Just finished to read.
Quite interesting.
"…Our forefathers, as is well known, gathered their merchant ships in large convoys under the escort of ships of war. It was a mode of proceeding distasteful to the one and irksome to the other. Naturally the officers of our ships of war did not like it, for it withdrew them from active, brilliant, or possibly lucrative enterprise, to a service on which the enemy was to be avoided rather than sought, on which dull safety was the aim, rather than glorious victory, and which, with a great deal of difficulty and vexation, brought with it small chance of distinction and none of emolument. And on the other hand, the masters of merchantmen, if they found themselves in a good ship, and had, as was commonly the case, a pecuniary interest in an early market, chafed under the delay which worse sailing ships forced on them; and the delay was not always the fault of the ships; the ignorance and incompetence of some of the masters was as irritating and embarrassing as the undue eagerness, obstinacy, and inattention of others. It has therefore been assumed that in any future naval war the system of convoys will not be attempted. 1 Most certainly, naval officers will not be anxious that it should be. Whether the merchants, for whose benefit it was devised, may not be driven to a different opinion is a question which time alone can answer. But if not in convoys, how then is our commerce to be protected ?…
…I believe the theory that it may do so is widely accepted, though the way in which it is to do so has never been satisfactorily explained; and though I read of merchant-ships carrying 40-pounders, or even heavier guns, and flying the blue ensign, I doubt very much whether the few guns, or the scanty, imperfectly-trained crew, would enable the blue ensign to fly long in the immediate presence of an enemy's ship of war. But I am not now going to dwell on my own personal doubts. I prefer examining into the historical antecedents of the theory; and, by seeing how far armed merchant-ships have, in former days, been able to defend themselves, forming some warranted opinion as to how far they may be able to do so in time to come.
Many hundred years ago, practical experience decided in favour of a permanent distinction between merchant-ships and ships of war; notwithstanding which, merchant-ships continued to be armed, chiefly as a defence against pirates and savages. Sometimes, however, the armament was spoken of as efficient against men-of-war; and was carried to such an extent that engagements with merchant-ships have been added to the roll of naval achievement. Notably has this been the case with the celebrated capture of the Acapulco ship by Commodore Anson. Every boy has read the story and admired the boldness with which the Centurion – her crew reduced by sickness and death – sailed from Macao to look for this gigantic adversary, of nearly double her tonnage, and with more than double her number of men : and not only to look for, but to find, to fight, and to capture…
…Spaniards, or of any other people; it is a belief that has often led to very practical results : but in this particular instance, when we examine the story technically and critically, the consideration is forced on us that the Centurion was a man-of-war, and that – however big the Nuestra Senora de Covadonga was only a merchant-ship; as emphasizing which, it is well to look beyond the familiar account written by the commodore and his friends. This does indeed tell how the Spaniard had 67 men killed and 84 wounded, whilst on board the Centurion were only 2 killed and 17 wounded ; and remarks : I of so little consequence are the most destructive arms in untutored and unpractised hands.1 This short comment i5, however, not likely to catch the attention, or even be fully understood by the ordinary reader; for the exact meaning of it we have to refer to the little-known narrative by Mr. Thomas, the ship's schoolmaster, which, describing the Covadonga, says:
'She had ports for mounting 64 guns, but had, I think, to the best of my remembrance, but 40, and was so lumbered that she could not fight all of them; 17 of those were brass, I think all twelve-pounders, but no two of them alike, but I suppose picked up here and there at different times as they could procure them . . . . Her defensive weapons were swords and cutlasses, poleaxes, and a dangerous sort of pike, the wood handle of which was about seven foot long and headed with a double-edged iron about eighteen inches long, very sharp, and which alone was enough to destroy all the men who should enter on the nettings, or to push back those who might attempt to enter in any other parts : but I fancy they were in so much haste and hurry that they forgot most of these below ; for we afterwards found many of them in the gun-room, a place where they could be of no manner of…"
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Amicalement
Armand
paints brigs for the British fleet.
