Frigate Commander (17 page)

I reprimanded the lieutenant for suffering his zeal and courage to carry him so far beyond his orders. Fortunately none of their shot hit. I was miserable all the time I saw them exposed to such fruitless dangers.

After the departure of Strachan’s squadron, Smith continued westwards. The attacks continued and nearly every day, the ships’ boats were lowered to chase or cut out French vessels. Entering the Gulf of St Malo, Moore became convinced the French must now send out an overwhelming force from Brest to entrap them. He raised this worry with Smith, who accepted the point, but seemed in no hurry to leave the area. Moore couldn’t understand:

These five or 6 days we have regularly anchored along the French shore with all the seeming confidence as if it was not hostile to us ... Sir Sidney seems to have a passion for danger.

Furthermore, Moore was conscious of the hazardous nature of the coast on which they were operating:
‘... the fact is that we are all afraid of the dangerous coast which is certainly formidable enough.’

On 22 May, it seemed as though Moore’s fears were justified. The sloop
Childers
arrived with news of a superior French squadron from Cherbourg near the Caskett Rocks between Alderney and Guernsey. Smith decided to set off and meet it, despite Moore’s misgivings:

Sir Sidney does all in his power to meet them, knowing their force be so much superior ... If we meet our match or superior, I think our men will fight, but I wish we had 25 good men more than we have, being short of complement ...

Alarmingly, when the following dawn broke, Moore and Smith found themselves surrounded by seven or eight sail and
‘... immediately beat to quarters not doubting that it was the convoy
[squadron]
from Cherbourg ...’
In fact, the ships proved to be neutrals, and the French Squadron remained in port. Moore could not help speculating on the likely outcome of Smith’s impetuosity. With amazing foresight, he concluded that,

From the ardour of his disposition and romantic turn he may adventure on some enterprize too hazardous and which may end fatally, but I think from his active courage, zeal and ability the chances are much in favour of his success.

Despite this, he continued to hold considerable admiration for his senior officer.

Strachan arrived with his squadron, to relieve Smith, on 1 June but the latter was in no hurry to depart and so it was again agreed the two squadrons should sail together to the west of St Malo. En route, the
Syren
was dispatched to chase several gunboats, and Moore followed them until they ran on shore;

We were within random shot of them when we were obliged to tack for the point of St. Cas. I did not fire at them as I knew they were too far in for us to take them, and I have no taste for killing, or for having shot fired at us.

It was perhaps a curious decision for the commander of a frigate – but then Moore was always averse to the unnecessary shedding of blood.

Towards the end of the month, Smith revealed a new plan. This involved the occupation of the St Marcouf islands, two small rocky outcrops about 500 metres apart and lying some six kilometres (3.7 miles) from the French coast. Smith believed that a small force based here could effectively disrupt French coastal traffic and threaten any French vessels attempting to use the port of La Hogue. He had already dispatched a small party to occupy the islands and Moore was now sent to reinforce them. Upon arrival, however, he found that the position had already been abandoned in a panic at the first hint of a sortie from the French. Moore was sceptical about the value of holding the islands, but he now had standing orders to visit them regularly to keep their garrisons supplied. On 17 July, the
Syren
fell in with the frigate
Sybille
, which had been sent to join Smith’s squadron and which Moore described as
‘... one of the finest frigates in Europe’.
The
Sybille
was commanded by Edward Cooke who had been very successful in taking prizes, so it was agreed that the two frigates and the sloop
Childers
should share any prize money. Moore set off for a short cruise between Le Havre and Cape Barfleur, quickly taking two prizes. One, an American bound for Le Havre, carrying cotton, sugar and rice; the other, captured near La Hogue, was carrying foodstuffs, shoes and cotton. Despite these successes, however, Moore’s duties were beginning to affect his health:

I am very unlucky in being in bad health at this time when employed in the most active manner and likely to have an action. This may have the effect to break my constitution up, as I am liable to catch cold being necessarily much exposed to the weather.

Moore’s constitution was never robust, and the obligations of a frigate commander were not going to improve matters.

On 28 July, patrolling off Le Havre, the
Syren
captured another American ship, a schooner, attempting to break the blockade with a cargo of flour. Dispatching the prize to Portsmouth, Moore returned to St Marcouf where he found the rest of Smith’s squadron. Smith himself was busy supervising the mounting of a battery of 24-pounder guns and 32-pounder carronades behind an 18-foot earth rampart. Despite his belief in the overall weakness of the French navy, Moore found himself incredulous that the French could disregard this establishment of an enemy position so close to their coast. The squadron itself was causing a serious disruption to local coasting traffic and Smith was convinced that the island would soon be attacked, hence the resources he was throwing into the defences. Moore was doubtful:

We know that in Havre de Grace alone they have a superior force to our squadron, but they nor no other power in Europe have got English Sailors.

At the beginning of August, Smith decided to launch an attack against a French camp near La Hogue but was forced to abandon it in bad weather. Moore, who was still unwell, was unenthusiastic about the attack and was even more perplexed when Smith suddenly disappeared across the channel to Brighthelmstone (Brighton) without leaving any explanation. Days later, however, Smith was back and the
Diamond
,
Syren
and
Sybille
sailed eastwards to Le Havre. Here they could clearly see two frigates and a number of smaller vessels building on the stocks. Smith summoned Cooke and Moore to the
Diamond
and informed them that he planned to row inshore that night in his wherry, taking four men to set fire to the vessels. The two captains were horrified, and persuaded Smith to let Lieutenant Pine of the
Diamond
lead the attack. The party duly set off at 11pm, rowing with muffled oars so as not to arouse any attention from the shipyard but when they arrived at the shore they found themselves on a stony beach and, as the night was very still, every footstep could be heard. Nevertheless, the five men made their way as stealthily as possible towards the ships where, unfortunately, they could find no ladder or any other means of climbing into the hulls. At this point they were challenged by a sentry and, fleeing back to the boat, put off from the shore. Several minutes later they realized all was again quiet and turning the wherry about they began to make their way back, only to see or imagine four men waiting for them on the shore. Obviously thinking discretion the better option, they returned to the
Diamond
, abandoning their attempt. Moore did not record Smith’s reaction.

Two days later Smith, ordered the squadron to sail to Brighthelmstone, and Moore soon realized why they were there, for the Prince of Wales was in residence. Smith ordered the squadron to make a great display, saluting the Prince with twenty-one guns, firing off rockets and blue lights. The frigates then sailed to Portsmouth to re-provision, but whilst at Spithead a storm blew up and the
Syren
was damaged when her anchors dragged and she collided with an East Indiaman. While she was being repaired, Moore took the opportunity for a flying visit to London. He was just a few weeks short of his thirty-first birthday and, like many other young men and naval officers in his position, he was beginning to think that life was passing him by – especially in the matter of marriage and family. The question of love began to assert itself in his mind:

It is curious that every time that I have been in love, which, by the by, has been pretty often, I have acted in a way which has afterwards appeared to me perfectly ridiculous, and of which I have consequently been ashamed. I am at present very fond of a girl whom I have not seen this year and a half. I have concealed it from my friends and never mentioned any thing that could lead her to believe in any stronger attachment than that of friendship for her and her family. I have not the least reason to believe that she loves me, but I am thoroughly persuaded of her esteem and friendship. I would marry her tomorrow, if she chose, and if we had enough money, but, as I have none and she has not enough for two, I have avoided endeavouring to engage her affections. I would be very unhappy if I saw her partial to any man, and I cannot help indulging a hope of what is very improbable, that circumstances may so change as to make it a fair thing for me to address her ... have known her from childhood, she being nine or ten years younger than me, and admired her sweet and amiable mind and manners long before there could be any love in the case.

Unfortunately, Moore either deleted or avoided naming the young lady – but for convenience we will refer to her henceforth as Miss M.
⁴⁶

From the end of August through the early part of September 1795, Smith extended the
Syren’
s cruising ground to cover the triangle between Guernsey, St Marcouf and Start Point, the headland south of Torquay on the north side of the Channel. Although largely cruising alone, Moore continued to worry when he learned about Smith’s activities. The problem remained the same:
‘Sir Sidney exposes himself and his people a great deal too much’
, and sooner or later something was going to go badly wrong. By the end of September, the
Syren
had taken several prizes and a significant number of the frigate’s crew had now been sent off in them. Moore was keen to recover his men from Portsmouth and he set off to rendezvous with Smith, to get the Commodore’s permission. Instead, when they met, Smith insisted on the whole squadron going to Weymouth where the king was currently in residence. Moore fumed quietly:

I am very sorry for it, as it can answer no other purpose than foolish parade, I think we might be better employed ... Sir Sidney had been at the Islands as I expected and had amused himself drawing fire from the Batteries along shore with his boats.

On the following day, Moore’s fears were realized:

On the 15th we went into Weymouth Road where as the King was at that time each ship fired a Royal Salute. The [frigates] Melpomene and St. Fiorenzo were in the Road attending on His Majesty. Sir Sidney and the other captains waited on His Majesty on the Esplanade in the evening. Next morning it was intended that the King and Royal Family should go on board the St. Fiorenzo, which was to get under sail accompanied by the other ships and perform some Naval evolutions: This plan was prevented by the unfavourable weather.

Undeterred, Smith decided that the squadron should put on a good display by putting to sea whilst simultaneously firing salutes. Again, however, the weather intervened to frustrate Smith’s plans. The
Diamond
, being the furthest from the shore was able to implement the plan, but Cooke decided that it was imprudent to weigh anchor at all given the state of the wind and swell. The
Syren
, although closest to the shore, weighed anchor, but was too busy tacking out of the bay to fire any salutes. By the time the
Syren
had got off the shore, Smith had disappeared off to the west, leaving the other two frigates to rendezvous with him at Cherbourg.

Once back on station, Smith decided to take the squadron to Le Havre. Perhaps as a demonstration of his own zeal, Smith took his own ship in as close to the shore as possible. Moore watched with evident disapproval and determination not to put his own ship and crew at risk:

As I hate this bravado business, I let go the anchor as soon as the signal was made for that purpose.

Springs were then run out from the ships so that they could be quickly manoeuvred in case they were attacked by gunboats. Moore was sceptical about the efficacy of this precaution, for if the French gunboats did come out and kept at long-shot distance

... they might finish our cruise with very little risk to themselves. I certainly do wish to have an action in the
Syren
, but I mortally nauseate this childish kind of bluster that we are pestered with.

That night the wind blew up, veering from the south to westerly, but Smith gave no order to move to a safer position and, Moore noted wearily,
‘... I concluded that we were to continue on this useless and hazardous parade until the wind came in’.
After several days the squadron was withdrawn, but on 15 October, during a patrol along the coast, Smith and Moore returned to Le Havre. This time Smith ordered the
Syren
to anchor closest to the harbour entrance and Moore went on board the
Diamond
for orders. No sooner had he done so than French gunboats made a spirited sortie from the harbour. Shot began to fall closely round the
Syren
and Moore hurried back to her;

Before I got onboard the shot were falling pretty thick about us, the ship had begun to play away among them. This I stopped instantly in order to get our anchor up and the sail set. We hove up pretty brisk (altho’ it was difficult to keep the people from firing) and got our topsails set, but as we were lying to, stowing the anchor, what we call catting it
⁴⁷
, a heavy shot cut away the fore top sail sheet and passed through the centre of our Fore yard about 14 feet from the Yard arm.