This, to resume with the Doctor, is how Budge-Budge fell:
“During the tranquil state of the camp, one Strahan, a common sailor, belonging to the Kent, having been just served with grog (arrack mixed with water), had his spirits too much elated to think of taking any rest: he therefore strayed by himself towards the fort, and imperceptibly got under the walls. Being advanced thus far without interruption, he took it into his head to scale it at a breach that had been made by the cannon of the ships, and having luckily gotten upon the bastion, he there discovered several Moors[6] sitting upon the platform, at whom he flourished his cutlass and fired his pistol, and then, after giving three loud huzzas, cried out—“The place is mine.” The Moorish soldiers immediately attacked him, and he defended himself with incomparable resolution, but in the rencounter had the misfortune to have the blade of his cutlass cut in two, about a foot from the hilt. This mischance, however, did not happen until he was near being supported by two or three other sailors who had accidentally straggled to the same part of the fort on which the other had mounted. They, hearing Strahan’s huzzas, immediately scaled the breach likewise, and echoing the triumphant sound roused the whole army, who, taking the alarm, presently fell on pell-mell, without orders and without discipline, following the example of the sailors.”
Completely taken by surprise and scared out of their wits the garrison bolted en masse, and Budge-Budge was ours. It was found to mount in all eighteen guns, mostly 24-pounders—the average size of a siege piece of the day—and to have a well stocked magazine.
Neither the Admiral’s official dispatch nor the flagship’s log, as it happens, make any mention whatever of Strahan or his exploit. Admiral Watson says: “At half-past eight the body of the fort was on fire, and immediately after news was received that the Place was taken, but the few people in it had all escaped.” The flagship’s log is briefer still. It simply notes: “At forty-five minutes past eight Captain Bridge came on board with an account of our being in possession of the Fort.”
Next morning, according to the etiquette of the time, the British flag was hoisted on the ramparts of the fort and a seventeen-gun salute to Admiral Watson, as commander-in-chief of the expedition, was ceremoniously fired.
That being done, Strahan was brought before the Admiral by the master-at-arms to explain matters. Admiral Watson, we are told, “thought it necessary to show himself displeased with a measure in which the want of all discipline so notoriously appeared. He therefore angrily accosted this brave fellow with: ‘Strahan, what is this you have been doing?’ The untutored hero, after having made his bow, scratched his head and, with one hand twirling his hat, replied: ‘Why, to be sure, sir, it was I who took the fort, but I hope there was no harm in it.’ The Admiral with difficulty suppressed a smile excited by the simplicity of the answer, and the language and the manner which he used in recounting the several particulars of his mad exploit. Admiral Watson then expatiated on the fatal consequences that might have attended his irregular conduct, and with a severe rebuke dismissed him, but not without dropping some hints that at a proper opportunity he would certainly be punished for his temerity. Strahan, amazed to find himself blamed for an action that he thought deserved praise and for which he expected to have received applause, in passing from the Admiral’s cabin muttered, ‘If I’m flogged for this here action, I’ll never take another fort by myself as long as I live!’”
Some of the Kent’s officers, as we are told, afterwards interceded with the Admiral for Strahan. They were prompted, according to Dr. Ives, by Admiral Watson himself, who made that the excuse for openly pardoning the man. The Admiral, it would seem, was also desirous of promoting Strahan to boatswain’s mate, with the idea of advancing him later on to full boatswain; but unfortunately Strahan was too fond of his grog. His irregular ways in other respects were against him, and nothing could be done to reclaim him. His own highest ambition, as Strahan himself afterwards declared, was to get a cook’s berth on board a first rate. Whether he ever got one history has not recorded. All that is known of him for certain is that twenty years afterwards he was alive and a Greenwich Hospital pensioner.
The troops were re-embarked on the evening of the 30th, all except the Sepoys, who were ordered to keep advancing along the river bank. Then next morning the squadron moved forward again, keeping the English soldiers on board. On the 31st the whole day was spent in laboriously working up the river, a difficult and intricate piece of navigation, owing to cross currents and dangerous shoals.
New Year’s Day promised to be interesting, for they had Tanna just ahead of them, where there was a fort on one side of the river and a battery on the other. A stiff fight was looked for here, the position being a good one to make a stand at. But news of what had happened at Budge-Budge had gone in advance of them. As the Tyger and Kent drew near the works the garrisons on both sides suddenly abandoned their guns and bolted. Not a shot was fired. The boats of the squadron were promptly sent ashore, and the fort and battery taken possession of. Forty pieces of cannon in all, many of them heavy guns, were found mounted and all well supplied with ammunition. In the afternoon the boats were again called away and dispatched up the river, manned and armed. It was reported that the enemy had had some half dozen native vessels prepared as fireships, and were waiting with them a little higher up, all ready to float down with the ebb of the tide that night on the squadron at its anchorage. The fireships were boarded and destroyed without serious opposition being offered.
Calcutta was in sight next morning. The squadron now comprised the Tyger, Kent, Bridgewater, and Kingfisher. The Salisbury had been left behind at Tanna to demolish the fortifications there and prevent their being re-occupied. Admiral Watson had also with him an extra vessel, the Thunder, a bomb-vessel, one of the country-ships found at Fulta and converted there for emergency purposes, in case bombardment might be needed to drive the enemy out of Fort William.