The British Navy Book Part 14

A, Outer sh.e.l.l. B, Air chamber to keep end up. C, Gunpowder. D, Pistol with trigger connected with rod. E, Rod with p.r.o.ngs to catch vessel coming up stream. F, Iron bands with rings. G, Weights anchoring torpedo.

SUBMARINE MINES USED IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR]

It remained for the mechanical ingenuity of the Americans to establish the submarine mine as a recognized naval weapon. In the long war between North and South a considerable use was made of improvised submarine mines, princ.i.p.ally by the Southerners in trying to prevent the ships of the big Federal Fleet from penetrating their estuaries and harbours.

s.p.a.ce forbids description in detail of these contrivances, but the sketches on p. 185 will enable you to form some idea of their construction. The results obtained induced the British Admiralty to carry out a series of experiments in 1865. The old _Terpsich.o.r.e_ was blown up by a "torpedo-sh.e.l.l" charged with 75 pounds of powder, and very much higher powered mines were tried in various ways. Other European nations could not afford to overlook this form of warfare, and it was largely owing to the use of defensive submarine mines that the Germans kept the powerful French fleet from attacking their coast in the war of 1870. Ten years later mines and their appliances were part of the equipment of most large war-vessels, which carried two kinds, one holding 250, the other 500 pounds of gun-cotton. They were perfectly safe to handle, although fully charged, since the gun-cotton was kept wet and could only be exploded by inserting a small canister of dry gun-cotton as a primer. They were intended to be used for countermining and blowing up an enemy's mine defences, or for defending the ship at anchor. For harbour defence at home and in our overseas dominions a special branch of the Royal Engineers was formed, known as the Submarine Miners, who had charge of everything connected with this part of our national defences; but with the advent of the submarine this duty was a.s.sumed by the Royal Navy.

FOOTNOTES:

[44] i.e. Corneilius Van Drebbel.

[45] Sides.

[46] _A Mariner of England, 1780-1817._ Colonel Spencer Childers.

[47] The Chinese considered this a practical form of warfare even in comparatively recent times. In _The Voyage of H.M.S. Nemesis_ (1841) an account is given of the preparations made against the British fleet. At Canton it was stated that "several hundred divers were said to be in training who were to go down and bore holes in our ships at night; or even, as the Chinese privately reported, to carry down with them some combustible material which would burn under water and destroy our vessels".

[48] There is, however, in this MS. a picture of what is probably intended for a diver wearing a metal helmet without a tube.

[49] i.e. King Solomon.

[50] Included in the ships' companies of the Middle Ages were "seamen who knew how to swim for a long time under water". These divers "pierced the ships (of the enemy) in many places so that the water could enter".

In an old work on naval architecture, published in 1629, it is stated in reference to the Turkish pirates of Barbary that "The Corsairs, indeed, are very wily in attack and defence, acquainted with many kinds of projectiles, even _Submarine Torpedoes_, which a diver will attach to an enemy's keel".

[51] See _The Story of the Submarine_, by Colonel C. Field, R.M.L.I.

[52] _See The Story of the Submarine_, by Colonel C. Field, R.M.L.I.

[53] Letter from Mr. Ellis to Lord Lexington, 9th August, 1695.

[54] In the Civil War in America the _Louisiana_ was filled with 430,000 pounds of powder, and exploded against Fort Fisher on Christmas Eve, 1864, with little or no effect. This is the last recorded case of an explosion-ship, unless we reckon the four fireships in the form of rafts that in April, 1915, were sent by the Germans against a fort at Osowiec.

Some never arrived; the others were blown up by the guns of the fort.

[55] _War with Russia_, by H. Tyrell.

[56] i.e. tinder.

CHAPTER XIII

Naval Brigades

"The sailor who ploughs on the watery main, To war and to danger and shipwreck a brother, And the soldier who firmly stands out the campaign, Do they fight for two men who make war on each other?

Oh no, 'tis well known, The same loyal throne Fires their bosoms with ardour and n.o.ble endeavour; And that each with his la.s.s, As he drinks a full gla.s.s, Toasts the Army and Navy of Britain for ever."

_Chorus_--"And that each, &c."

WHAT is a "Naval Brigade"? "Brigade" is a military term, and in our service an infantry brigade now consists of four battalions, with their head-quarters staff. Not long ago two battalions const.i.tuted a brigade.

So that we see a brigade is the combination of a small number of complete units. In like manner a naval brigade is either, in the case of a single ship, a landing-force composed of her bluejackets and marines brigaded together, or, in the case of a fleet or squadron, of its various ships' companies. In a fleet of any size the naval brigade available for landing--if there was no chance of an attack by sea--might amount to two or three battalions formed out of seamen and stokers, and one of marines. It has frequently fallen to the lot of naval brigades to carry on a small campaign "on their own", but very often a naval brigade has been attached to an army on active service. A big book might be written on the services of British naval brigades, so that we cannot hope to do more than glance at a very few instances of their work in "soldiering on sh.o.r.e".

"Naval Brigade", by the way, is not a very ancient term, though in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries we often find references to the employment of a "regiment" or "battalion" of seamen.

This may possibly be because, although embarked as part complement of our men-of-war, the marines, who were in those times organized in regiments and not in one large corps, did not actually belong to the Admiralty, but to the War Office. They were landed together, if possible, in their own regiments, and became for the time being a part of the army, to which, in addition, a battalion of seamen--which, it is rather confusing to find, is sometimes referred to as a "marine regiment"--might often be attached. But seamen and marines were not in those times generally brigaded together, as they so frequently have been in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH NAVY

A. B. (Marching Order). 1st Cla.s.s Petty Officer. Stoker.]

Though for many a long day the sailor proper "had no use for soldiering", which he contemned as an inferior profession to his own, he was always a pretty useful man with the heavy gun. Naturally, if a man can make decent shooting with a weapon tossing about on an unstable platform, he finds it comparatively easy to hit his target on terra firma. One of the earliest references to the employment of seamen in operations on sh.o.r.e is at the siege of Leith--then held by French troops--in 1560. The town was beleaguered from seaward by the English fleet under Admiral Winter, and on the sh.o.r.e side by a combined English and Scots army; and in the list of troops detailed for an a.s.sault--which unfortunately proved unsuccessful--we find that the "Vyce-Admyralle of the Quene's Majestye's Schippes" was to furnish 500 men.

Drake's men in his expeditions to the Spanish coast were formed into regiments and fought on sh.o.r.e, and after the Restoration a battalion of seamen took part in the severe fighting with the Moors at Tangier. It does not seem quite clear whether this included marines or not.[57]

Anyway, it was under the command of Admiral Herbert and had been put through a special course of exercise "by an expert old soldier--Captain Barclay", who, after the first engagement, was reproved by the Admiral "for suffering too forward and furious advancement, lest thereby they might fall into the enemy's ambushments". Captain Barclay retorted that "he could lead them on, but the furies could not bring them off"!

At the siege of Cork by the Duke of Marlborough, in 1690, besides the two marine regiments of the Earls of Torrington and Pembroke, a naval brigade of 600 seamen and marines[58] was landed from the fleet, with as many carpenters and gunners as could be spared, to a.s.sist in the construction of the siege-batteries and gun-platforms. The brigade was under the command of the Duke of Grafton, then captain of one of the ships, though previously in command of the 1st Foot Guards. The readiness and cheerfulness with which both seamen and marines dragged their heavy guns into position in the face of the enemy's opposition is specially recorded. The capture of the "Cat", an important outwork covering the approaches to the city, is set down to the credit of two of the seamen. These worthies, with or without leave, were cruising about in front of the outposts in the early morning in the neighbourhood of the "Cat", and, seeing no sign of life or movement, crept cautiously up to its formidable ramparts and found that it had been deserted by the Irish garrison. They installed themselves in possession and signalled the state of affairs to their friends, on which 200 men of Colonel Hale's regiment were sent to occupy it.

In the expedition to Flanders in 1694 it is stated that 6000 seamen were "mixed with our land forces, and each of them on landing" was to receive "a guinea a man".[59]

In the capture of Gibraltar in 1704 the seamen played a prominent part.

The marines were all landed together under the Prince of Hesse, to cut off communication with the mainland, while the seamen, under Captains Hicks and Jumper--Jumper's Bastion commemorates his name at the present day--stormed its defences at the southern end. The marine regiments played such a distinguished part in the gallant defence against overwhelming odds which followed that the corps bears the word "Gibraltar"[60] on its colours and accoutrements to the present day; but at one part of the siege a force of seamen and guns was landed from the fleet and did most useful service.

One of them[61] has left a very interesting account of his experiences on this occasion. "On the morning we got thither", he says, "the Spaniards were discovered that came up the back of the hill. Then there was a command for twenty of our men to go ash.o.r.e with fire-arms.... We were all in high spirits and fit to do execution, not being at all daunted at their numbers, for they were like swarms of bees upon the hill and in great confusion, and we like lions in the valley seeking whom we might devour; as our duty required. At it we went, loading and firing as fast as we could. Our men had a great advantage of the Spaniards in firing uphill, and it was a very great advantage they were not obliged to wade, for the water often overflows that part where we were obliged to engage them. We were happy enough in missing the tide; had it been otherwise, we had been but in a bad situation. The Spaniards rolled pieces of rocks down the hill and wounded a great many of our men, but our advantage in firing was more than all they could do. When they found they could do no good they laid down their fire-arms.... We stayed ash.o.r.e all night, and in the morning returned to our ship. They found the duty too hard for the soldiers, and then there were orders sent for ten men of a ship to go ash.o.r.e again.... When we went over we found that the works were very much demolished, for there was not a gun that we could fire one day without its being unfit for service on the next, for the Spaniards would dismount them.... We found the duty extremely hard, for what they beat down by day we were obliged to clear away at night."

After a further description of their work, the writer speaks of the Spanish bombardment and tells how he just escaped a "Jack Johnson" of the period by throwing himself flat on the ground. "Had I been so unwise", he says, "as to have stood up when it fell, I should have been lifted up on its wings. I was hardened in that employment, and a great many of our men ran in a terrible fright, thinking that I was blown up.

They said, when they saw me, we are glad to see you alive. I thanked them for their regard for me, and told them I never minded a bomb at all, only to observe its falling and step out of the way and fall with my face to the ground.... We continued making our works by night and in the daytime we were employed in drawing guns from the New Mole to Wills's Battery. We had very indifferent ground some part of the way, therefore we were obliged to draw in gears, in the same manner as horses do. But when we came among the rocks we were obliged to lay deal spars, and parbuckle them up with hawsers, and by these means we haled them up to the Battery."

It is in this kind of work that our seamen have ever proved so invaluable to the sister service on sh.o.r.e. A military officer, writing of the taking of Martinique in 1762, writes: "The cannon and other warlike stores were landed as soon as possible, and dragged by the 'Jacks' to any point thought proper. You may fancy you know the spirit of these fellows; but to see them in action exceeds any idea that can be formed of them. A hundred or two of them, with ropes and pulleys, will do more than all your dray horses in London. Let but their tackle hold and they will draw you a cannon or mortar on its proper carriage up to any height, though the weight be ever so great. It is droll enough to see them tugging along with a good 24-pounder at their heels; on they go huzzaing, hallooing, sometimes uphill, sometimes downhill, now sticking fast in the brakes, presently floundering in mud and mire ... and as careless of everything but the matter committed to their charge as if death or danger had nothing to do with them. We had a thousand of these brave fellows sent to our a.s.sistance by the Admiral; and the service they did us, both on sh.o.r.e and on the water, is incredible."[62]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ENGLISH BLUEJACKETS AT THE DEFENCE OF ACRE

Seamen and marines constantly worked together on sh.o.r.e during numerous expeditions in the course of the long series of wars which only terminated with the Battle of Waterloo.]

Two or three years previously the seamen of the fleet had performed a similar duty at the siege of Quebec, and it is related that after bringing up the guns they met a battalion of soldiers about to go into action and insisted in falling-in alongside them, some armed with cutla.s.ses, some with sticks, and others with no weapons at all. General Wolfe, coming up, thanked them for their spirit, but urged them to continue on their way to their ships, as they were both unarmed and unacquainted with military discipline and manoeuvres. He said that it would be of more service to their country if they did so than for them to lose their lives for no result. To this address some of them called out: "G.o.d bless your Honour, pray let us stay and see fair play between the English and the French". Wolfe again urged them to go on board. Some followed his advice, but others, as soon as his back was turned, swore that the soldiers should not have all the fighting to themselves. They contrived to remain with the redcoats, and whenever one of the latter fell a seaman put on his accoutrements, seized his musket, and charged with the battalion. Seamen and marines constantly worked together on sh.o.r.e during the numerous expeditions that were directed against the enemy's possessions in the course of the long series of wars which only terminated with the Battle of Waterloo, not so very often in regular brigades but in landing-parties from their own ships, notably at the defence of Acre by Sir Sidney Smith, Captain of the _Tigre_, a.s.sisted by Colonel Douglas of the Marines and by Colonel Philpoteaux, an engineer officer and a French Royalist refugee. A very usual operation was for one or two of our ships to set about the capture of a number of the enemy's merchantmen and small craft that had sought refuge in some harbour on the Mediterranean coast. If there was a battery defending the entrance the ship would engage it, and after its guns were silenced, it would be stormed by the bluejackets and marines. After this the latter would take up a covering position while the seamen brought out the shipping.

We have a somewhat amusing account of a naval brigade of seamen which was put on sh.o.r.e during the unfortunate Walcheron Expedition of 1808. It was written by a soldier, so perhaps may have been a bit overdrawn, but it must be remembered that there was no attempt to teach seamen infantry drill in those days, and none of them was enlisted for longer than a ship's commission. "These extraordinary fellows", says the writer, "delighted in hunting the 'Munseers', as they called the French, and a more formidable pack was never unkennelled. Armed with a long pole, a pike, a cutla.s.s, and a pistol, they annoyed the French skirmishers in all directions by their irregular and unexpected attacks. They usually went out in parties as if they were going to hunt a wild beast, and no huntsman ever followed the chase with more delight.... They might be seen leaping the d.y.k.es by the aid of their poles or swimming across others, like Newfoundland dogs; and if a few French riflemen appeared in sight, they ran at them helter-skelter, and pistol, cutla.s.s, or pike went to work in good earnest. The French soldiers did not at all relish such opponents--and no wonder, for the very appearance of them was terrific, and quite out of the usual order of things. Each man seemed a sort of Paul Jones, tarred, belted, and cutla.s.sed as they were. Had we had occasion to storm Flushing I have no doubt they would have carried the breach themselves."

The writer gives a humorous description of their drill, of which they wisely only attempted enough to a.s.sist them in moving from place to place. "'Heads up, you beggar of a corporal, there', a little slang-going Jack would cry out from the rear rank, well knowing that his diminutive size prevented his being seen by his officers. Then, perhaps, the man immediately before the wit, in order to show his sense of decorum, would turn round and remark: 'I say, who made you fugleman,[63]

Master Billy? Can't you behave like a sodger afore the commander, eh?'"

Drill was looked upon merely as an amusing interlude in the serious business of war and appreciated accordingly. It was an exhibition of the same spirit of cheerfulness which has made us so proud of our Tommies for "sticking it out" so heroically in the trenches. This spirit never left these gallant seamen till the last, for the account above quoted tells how, when one of them was brought to the ground by a bullet which broke the bones of his leg, while pursuing some of the enemy's riflemen, he "took off his tarpaulin hat and flung it with all his might after them, adding a wish, 'that it was an 18-pounder for their sakes!' The poor fellow was carried off by his comrades and taken to the hospital, where he died. Such were the men who fought our battles."

At the landing in Aboukir Bay in 1801 a body of seamen under Sir Sidney Smith were of great a.s.sistance to our army--very badly provided with artillery with which to reply to the numerous French field-pieces. The seamen, however, landed some guns, dragged them to a good position among the sand-hills, and by their fire materially contributed to the victory which ensued. It was in the same part of the world--to be exact, on the coast of Syria--that some years afterwards, in 1840-1, a naval brigade from the Mediterranean fleet, under Sir Charles Napier, a.s.sisted by a reinforcement of the Royal Marines sent out from England, carried on a campaign against Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, who had revolted from the Sultan and forcibly occupied Syria. There were Turkish troops also engaged and a small detachment from one or two Austrian ships, but Sir Charles Napier was in charge of the operations, and no British soldiers, other than the few marines, took part in the campaign.

Sir Charles, though a sailor, always thought that he was a soldier spoiled, and was very proud of the rank of Major-General which had been given him by the Portuguese Government about ten years before. He had seen a little fighting on sh.o.r.e in the Peninsula, and entered into this sh.o.r.e-going campaign with the greatest zest. The marines, who were formed into two battalions, did the greater part of the fighting on land, as the seamen were required to man the guns of their ships, which constantly co-operated with the land forces by bombarding the enemy's towns and positions; but the bluejackets took part in the storming of Tortosa--where they preceded the marines as a pioneer party to remove obstacles--the a.s.sault of a castle near Acre, the occupation of Tyre, and the capture of Acre and Sidon. The seamen and marines of the fleet engaged in the Chinese war of 1840-1 also did a considerable amount of sh.o.r.e work of which s.p.a.ce precludes any account, the operations they were engaged in being so numerous and so scattered. But we may say that, generally speaking, the seamen acted as gunners, while the marines were employed as infantry.

Naval guns mounted in sh.o.r.e batteries played a most distinguished part in the Crimean War. They were manned both by seamen and by marines, and were employed at the bombardment and capture of Bomarsund in the Baltic and in the trenches before Sebastopol. At the latter place, although a brigade of the Royal Marines had been encamped on the heights above Balaclava, and though they and the Royal Marine Artillery manned the guns in the redoubts built to secure our right flank from a Russian attack, it had not been intended to place naval guns in the siege-batteries. But when our siege-train found that they had all they could do to contend with the unexpected efficiency of the Russian guns, it was hurriedly determined to call on the navy for a.s.sistance. Fifty heavy guns were at once landed, with 35 officers and 732 seamen under Captain Stephen Lushington. The reinforcement was most valuable. The guns were powerful and the seamen's fire most accurate. The brigade did "yeoman service", and sustained by the end of the siege the loss of 7 officers and 95 men killed, and 39 officers and 432 men wounded.

Perhaps the most famous naval brigade in history is the _Shannon's_ brigade, under Captain Peel, which made such a glorious record in the strenuous days of the Indian Mutiny. Although nearly all accounts would lead the reader to believe that it was entirely composed of seamen, it consisted, in point of fact, of 450 seamen, 140 marines, and 15 marine artillerymen, drawn from both the _Shannon_ and the _Pearl_. The guns which they took with them and which did such invaluable service were twelve in number--ten 8-inch guns--pretty heavy pieces to haul along--and a couple of bra.s.s field-pieces. The brigade partic.i.p.ated in the action at Kajwa, 1st November, 1857, when Peel took charge of the operations on the death of Colonel Powell of the 53rd, and brought them to a victorious conclusion. On the 13th of the same month eight heavy guns and 250 of the brigade, with Peel himself, arrived before Lucknow, where they formed part of the army under Sir Colin Campbell which had advanced to the relief of the Europeans besieged in the Residency. After the capture of the Sikander Bagh, the relieving-force was checked in a narrow way by the desperate resistance offered by the garrison of the Shah Najif, "which was wreathed in volumes of smoke from the burning buildings in front but sparkled all over with the bright flash of small-arms".[64] The guns could make little or no impression on it; retreat was impossible along the narrow crowded lane by which the advance had been made. Desperate measures were necessary. Peel was equal to the occasion. While his marines and the Highlanders did their best to keep down the fire from the rebel loopholes, his seamen man-handled two of their big guns to within a few feet of the walls. But they had to be drawn off again under cover of the fire from a couple of rocket tubes, which were brought into action for the purpose. Still their gunners had made a small breach, which they had not even noticed themselves, and by this breach fifty men of the 93rd Highlanders, under Colonel Adrian Hope and Sergeant Paton--who received the V.C. for this service--later on effected an entry and expelled the garrison. The naval guns were of the greatest service during the withdrawal of the hardly pressed garrison of the Residency, since they kept down the fire from the Kaisar Bagh, the princ.i.p.al stronghold of the rebel sepoys. At Cawnpore and at the battle of Futtygurh, and in the final relief of Lucknow, the _Shannon_ and _Pearl_ brigades distinguished themselves time after time; but we must leave further details, to deal with later naval brigades.