On one occasion a man was brought up on the quarter-deck in a state of intoxication, when the captain, as if he could not believe his own eyes, thought it necessary to call two of the officers as witnesses. The man was put into confinement; and next morning, at eight, he was brought up to be punished at the gangway. The offender being tied up, and the article of war under which he had fallen being read, the captain took the opportunity of assuring his assembled crew, that when legally convicted they were sure of punishment; but that no man should be struck.
At this moment the sentinel on the forecastle called out that "a prize was driving towards the ship." The danger of collision was the more imminent, inasmuch as a heavy gale was blowing at the time. The master, who sprang forward, called aloud, "Veer away the small bower-cable, or she will be on board of us!" The pause which had been made in the captain's speech was broken by orders from him to veer away the cable quickly. "Down, my lads, veer away!" was repeated by every officer; but the men, not aware of the fatal consequence, and knowing that they could not, after what the captain said, be started, moved very leisurely to perform the duty, which, to save the ship, it was absolutely necessary should be done with the utmost alacrity. Meanwhile, Captain Caulfield, looking over the back of the culprit, and viewing the supineness of the men, who were totally regardless of his repeated injunctions to veer the cable quickly, began to be indignant; and when the master repeated, "If you do not veer away at once, we shall lose the bowsprit and all the masts," he called to the officers in the waist "to start the rascals down to the cable:" but, as it may be supposed, their unarmed endeavours would not have been successful, had he not, as the crisis approached, jumped down himself among the men, and, with the end of the thickest rope he could find, become the transgressor of his own laws, of the absurdity of which he was now so fully convinced, that he acknowledged he was wrong, and completely reversed his system.
No ship ever had a more narrow escape of being wrecked; the prize drifted so close to the Grampus as to carry away her spritsail yard, and, drifting on the rocks, about three cables' length astern, was totally lost, and every man perished, among whom were a midshipman and four of the Grampus's crew. Had the prize, which was a large Dutch ship, came athwart-hawse of the Grampus, both, instead of one, would have been wrecked. No alternative was therefore left to Captain Caulfield but the rope's end, which he employed in violation of his own rules of discipline.
Sir James was extremely averse to innovations of this kind, and he took occasion to point out the propriety of officers being supported in the execution of their duty, and the danger of interfering with the excellent laws enacted for the government of the navy.
In the Grampus, Sir James visited the island of Jersey, and, after cruising to examine the coast of France adjacent to the islands, he returned to Guernsey; soon after which, the Grampus, being a new ship, was selected to convoy the East India fleet, and was relieved by the Diomede of fifty guns, Captain Thomas Larcom, on board which ship the flag was shifted, on the 19th of June, 1803.
As the summer advanced, the preparations of the enemy became more formidable, and the island was minutely examined by Sir James. The following anecdote may serve to prove how much officers may be mistaken as to the natural defences of a sea-coast.
Some differences of opinion having arisen respecting the possibility of the enemy landing on the south side of Guernsey, where the land is high, it was proposed to put the question to the test by actual experiment. Sir James, and the Governor (Sir John Doyle), accordingly proceeded to the spot with the boats of the squadron. On arriving at the alleged inaccessible position, Sir James proposed that the seamen should be landed, and ordered to ascend what appeared to be a precipice; when, to the astonishment of the General, the whole body of men mounted to the top with apparent ease: it was consequently found advisable to fortify that, as well as other points which had been before deemed unnecessary.
About this time (3rd of July) the Minerve, Captain Brenton, one of Sir James's squadron, stationed off Cherbourgh, got aground in a fog, from a mistake of the pilot, and, after a gallant resistance, was taken by the enemy. The account of this unfortunate circumstance is so fully detailed in Captain E.P. Brenton's work, that it need only be mentioned here as having given great concern to the Admiral, who had the highest regard for his former companion in arms.
A considerable flotilla of armed vessels, destined for the invasion either of the Channel Islands or of England, had assembled at Granville; and Sir James, having shifted his flag from the Diomede to the Cerberus of thirty-two guns, Captain W. Selby, sailed with a small squadron, consisting of the Charwell, eighteen, Captain Phil. Dumaresq; the Kite, eighteen, Captain Philip Pipon; the Terror and Sulphur bombs, Captains McLeod and Hardinge; Esling, Lieutenant Archbold; and Carteret, Lieutenant Burgess.
On the 14th September, the frigate having anchored as near as the tide would admit, and the other ships taking their stations, the bombardment began on the harbour of Granville, and lasted from eleven till five in the afternoon. On the 15th another attack of the same kind was made with more effect, as will be seen by the following official letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, dated