When the Edgar was paid off, Commissioner Martin[[71]] of the dockyard at Portsmouth, recommended me to the Barfleur, Vice-Admiral Roddam (red at the fore) port admiral, and Robert Calder, Esq., captain. I had not been long on board when Captain Calder took it into his head to recommend several of us to the Solebay, 32, fitting at Spithead for the West Indies, and I was one of the number. This did not suit my inclination, and I requested my mother to make the circumstance known to the commissioner, who promised her that I should not be sent out against my will. I waited with great anxiety the result, and never shall I forget the manner Captain Calder addressed me the moment he came on board. ‘Your mother is a fool, sir; you shall not stay in my ship; take your hat off, sir’ (for we were always obliged to stand with our hats off while speaking to him and I was rather slack in doffing mine); ‘I will give you one month to provide yourself with another ship, you are disgraced here;’ and then turning on his heel went into his cabin. With rage and indignation at such an unwarrantable attack, I sent in to say I would be glad to speak to him if he was at leisure. This he immediately granted, and I was told after by Jefferys, the clerk, who was in the cabin, that he thought I had made up my mind to go, but he was mistaken. I told him I came to return him thanks for his kindness in allowing me to remain in his ship for a month until I could provide myself with another, but if he pleased I would rather have my discharge immediately. He looked at me for some time before he made an answer; at last he roared out in fury, ‘You shall not go at all, sir; and mind what you are about.’ I answered that I always did mind what I was about. This increased his rage, and turning to the first lieutenant (Dolling), who had just come into the cabin, ‘That’s a troublesome chap, sir, take care of him.’ Now it happened that I had leave to go on shore before Captain C. came on board and only waited till I saw him, and was going into the boat, when Lieutenant Dolling came waddling up to me with the intelligence that I was under arrest, and to consider myself a prisoner at large; and so I was for upwards of ten weeks, and the devil thank Bobby Calder for his kindness.
The Spanish armament taking place, we were ordered to Spithead, and hoisted the flag (blue at the main) of the Honourable Samuel Barrington, Sir John Jervis (rear-admiral of the blue) captain of the fleet, and Captain Calder in command of the ship. Sailed for Torbay, and took command of the fleet assembled there, until the arrival of Lord Howe, which took place soon after, as admiral of the fleet, the union jack being hoisted on board the Queen Charlotte, 110.[[72]] His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, admiral of the white, attended by Prince William Henry, who commanded the Valiant, 74, came on board to visit Admiral Barrington, who had formerly sailed with the duke. Admiral Barrington having shifted his flag to the Royal George, 110, we hoisted that of Rear-Admiral Sir John Jervis, K.B., and sailed to the westward with the grand fleet, and found the old Barfleur an excellent sea boat. After cruising several weeks the fleet returned, and when off Plymouth we struck the flag of Sir John Jervis, and proceeded to the Downs and hoisted the flag (blue at the fore) of Vice-Admiral Elliot, and sailed with thirteen sail of the line for Spithead, where we found Lord Howe with the remainder of the fleet, Captain Calder having been appointed to the Stately, 64. Captain Robert Carthew Reynolds took command of the Barfleur as flag captain. The chief part of the midshipmen being removed to the Stately, Captain Calder sent for me and introduced me to Captain Reynolds, and spoke to him in the highest terms of my conduct, and among other things said I was particularly active in going aloft, and if I wished to leave the Barfleur he would keep a vacancy open on his books; but that the Barfleur being a flagship and my pay better, he thought it the most eligible of the two to remain. This was a civil way of parting to outward appearance friends.
The Spanish business being settled we remained at Spithead but struck our flag. Soon after a mutiny broke out in the ship, which was soon put a stop to, and the crews of the ships at Spithead (as many as liked) paid off. The Russian armament commencing, Lord Hood hoisted his flag on board the Victory, 100, and took command of the fleet, consisting of thirty-six sail of the line moored in two lines abreast, the frigates between, which had a most beautiful appearance, and thousands from all parts of the country came to gaze, and went back as wise as ever. Rear-Admiral Jonathan Faulknor[[73]] (red at the mizen) having hoisted his flag on board of us, that excellent officer Captain Reynolds left the ship and was succeeded by Captain John Bourmaster, one of the best men that ever lived. We remained a considerable time at Spithead until the business was settled, and then went into harbour to be paid off.
I shall now relate as well as I remember a few circumstances that took place in the Barfleur during the time I belonged to her. When we had the command in Torbay, before the arrival of Lord Howe, we exercised great guns and small arms every day, with loosing and furling sails, and it was remarked by the fleet that they never looked at the Barfleur without seeing the men crawling up the rigging ready for some manœuvre and keeping them constantly on the alert. I have absolutely been midshipman in the foretop when the sail has been loosed and furled nineteen times; and long Lloyd (one of our lieutenants) calling out from the gratings on the bowsprit, ‘Mr. Gardner, will you have your hammock sent up to you?’—a common expression in the navy. I could not help answering, ‘I’ll thank you, sir, for I’m damnation tired.’ He was a good fellow and only laughed.
Our ship’s company were never surpassed. We had the pickings of the East India men, and our waisters could take helm and lead, and certainly we could have beaten with ease any two ships of a foreign power of our rate, and a braver officer never stepped between stem and stern than Bobby Calder. I had great reason to dislike him, but I will do him justice as well as my humble abilities will allow. An error in judgment is what every man is liable to. Even Napoleon, the greatest man the world ever produced, was guilty of three great errors: the first in not entirely crushing the Russian army when he had it in his power after defeating the Emperor Alexander at Austerlitz; the second in not reinstating the Poles; and the third in not marrying a Frenchwoman after his divorce from Josephine. Another great general also made a few blunders; and his retreat from a certain citadel was, I have been told, anything but superior to that of the ten thousand under Xenophon.[[74]] But to return. Sir Robert Calder was found guilty of an error in judgment by the sentence of a court martial; but no man can deny that he was a brave and meritorious officer, possessing the first-rate[[75]] abilities of a British admiral.
To some the pow’rs of bloody war belong,
To some, sweet music and the charm of song;
To few, and wondrous few, has Jove assigned
A wise, extensive, all considering mind.
The newspapers at the time were teeming with abuse; but the braying of those asses soon sunk, and had no other effect than to shew the malignity of their leading articles. One of the blackguard papers was particularly vindictive. It was edited