Cochrane (28 page)

The
Aquilon
and the
Vill
e de Varsovie,
also engaged by the
Imperieuse,
struck their colours at five-thirty. Half an hour later, the crew of the
Tonnerre
set fire to their ship and took to the boats. At
7
p.m. the
Tonnerre
blew up, and two hours later the burning hulk of the
Calcutta
exploded. Most of the French ships had taken-refuge in the estuary of the Charente, in whose narrower channel under the batteries of Fort Fouras they were reasonably safe from attack.

The great chance had been missed but Cochrane's determination to force Gambier into action had, at least, achieved something. Indeed, the general opinion on the French flagship was that the day had been one of unmitigated defeat. 'This day of the
12th
was a very disastrous one: four of our ships were destroyed, many brave people lost their lives, and by the disgraceful means the enemy made use of to destroy our lines of defence." Plans for the expedition to Martinique, which Gambier would have done nothing to prevent, were in chaos as a result of the attack launched by the
Imperieuse.
The troops on the French ships had been put ashore and the operation abandoned.
³⁶

At
4
a.m. on the morning of
13
April, Cochrane saw that three lights had been hoist
ed by Gambi
er's squadron offshore. It was the signal for all those ships which had been sent to Cochrane's assistance to return to the fleet. Before they left, the crews set fire to the two captured battleships,
Aquilon
and
Ville de Varsovie.
Cochrane was greatly angered by this, since he had proposed to tow the two fine ships away and claim them as prizes.

As a last hope, he hailed the captain of the frigate
Indefatigable,
asking him if he would join the
Imperieuse
in a final attack to sink the French flagship,
Oce
an.
She was still within reach and could be destroyed, Cochrane suggested, by a frigate on either side of her.

"I will not," replied Captain Rodd piously, "we are going out to join the fleet."
³⁷

Unaccompanied by any vessels other than brigs and bomb-ketches, Cochrane expected that he too would be ordered to leave the Boyart Shoal and rejoin the fleet. He anticipated this by signalling Gambier on the
Caledonia,
"If permitted to remain can destroy the enemy." Some time after this he sighted a small boat from the fleet making for the
Imperieuse.
Gambier's written instructions to him were brought aboard.
³⁸

My dear Lord,

You have done your part so admirably that I will not suffer you to tarnish it by attempting impossibilities, which I think, as well as those captains who have come from you, any further effort to destroy those ships would be. You must, therefore, join as soon as you can, with the bombs, etc, as I wish for some information, which you allude to, before I close my despatches.

Yours, my dear Lord, most sincerely,

GAMBIER.

PS. I have ordered three brigs and two rocket vessels to join you, with which, and the bomb, you may make an attempt on the ship that is aground on the Palles, or towards He Madame, but I do not think you will succeed; and I am anxious that you should come to me, as I wish to send you to England as soon as possible. You must, therefore, come as soon as the tide turns.

The letter was carefully and indecisively phrased. Of Cochrane's support vessels, the bomb-ketch was about to split her mortar and the brigs would hardly be of much use in attacking battleships. The
Imperieuse
was the only ship which was likely to be of real effect in such an attack, and only then because her comparatively light armament was compensated for by the audacity and versatility with which she was commanded. It was the only hope and Cochrane accordingly replied to Gambier.

My Lord,

I have just had the honour to receive your Lordship's letter. We
can
destroy the ships that are on shore, which I hope your Lordship will approve of.

I have the honour, &c.

COCHRANE.

The response to this was a recall signal hoisted in the shrouds of the
Caledonia
and, first thing on
14
April, a final message.

My dear Lord,

It is necessary I should have some communication with you before I close my despatches to the Admiralty. I have, therefore, ordered Captain Wolfe to relieve you in the services you are engaged in. I wish you to join me as soon as possible, that you may convey Sir Harry Neale to England, who will be charged with my despatches, or you may return to carry on the service where you are. I expect two bombs to arrive every moment, they will be useful in it.

Yours, my dear Lord, most sincerely,

GAMBIER
³⁹

It was evident that Cochrane's command was at an end. He must either return to England or else resume his duties at Aix Roads under the command of a senior captain, Captain Wolfe, loyal to Gambier.

In the first place, however, he had to report to Gambier in the commander-in-chief's cabin on the flagship
Caledonia.
There was, he later admitted, "no evading Lord Gambier's letter this time without positive disobedience to orders". But when the two men confronted each other, it was Cochrane who assumed the offensive, charging Gambier with "the extraordinary hesitation which had been displayed in attacking ships helplessly on shore". His record of the interview vividly contrasts the character and disposition of the two men.

I begged his lordship, by way of preventing the ill-feeling of the fleet from becoming detrimental to the honour of the service, to set me aside altogether and send in Admiral Stopford, with the frigates or other vessels, as with regard to him there could be no ill-feeling: further declaring my confidence that from Admiral Stopford's zeal for the service, he would, being backed by his officers, accomplish results more creditable than anything that had yet been done. I apologised for the freedom I used, stating that I took the liberty as a friend, for it would be impossible, as matters stood, to prevent a noise being made in England.

The flaw in this piece of reasoning was that Stopford had shown no great enthusiasm for going in. It was also an error of judgement for Cochrane to begin, at this stage, pretending to "friendship" for Gambier.

"My lord," he added, "you have before desired me to speak candidly to you, and I have now used that freedom."

So far as Gambier was concerned, the action at the Basque Roads was over, and Cochrane, like the others, would have to rest on his laurels. Indeed, the admiral's last words on the matter were ominous enough: "If you throw blame upon what has been done, it will appear like arrogantly claiming all the merit to yourself."

Since it was clear that Gambier proposed to remove him from the vicinity of the battle, Cochrane lodged a last but futile protest: "I have no wish to carry the despatches, or to go to London with Sir Harry Neale on the occasion. My object is alone that which has been entrusted to me by the Admiralty - to destroy the vessels of the enemy!"

Gambier, however, "cut the matter short". Before he left the
Caledonia,
Cochrane received his written orders. He was no longer allowed the option of returning to the Aix Roads, even under the supervision of Captain Wolfe. He was to sail with the
Imperieuse,
carrying Sir Harry Neale and the despatches to England. Nor was there to be any delay. The frigate was to leave the Basque Roads on the next morning.
⁴⁰

Having sailed from the scene of the action on
15
April, the
Imperieuse
dropped anchor in Spithead six days later. From the evidence of her shot-torn decks and the blackening
of timber by smoke, it was evi
dent that she had as usual been in the thick of the action, which at once roused interest in her. Then Sir Harry Neale and his escort galloped into Whitehall and delivered Lord Gambier's despatch to an expectant First Lord and nation.

'The Almighty's favour to his Majesty and the nation has been strongly marked," began Gambier piously, and then briskly got down to the main business of the French anchorage having been attacked and four of the capital ships destroyed. There was praise for the way in which Cochrane had led the final attack on the afternoon of
12
April "with his accustomed gallantry and spirit". Nor was that all. "I cannot speak in sufficient terms of admiration and applause of the vigorous and gallant attack made by Lord Cochrane upon the French line-of-battle ships," Gambier conceded.
⁴¹

So far, all was well. Cochrane was received at every appearance by the familiar brazen strains of, "See, the conquering hero comes, sound the trumpet, beat the drums!" His admirers in Westminster had a new verse to their street ballad in which his fame was sung.

Hark the news of
Basque Roads
all Europe astounds,

Where fearless of death and each danger around;

With volcanoes tremendous he routed the foe,

And dealt from the
Imperieuse
the conquering blow!
⁴²

On the other hand, his supporters had not forgotten their political attachments.

The laurels of Fame, that encompass his head,

Shall bloom when the triumphs of warfare are fled;

For the friend of REFORM and of FREEDOM at home,

More immortal shall make him in ages to come!
⁴³

Among the cheers, the dinners of welcome and the addresses of congratulation, Cochrane was informed on
26
April that George III had made him a Knight Commander of the Bath.

Lord Gambier's despatch was then made public. Cochrane read it with dismay. He was not even mentioned as having led the most perilous attack of all to destroy the boom with his explosion vessels.

There was no more than a reference to "some vessels filled with powder and shells, as proposed by his Lordship, with a view to explosion", and no indication of their part in destroying the boom. Indeed, while omitting Cochrane's name, Gambier described the attack on the evening of n April as having been "led on in the most undaunted and determined manner by Captain Wooldridge, in the
Mediator
fire-ship". From his safe anchorage, nine miles away, Gambier was convinced that it was Wooldridge and the
Mediator
who broke the boom, despite the fact that the French captains like Proteau had seen it blown out of the water by Cochrane an hour earlier. The whole purpose of the boom, indeed, was that no ship should be able to break through it into the anchorage, and certainly not a mere frigate like the
Mediator.
⁴⁴

Gambier, having abolished Cochrane's heroism on the first day, then went on to consider April
12.
He reported a signal that seven of the French ships were aground, which Cochrane made at five-forty-eight, and swore that he "immediately" proceeded to destroy them! How was it that, over seven hours later, he was still a few miles short of the target, despite favourable wind and tide? He had decided that Cochrane's suggestion of an attack was "too hazardous", precisely because the wind and tide would have carried the British ships into the anchorage and thus, he regretted to say, would have risked them in confronting their enemy.
⁴⁵

Finally, he reminded the world, that though Cochrane had actually undertaken the attack at the Admiralty's insistence, there was no lack of senior officers who would have done it just as well. He mentioned Admiral Stopford and Sir Harry Neale, remarking that they had both been ready to lead the attack and that "the result of their efforts would have been highly creditable".
⁴⁶

The extraordinary manner in which Gambier omitted Cochrane's leadership of the initial attack, while paying handsome tribute to the way in which it would have been led by men who in fact took no part in it, was indicative of the public row that was being prepared. The Battle of the Basque Roads had not been a victory on the scale of Trafalgar or the Nile, but in its own time it was just as famous for other reasons. The action was re-fought in parliament, the press, and the courts for the next decade. The final exchanges of debate still echoed in the
1860s,
in an age of iron-clads and steam power.

Cochrane was extremely annoyed by the despatch, though hardly surprised. For the time being he was prepared to let matters rest. But when Gambier returned to England at the beginning of May, Lord