On the 29th of September, they entered the harbour of Vigo and the grenadiers being immediately landed, about three miles from the town, drew up upon the beach. Lord Cobham went on shore with the grenadiers, and the regiments followed as fast as the boats could carry them. On the 1st of October his Lordship moved with the forces nearer the town; this motion of the army, together with the motion of some parties that were ordered to reconnoitre the town and citadel, gave the enemy some apprehensions that preparations were being made to attack them, whereupon they abandoned the town and retired to the citadel.
On the 3rd a bomb-vessel began to bombard the citadel, but with little success, by reason of its great distance; but in the evening the large mortars and the cohorn mortars between forty and fifty of them, great and small, being landed at the town, and placed on a battery, under cover of fort St. Sebastian (which had been taken from the Spaniards) began in the night to play upon the citadel, and continued it four days with great success. On the fourth day his Lordship ordered the battering cannon to be landed, and, at the same time his Lordship sent to the governor a summons to surrender, signifying, that if he staid till our battery of cannon was ready, he should have no quarter. Colonel Ligonier was sent with this message; but found that the Governor had the day before been carried out of the castle wounded. The Lieutenant-Colonel, who commanded in his absence, desired leave to send for directions, but being answered that hostilities should be continued if they did not send their articles of capitulation without any delay, they soon complied.
On the 25th and 26th of October the forces were all embarked again; on the 27th the fleet put to sea; and on the 11th of November Admiral Mighells, with the men of war and most of the transports arrived at Falmouth, with the loss of only two officers and three or four men killed in the fleet, and about three hundred men killed, died, or deserted in the army. The enemy had above three hundred killed or wounded by our bombs. There were found in the town and citadel a great number of fine brass cannon and mortars, several thousand cannon shot, muskets, barrels of gunpowder, and an immense quantity of other stores and ammunition, which were shipped on board the fleet; besides destroying 153 pieces of iron cannon, sixteen brass cannon and mortars, and a large quantity of other stores; and the treasure brought into the Tower of London was computed to be worth £80,000 sterling. It is remarkable, that the arms and the stores thus taken and destroyed were originally designed for the intended invasion of England the preceding year; but from this successful expedition every design of that nature was rendered totally abortive. This was a very humiliating blow to Spain, and convinced them and the rest of the world, that the English spirit was so far from being depressed by the threatening insults of its enemies, that it was not only capable of planning, but of really executing that invasion which our enemies only meditated.
This expedition to the coast of Spain appears to have been the last service that this great officer was engaged in; for being now arrived at his full meridian glory, and worn out with fatigue in the service of his country, he exchanged the tumultuous scenes of war for the more calm and undisturbed enjoyments of a retired situation. He died on the 21st of March, 1733, and was buried in Lowestoft church, where a handsome monument is erected to his memory. The following is a copy of the inscription: “To the memory of James Mighells, Esq., late Vice-Admiral and Comptroller of the Royal Navy, whose publick and private character justly deserves remembrance, if courage and conduct in a commander, fidelity and diligence in a commissioner, sincerity in a friend, usefulness in a relation, love and affection in a husband, care and indulgence in a parent, and the strictest justice and honesty to all men, deserved to be remembered. He died March 21st, 1733, aged 69 years.”
The last naval officer belonging to Lowestoft at the same period, who remains to be mentioned, and whose conduct and bravery, as a commander, is justly entitled to notice and esteem is Captain Thomas Arnold.
The Arnolds have been a flourishing family in this town from the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In 1584 Nathaniel Arnold was one of the feoffees for Ann Girling’s donation. Thomas, his eldest son lost £375 13s. by the great fire in 1644.
The most memorable action in Captain Thomas Arnold’s life, wherein he displayed the greatest valour and magnanimity, was in the great seafight in the Mediterranean, in the year 1718.
About the middle of March, 1718, Sir George Byng was appointed Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty’s fleet, and to command the squadron designed for the Mediterranean, to act against Spain, in order to protect the neutrality of Italy. On the 3rd of June, the fleet, consisting of twenty-two ships of the line, etc., sailed from St. Helen’s; about the latter end of the month it arrived in the Mediterranean, and in the beginning of July was in sight of the Spanish fleet consisting of twenty-seven sail of men-of-war, great and small with fireships, bomb-vessels, etc. On the approach of the English, they went from them a long way, but in their order of battle. Early in the morning of the 11th, the English got pretty near up to them. The Marquis de Mari, Rear-Admiral, with six Spanish men-of-war, and all the galleys, fireships, bomb-vessels, and store ships, separated from their main fleet, and stood in for the Sicilian shore; upon which the Admiral detached Captain Walton, of the Canterbury, with five more ships after them. In this engagement Captain Walton took four Spanish men-of-war, a bomb-vessel, and a ship laden with arms, and burnt four men-of-war, being all the Spanish ships that were on the coast. In the meanwhile Admiral Sir George Byng pursued the main body of the Spanish fleet.
The Kent and Superbe (the latter being commanded by Captain Streynsham Master, whose first lieutenant was Mr. Arnold), together with the Grafton and Orford, being the fastest sailing ships, having orders to make what sail they could, and to place themselves near the four head-most ships of the enemy, were the first that came up with them. The Spaniards began the action by firing their stern chasers at them; but the English ships having orders not to fire unless the Spaniards repeated their firing, made no return at first; but the Spaniards firing again, the Orford attacked the Santa Rosa, which some time after she took. The St. Charles struck next, without much opposition, and the Kent took possession of her. The Grafton attacked the Prince of Austrias (formerly called the Cumberland), in which was Rear-Admiral Chacon; but the Breda and Captain coming up, she left that ship for them to take, which they soon accomplished, and stretched ahead after another sixty gun ship, which was on her starboard while she was engaging the Prince of Austrias, and kept firing her stern chase into the Grafton.
About one o’clock the Kent and Superbe engaged the Royal St. Philip the Spanish Admiral; which, though supported by two other ships, and all of them kept a continual fire, yet made a running fight of it till about three in the afternoon, when the Kent bearing down upon her and passing under her stern, gave her a broadside and fell to leeward of her. After that the Superbe bore up to the Royal Philip; but Captain Master (who commanded the Superbe) being diffident concerning the most successful method of attacking her, consulted his first lieutenant, Mr. Arnold, who told him, “That as the eyes of the whole fleet were upon them, expecting the most vigorous efforts in the discharge of his duty in that critical moment; he therefore advised him to board the Royal Philip immediately sword in hand.” The council of Mr. Arnold was immediately put in execution; and as his office of first-lieutenant obliged him, he boarded the Royal Philip, sword in hand, and shortly after carried her. Mr. Arnold received such a dangerous wound in this service, in one of his hands and arms, as rendered him almost useless afterwards. At the same time the Barfleur being within shot of the Royal Philip, and astern of her, and also inclining on her weather quarter, one of the Spanish rear-Admirals and another ship of sixty guns, which were to the windward of the Barfleur, bore down upon her and gave her their broadsides, and then clapped upon a wind and stood in for the land. Admiral Byng, in the Barfleur, stood after them till it was almost night; but it being little wind, and they galeing from him out of reach of his cannon, he left pursuing them, and stood away again to the fleet, which he joined in the night. In this action the Essex took the Juno, of thirty-six guns, the Montague and Rupert took the Velante, of forty-four guns. Vice-Admiral Cornwall followed the Grafton, to support her, but it being very little wind, and night coming on, the Spaniard galed away from the Grafton. Rear-Admiral Delaval took the Isabella of sixty guns. The English received but little damage in this battle; the ship that suffered most was the Grafton, Captain Haddock, and being a good sailor, her Captain engaged several ships of the enemy, always pursuing the headmost, and leaving those ships he had disabled or damaged to be taken by those that followed him. Several other men-of-war, fire ships, bomb vessels, etc., were taken and destroyed in this action. As for the prizes that had been taken, they were sent to Port Mahon; where, by an unlucky accident the Royal Philip took fire and blew up with most of the crew on board; but the Spanish Admiral had been before set ashore in Sicily, with some other prisoners of distinction, where he soon afterwards died of his wounds.