, Sir, it is on condition that you perform of your duty properly. For if you do not by God'. you shall smart for it'."
"The Boatswain's mate resumed his task, but with very different effect indeed! At every stroke of the cat of nine tails the blood sprung in nine streams from the Culprit's back and shoulders, who without twinging or altering a muscle of his face bore the punishment with stoical fortitude and in silence, When it was completed, he gave a careless look over his left shoulder to ascertain the effect of the application, and then another to the Captain which is impossible for me to describe. It certainly was neither a look of resentment or indignation, nor was it one of complaint: far less was it one of contempt, but whatever it was it failed not to touch one sensibly, and at the same time attracted the particular attention of the person to whom it was directed, 'What do you mean by that look, you scoundrel?' said the Captain. I don' t know, and please your honor, what my looks mean' said the seaman with much humility 'and I hope there is no offence'. 'But by God there is' said the Captain, 'and I'll teach what it is to dart any of your contemptuous looks at me! Give him another dozen boatswain's mate, and see that you do your duty Sir?' Another dozen was accordingly inflicted with equal energy and effect, and borne with the same fortitude, When it was over the Seaman without any more looks put on his shirt and walked forward to the forecastle as if nothing had happened."
NOTES
This is a reference to one of the most unhappy episodes in the Royal Navy's history. There was a political background. The Whigs were opposed to the War of American Independence. The First Lord, the Earl of Sandwich, was on the other side, that of the King's Friends. His suave honeyed style did not appeal to the old English sea dogs, When he appointed Keppel to command the Channel fleet the Admiral's Whig friends were sure it was to make a scapegoat of him. Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser who was a member of the Admiralty Board was appointed third in command under Keppel. At the Battle of Ushant on 27th July 1776 Palliser failed to obey Keppel's order to close the enemy. After the return to Spithead, Palliser annoyed by statements in news sheets that the failure to engage the enemy was due to Palliser applied for a court-martial on Keppel. He charged Keppel with not marshalling the fleet, going into battle in an unofficerlike manner, scandalous haste in quitting, running sway and failing to pursue a flying enemy. All of these were capital charges. But after five weeks the court martial pronounted the charges to be malicious and ill founded. Palliser was then court martialed. He was acquitted with a rider that if his ship had been badly damaged as he claimed he should have informed his commander in chief. The venom engendered by this affair caused a sorrowful division in the Navy which lasted for years. Keppel resigned and many distinguished flag officers refused commands. Palliser, a friend of Lord Sandwich, was rewarded with the Governorship of Greenwich Hospital.
Admiral sir Francis Geary (1710-1796) was described by Kempenfelt, the Captain of his flagship as "brave, generous and may perhaps have been a good officer but he is wholly debilitated in his faculties, his memory and judgment lost, wavering and undetermined in everything". he resigned in 1780.
These anti-Catholic riots led by a deranged Scot, aristocrat, Lord George Gordon, caused at least 100 properties in London to be burned and more than 250 rioters to be killed. They occurred in the first week of June 1780.
A tie periwig was a short wig tied in a bunch at the back,
Richard Kempenfelt (1718-1780) was the son of a Swedish soldier who came to England in the service of James II. He served as Captain of the Fleet under three successive commanders in Chief and retired as a rear-admiral. In 1791 in the Victory he put to see in command of twelve ships of the line and some frigates with instructions to intercept a French convoy which he was told would only have seven escorting ships. He found there were nineteen under the command of De Guichen, considered one of the ablest French tacticians. Kempenfelt realised he could not attack the vastly superior French fleet but when he saw the enemy in forming his line of battle between the British squadron and the convoy had placed himself to leeward of the convoy. Kempenfelt under full sail passed astern of the French line dashed in among the convoy, captured fifteen of them and sank two or three more and dispersed the rest five of which he later picked up. He brought twenty prizes into the Channel ports, the trophies of the action which many considered the most brilliant of the war. He was lost with most of his men when the Royal George sank at Spithead. He revised the signal system which had been in use since the time of Charles II and his system was adopted and improved on by Lord Howe.
Junk M.E. of unknown origin: 1. Naut. an old or inferior cable or rope. . 2. A piece or lump of anything; a chunk 1726. 3. Orig. naut. the salt meat used as food on long voyages compared to pieces of rope 1762,.. Shorter OED.
The original word here seems to be quite clearly sean, which seems meaningless to me.
McNeill's own note "One of the nautical corruptions of language for tight-haul. Taught signifies to haul very tight".
There's more of AIB's Harping to come - Ian
Page 2: Loup Hill. 16th MAY 1689 - The First 'Battle' of Dundee's Jacobite War - Part 2
Page 4: The Perseverance / Share Fishing
Page 5: The Carradale Shark Fishery
Page 6: Bits and Bobs and Here and There incl. The Bell - Somerled - Skipness
Page 7: Three Lochs in North Kintyre
Page 8: By Hill and Shore - Angus Martin's continuing delightful series
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Page 10: Coopering in Campbeltown: Developing a "Craft" Archaeology