Making every allowance for Betagh's animosity, it is impossible to believe that Shelvocke was a favourable specimen of a privateer commander; his own admissions are in several instances against him, and there can be little doubt that he and his crew degenerated into unscrupulous pirates. Clipperton, though very rough and eventually a drunkard, was a better type of man; and, had Shelvocke been loyal, and stuck to him from the first, the story of the cruise might have been a very different one.
SOME ODD YARNS
CHAPTER VII
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS OF THE "ALEXANDER"
In the year 1744 a British 20-gun ship, the Solebay, was captured, together with two others, by a French squadron under Admiral de Rochambeau.
Less than two years later the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty called before them a certain Captain Phillips, master mariner, commanding the Alexander privateer; and the following is the "minute" of the interview, officially recorded:
"29 April, 1746. Captain Phillips, of the Alexander privateer, attending, was called in, and told the Lords that he chased the Solebay and a small ship, laden with naval stores, that she had under her convoy, into St. Martin's Road[8] on the 10th instant; that he came up with the Solebay just at the entrance of the Road, where he believed there were 100 sail of ships at anchor, and boarded her athwart the bowsprit, sword in hand, and cut her out about three o'clock p.m. Said the wind was at S.S.W., which was fair for his running in and coming out. The Lords asked him how many men she had on board. He answered she had 230, and he had but 140; that they kept a very bad look-out, but as soon as he boarded her they were forced to fly from their quarters; that they killed 15 of her men, and he had lost but three; that she is still called the Solebay, and that the French have made no other alteration in her than lengthening her quarter-deck. The Lords asked him what he thought the two Martinico ships he had taken were worth; he answered about £8,000 or £9,000. He told the Lords that at the Isle of Rhé there were two ships of 64 guns each, and four East India ships outward bound; said he was to be heard of at Lloyd's Coffee House, and then withdrew."
Thus an English man-of-war was restored to the Royal Navy by the boldness and enterprise of this privateer captain, who was another specimen of a good man lost to the Service. He would willingly have entered the Navy, but, like George Walker, he was deterred by the stringent regulations, which compelled him at first to take a subordinate post as lieutenant. He was presented, however, with five hundred guineas and a gold medal, in recognition of his excellent services; and his name will not be overlooked in the roll of honour by naval historians.