LORD EXMOUTH AT ALGIERS. A. D. 1816.
Viscount Exmouth (Sir Edward Pellew), a celebrated English Admiral, was born at Dover, in 1757. His family was Norman, but had been settled in Cornwall for many centuries. Entering the English navy at the age of thirteen, he soon distinguished himself for his daring, activity, intelligence, and all other qualities which go to make up a good officer.
His first war service was at the battle of Lake Champlain, in our own country, when he succeeded to the command of the schooner Carleton, and won a Lieutenant’s commission. The next year he served in Burgoyne’s unfortunate campaign, in command of a detachment of seamen, whose tremendous labor in the lakes and rivers was entirely thrown away by Burgoyne’s capture.
After this he was employed actively against the French, and was knighted for a very gallant action, when, in command of the Nymphe frigate, he captured the Cleopatra, a much heavier ship. In 1794, in command of the Arethusa frigate, he captured the French frigate Pomone; and in consequence was given the command of a division, when he again distinguished himself.
Always noted for deeds of daring, one of the most remarkable of these was his boarding the wrecked transport Sutton, shipwrecked on the coast of England. He took charge, and by his personal influence and great exertions, saved the lives of all on board.
In 1798, in command of the Impetueux, of the Channel fleet, he participated in several actions. He then entered Parliament, and was known as a strenuous supporter of the policy of William Pitt.
In 1804 he was made a Rear-Admiral, and appointed Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies, when he succeeded in nearly clearing those seas of the French cruisers, which had done so much damage to English commerce.
He returned to England in 1809, and was immediately appointed to the Command in the North Sea. After this he served as Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, and in 1814 was raised to the peerage.
The atrocities committed by the Algerines, and the barbarous massacre of the crews of more than three hundred small vessels, at Bona, on the 23d of May, 1816, induced the British Government to prepare an expedition to act against the forts and shipping of Algiers. This piratical city had often been attacked and bombarded before, notably by the celebrated French Admiral Duquesne, in the latter part of the 17th century; but it was reserved for Lord Exmouth and an English fleet to give it a final blow.
On the 28th of July, 1816, Lord Exmouth sailed from Plymouth Sound, in command of a fleet bound to Algiers. His flag-ship was the Queen Charlotte, of 100 guns, and Rear-Admiral Milne, his second in command, was in the Impregnable, 98. There were also three 74s, one 50, two 40s, two 36s, five brigs, and four bomb-vessels.
Upon reaching Gibraltar, on the 9th of August, Lord Exmouth was joined by the Minden, 74, and also received offers of co-operation from Vice-Admiral Baron Van de Cappellen, of the Dutch navy, which Exmouth very cordially received. The Dutch had four forty-gun ships, a thirty, and a sloop of eighteen guns.
On the 13th of August each captain received a plan of the fortifications they were to attack, and definite instructions, and the whole fleet, amounting to twenty-three sail, with five gun-boats, and a sloop, fitted as an explosion vessel, weighed anchor, and proceeded for their destination.
On the passage they were joined by a sloop-of-war, which had taken off the wife and children of the British Consul at Algiers. But the Consul himself had been most arbitrarily detained by the Dey, together with the Surgeon, three Midshipmen, and eighteen men belonging to the sloop-of-war. (Any one curious in regard to these remarkable transactions cannot do better than read the book upon Algiers, by Mr. Shaler, American Consul there at the time of the bombardment. Mr. Shaler, in his work, points out the true way to take Algiers, and his advice was afterwards followed by the French, when they took the place.)
The fortifications of Algiers were deemed almost impregnable, especially by the artillery of that time; upon the various batteries on the north side of the bay eighty pieces of cannon and eight heavy mortars were mounted; but the water was so shoal that a large ship could not come within their reach. Between the north wall of the city and the commencement of the mole (which was about 800 feet long, and which connected the town with the lighthouse) were about twenty guns; and a semi-circular battery, mounting two tiers of guns, about forty-four in all, stood on the northern projection of the mole.
To the southward of that, and nearly in a line with the pier, was the lighthouse battery, of three tiers, mounting forty-eight guns, next to which was the eastern battery, mounting sixty-six guns in three tiers, flanked by four other batteries, of two tiers, mounting altogether sixty guns, and on the mole-head were two long 68-pounders, described as being twenty feet in length. The total number of guns on the mole and pier was at least 220, composed of 32, 24, and 18-pounders.
The “fish-market” battery, about 300 yards west from the south mole-head, mounted fifteen guns, in three tiers. Between that and the southern extremity of the city were two batteries of five guns each. Beyond the city, in this direction, was a castle and three other batteries, mounting altogether about seventy guns. In the rear of the city, and on the heights, were several other batteries; so that the total number of guns mounted for the defence of this fastness of robbery, oppression, and cruelty, exceeded 1000.
On the 27th of August, at daybreak, the city of Algiers was in sight, but the ships were lying nearly becalmed. A boat in charge of a Lieutenant was despatched to the Dey, to demand compliance with the following conditions: the abolition of Christian slavery; the release of all Christian slaves; the repayment of the money recently exacted for the redemption of Neapolitan and Sardinian slaves; peace with the King of the Netherlands; and the immediate liberation of the English Consul and the officers and boats’ crews of the Prometheus.
The boat with the flag of truce was towed in shore, and was met, at 11 A. M., near the mole, by an Algerine boat, in which was the Captain of the Port, who promised a reply in two hours. In the meantime the sea breeze sprang up, and the whole fleet stood into the bay, and hove to, about a mile from the batteries. At 2 P. M., no answer having been received, the boat sent with the message made signal to that effect, and returned to her own ship.
Lord Exmouth at once demanded, by signal, if all the ships were ready, and being answered in the affirmative, the fleet bore up for the attack, in the order precisely laid down.
About half-past two in the afternoon the flag-ship, Queen Charlotte, anchored, with springs, about fifty yards from the mole-head; and while in the act of making a warp fast to an Algerine brig on shore at the mouth of the harbor, a shot was fired at the ship; and at the same moment two shots from the opposite end of the mole were fired at the Impregnable, and other ships, as they were advancing to take their stations.
Lord Exmouth, unwilling to sacrifice the mass of Algerine townspeople standing on the parapet of the mole, and gazing with astonishment at the strange ships, waved his hand to them to descend, and at once gave orders to commence firing, when the action became general, as soon as the guns would bear.
On the Queen Charlotte’s port bow lay the Leander, 50, occupying the place in line of a line-of-battle ship, with her starboard after guns bearing upon the mole, and her forward guns upon the “fish-market” battery.
Ahead of the Leander was the Severn, 40, her starboard broadside bearing full upon the “fish-market” battery. Close to the Severn was the Glasgow, 40, whose port guns bore upon the town batteries. On the port quarter of the Queen Charlotte was the Superb, 74, her starboard broadside bearing on the 60-gun battery next to the one on the mole-head. It was intended that the Impregnable, 98, and Albion, 74, should take their places close astern of the Superb, but the former, not being sufficiently up when the firing began, brought up considerably outside of her appointed station, and beyond the line of bearing within which the attacking force had been ordered to assemble. The Impregnable, in consequence, lay exposed, at the distance of five hundred yards, to the lighthouse battery of three tiers, as well as to the eastern battery of two tiers. The Minden pushed on and dropped her anchor in the space between the Impregnable and Superb, on the port quarter of the latter. The Albion brought up near the Impregnable, but weighed again, and, about three o’clock, anchored close astern of the Minden.
The end of her stream cable was then passed out of the gun-room port of the latter, by which the Albion was hove close to the stern of the Minden.
Thus the line-of-battle ships took their stations in a northerly direction from the mole-head; and the frigates from the “fish-market” battery, in a curved line to the southwest.
The Dutch Admiral intended to have placed his flag-ship, a frigate called the Melampus, in the centre of his squadron, and against the batteries to the southward of the city; but not being able to take this station, in consequence of the Diana being too far to the southward, he ran past that frigate, and anchored the Melampus with her jib-boom over the Glasgow’s taffrail.
The Diana and Dageraad anchored astern of the Melampus, and the other two Dutch frigates further out; the corvette remaining under way. The Hebrus, 36, being becalmed, anchored a little without the line, on the port quarter of the Queen Charlotte. The Granicus, 36, hove to, in order to allow the large ships to take their places; after which she steered for the Admiral’s flag, which alone could be seen over the clouds of smoke already formed, and anchored in a space scarcely exceeding her own length, between the Superb and Queen Charlotte.
The skill with which Captain Wise, her commander, took up this position elicited the admiration of all who witnessed it. The brigs of the fleet either anchored or kept under way, as most convenient. The bomb vessels anchored about two thousand yards from the Algerine batteries; except one, which took up an inside berth; and the gun-boats and mortar-boats placed themselves where they could most annoy the enemy.
The Leander was especially charged with the Algerine gun-boats and row-galleys, which she was not long in destroying by her fire; and at about four P. M. she ceased firing, that the barge of the Queen Charlotte might set fire to an Algerine frigate which was lying across the mole. This service was gallantly performed, and the frigate was soon in flames; the boat returning with the loss of only two men killed. Lord Exmouth particularly complimented those employed in this service. A young Midshipman, in command of a rocket-boat, followed the barge, but, owing to the slowness of his boat, was much exposed to a heavy fire from the batteries, and was wounded, with nine of his boat’s crew; while another Midshipman who was with him was killed.
About half-past four Rear Admiral Milne sent a message to Lord Exmouth, stating that the Impregnable had sustained a loss of one hundred and fifty in killed and wounded, and requesting that a frigate might be sent to divert some of the fire from that ship.
The Glasgow attempted to perform that service, but, it being perfectly calm, the frigate was unable, after an hour’s exertion, to reach the intended position, and was obliged to anchor just ahead of the Severn, with her stern towards that ship, and thus become exposed to a severe fire from the “fish market” and contiguous batteries. Somewhat later the Leander, having also suffered severely from these batteries, ran out a hawser to the Severn, and sprang her broadside round upon them.
The mortar and rocket-boats had by this time set all the vessels within the harbor on fire, and the flames soon reached the arsenal and storehouses on the mole. The city was also on fire in several places, from the shells thrown by the bomb-vessels. The sloop fitted for an explosion vessel was now run on shore, close under a semi-circular battery, to the northward of the lighthouse, and about nine at night this vessel, charged with about 150 barrels of powder, was exploded. The effect of it is not recorded, and was probably not much, as similar explosions have since failed to produce any great result.
The fleet continued a tremendous cannonade until ten P. M., when, the upper tiers of the batteries on the mole being nearly destroyed, and the lower tiers almost silenced, the Queen Charlotte cut her cables and stood off, with a light breeze from the land, directing the rest of the ships to follow her. The breeze was so light that the Superb and Impregnable, in standing off, suffered much from the raking fire of a fort at the upper angle of the city, which rises up the side of a hill, the walls coming to an angle at the top. When the Leander’s cable was slipped she was found to have sustained so much damage aloft that she was unmanageable, and fast drifting down on the mole, where the enemy’s ships were burning. Fortunately she got a hawser to the Severn, and was towed off. Had she taken the ground, she must have been destroyed, with the greater part of her crew.
Two or three times the hawser parted, but was as often reconveyed by the boats, under sharp musketry fire from the mole. At length the Severn got a good breeze, and the Leander was saved from her perilous situation.
Before two o’clock in the morning the whole fleet was beyond the reach of the enemy’s shot, being greatly assisted in taking up an anchorage by the blaze of the burning Algerine fleet, which illuminated the whole bay, and lighted up the terraced town, with its white houses rising one above the other to the fort, which dominated the whole.
As if to add to the grandeur and wildness of the scene, a storm of thunder and lightning came on, and lasted till daybreak.
At daybreak in the morning the bomb vessels were ordered to again take up their stations, in readiness to resume the bombardment of the city; while Lord Exmouth’s Flag-Lieutenant was despatched with a flag of truce, to repeat the demands made on the preceding day. The Algerine officer who came out to meet the flag of truce declared that an answer had been sent the day before, but that no boat could be found to receive it.
On the 29th the Captain of the Port came off, accompanied by the British Consul, who had been imprisoned by the Dey; and the same afternoon an English Captain landed, and had a conference with the Dey, at his palace; which resulted in the delivery to the British of more than twelve hundred Christian slaves, the restoration of nearly $400,000 for slaves redeemed by Naples and Sicily, peace between Algiers and the Netherlands, and $30,000 paid to the British Consul, as compensation for the loss of his property, which had been plundered. The Dey, moreover, made an apology for his detention.
The loss of the attacking party in this successful bombardment was one hundred and forty-one killed and seven hundred and forty-two wounded. The Dutch squadron, which was highly complimented by Lord Exmouth for gallant conduct, lost, of the above, thirteen killed and fifty-two wounded.
This bombardment broke the Algerine power completely, and put an end, almost altogether, to her piratical exploits.
Fourteen years afterwards the country was captured by France, and has ever since remained in the possession of that country.