The British Navy Book

by Cyril Field

"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 noble endeavour;
And that each with his lass,
As he drinks a full glass,
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 constituted 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 shore".

"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.

UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH NAVY
A. B. (Marching Order). 1st Class 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 shore 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 shore side by a combined English and Scots army; and in the list of troops detailed for an assault—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 shore, 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 assist 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.