in their proper order of time, so as to give a relation, in my father's own words, of the incidents that most struck him (at the impressionable age of twenty) in these days of his first going into battle.

When talking of Lord Howe, I asked my father when he first became acquainted with him; he answered

I was very intimate with his brother, Sir William Howe, the general, but had never seen the admiral, although he was a near neighbour of my uncle's, with whom I lived. Sir William was very kindly disposed towards me, and upon the war breaking out in 1793, he said to me one day, 'Come here to-morrow morning; I want to take you to breakfast with my brother in Grafton Street.' Of course I was very glad to do so; and after breakfast Sir W. left the room, saying, Now, brother, I shall leave you together, for I know you want to talk to him.' I was not a little frightened at this. There was a shyness and awkwardness in Lord Howe's manner which made him apparently difficult of approach, and gave him a character of austerity which did not really belong to him; but such was the fatherly kindness with which he spoke to me in talking over his proposal that I should serve in his flagship, that, to my surprise, I found myself in a short time nearly as much at my ease with this man, who was supposed to be so cold and morose, as I was with his brother. My condition then was that of a midshipman under a promise from Lord Chatham to be promoted whenever a promotion should take place. Lord Howe spoke much of his brother, and of the great difference between them, which was so much in his brother's favour, as his superior knowledge of the world and peculiarly agreeable manners made him universally popular, while he himself found so much difficulty in getting on with people. He led me on in conversation so as to make me express my feelings and opinions, and seemed well satisfied with them; and he then said, 'You are expecting to be promoted, are not you?' I answered that Lord Chatham had promised Lord Downshire that he would promote me directly. He then expressed his wish to have me as one of his own lieutenants. Lord Chatham was at this time personally

1793

ACQUAINTANCE WITH LORD HOWE.

15

inimical to Lord Howe, and his dislike was increased by a peremptory order from the King to appoint his Lordship to the command of the grand fleet, without consulting either the Minister or the First Lord of the Admiralty. He did not choose to promote me, although he privately wished me well, but wanted to force Lord Howe to ask for my promotion. Lord Howe did not choose to ask any favour from him, but put my name on the list of officers selected for his own ship, as he understood I was on the point of being made lieutenant.' Upon Lord Chatham's dry answer that 'there was no promotion at present,' he felt obliged to fill up the vacancy; and thus for a time my hopes fell to the ground, in consequence of a personal difference between my two protectors. Lord H. then said to me, 'I suppose you would not like to go as midshipman in the ship where you are afterwards to be lieutenant ? '-meaning that in the change of rank there might be a difficulty in being obeyed. I said, 'On the contrary, my Lord, I should feel myself in a higher situation as mid in your flagship than in any other;' and that, if I did my own duty properly, and showed proper obedience to those above me, I did not anticipate any difficulty in obtaining it from those under me; upon which I remember his answering —and surprising me agreeably-that he was glad to hear me say so.' Shortly after this I went down to join the 'Queen Charlotte,' where I found that Lord Howe had desired that I might be put under the particular care of Larcom, the second lieut., to teach me the dockyard duty of taking out stores for a ship's outfit, and, under the particular care of Bowen, the master, to learn how to stow a hold.

Bowen, who had a pink umbrella, was standing on the wharf looking at the ship when I was introduced to him by Larcom. He immediately said, 'What! are you the youngster I am to take care of? I expected to see a little boy, not fellow like you!'

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When the ship was fitted and at Spithead, Lord Howe employed me in his cabin drawing plans of the hold, and matters of that sort, having told me that I should never do duty as a mid, but should act as his aide-de-camp. The greater part of the men that entered for the 'Queen Char

lotte' at the Tower were taken by Lord Hood for the ships he was to command in the Mediterranean, which occasioned great delay in preparing the grand fleet for Channel service. The 64's and inferior ships were allotted to Lord Howe, and the superior ones to Lord Hood. This delay in collecting the grand fleet induced me one day to ask Lord Howe to allow me to go into one of the gun-vessels which, according to report, were about to be employed on the coast of France. To which he answered: 'I see what your motive is in this wish, and I cannot but highly approve of it-you wish to have an early opportunity of distinguishing yourself; but I hope I shall find you a better one than that; it is a very inferior service to that in which I may probably have to employ you. In case of battle with the fleet, when it may not be in my power to make signals, I may have occasion to send you with a message in a boat; and if you can carry that message between two ships in battle without making any mistake, you will show more courage than if hand to hand with an enemy.'

He frightened me exceedingly, but I felt the compliment —that he could even expect a man to go through such an ordeal who had never before been in action.

Before the fleet was ready I was made lieutenant, and appointed to the Santa Margarita,' Capt. Eliab Harvey; and upon the 'Pegasus,' Capt. Barlow, being appointed repeater to the 'Queen Charlotte,' I was removed to her at the special request of Lord Howe, that I might be employed in the signal duty; and upon the first lieutenant of the 'Queen Charlotte' (Broking) being made a commander, I was again moved to the 'Queen Charlotte' as junior lieutenant. Capt. Barlow had gained high approbation of Lord Howe (when he was First Lord of the Admiralty) for services against the smugglers, and was therefore a favourite, and was named by his request to repeat his signals. (The very hostility of Lord Chatham to Lord Howe gave Barlow the 'Pegasus,' the worst sailing ship, when he ought to have had, as repeater of signals, one of the fastest-badly manned, too.) The 'Pegasus never got any credit from Sir R. Curtis, Capt. Barlow being

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1 Sir Roger Curtis, Captain of the Fleet.

1793

BOWEN, MASTER OF THE FLEET.

17

one of Lord Howe's favourites, and Sir R. C. always wishing to detract from them, and not allow them to be favourites.

When I was made lieutenant with Barlow, I used on the average to be nineteen hours out of twenty-four on deck, and Barlow (who was strict,) used to allow me to sit down anywhere on the quarter-deck. When I was appointed, the 'Niger,' Capt. Legge, was the quick-sailing and best repeating ship, and beat us hollow. I determined to do all I could by zeal, and set to work, taking two youngsters who had known nothing of signals, and men the same (except one yeoman). We got to great perfection, so much so that Legge acknowledged himself beat, and gave up, as it was not worth his while paying all his attention to signals, not being specially a repeater. Upon my subsequently joining the 'Queen Charlotte' as lieutenant, Sir R. Curtis never would allow praise to the 'Pegasus;' and on signals being repeated, said, 'Well done "Niger," well done" Niger." I was near Sir R. when he said this, and said, 'Sir, the "Pegasus" has had the signal up at the masthead before this '—but Sir R. never wished to see it. Lord H. had a black and white flag, meaning, the signal made with it will take place after dark. One day when Sir R. said, 'Now we shall see the "Pegasus," now we shall see;' while the signal was going up in the Queen Charlotte,' it was at the 'Pegasus'' masthead, and Sir R. Curtis observing, said, 'D- that ship, how could she know what we meant?' I was by, and said, 'Thank you, Sir Roger.'

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His valued shipmate, James Bowen, master of the fleet, was often mentioned by my father in connection with Lord Howe, and the two following anecdotes were related as occurring previously to the encounter with the French Fleet :

After a consultation on what was to be done with the fleet for the night, it was decided that we should continue on the larboard tack by the wind, under a conviction that we should weather the Scilly Islands. This arrangement was made according to calculation by a chronometer under the charge of Capt. John Hunter, who, having been a master in early

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days with Lord Howe, went to sea with him as a sort of amateur master of the fleet. The course having been so decided upon, and Lord Howe having retired to his cabin for the night, Bowen began to show great uneasiness, and continued on the quarter-deck quickening his pace,-his usual way of showing his anxiety. Observing this, I said to him, 'What's the matter, old boy? you seem uneasy.' 'The matter is, Master Codrington, we shall all be lost to-night on Scilly rocks ;' to which I flippantly answered, 'Well, I hope it won't be my watch, that's all.' Oh Master Codrington, it's more serious than you think.' Seeing that he was really uneasy, from his adding that he wished he could speak to Lord Howe about it, I said, 'Why not send in and ask to speak to him?' He did so, and, when he had fully explained his reasons to Lord Howe, the fleet was ordered to lie-to for the night; and at daylight in the morning the rocks of Scilly, on which Sir Cloudesley Shovell was lost, were seen just on the weather bow.

This naturally inspired Lord Howe with confidence in Bowen's extraordinary professional knowledge. On a subsequent occasion (December 1793) the fleet, of between thirty and forty sail of the line, were in constant danger from a succession of S.W. gales of wind and thick weather, cruising between the rocks of Scilly on one side and the very dangerous coast of France on the other. Under these circumstances, and the main object of keeping the sea being over, it was desirable to get the fleet safe into port. Four days had elapsed since the sun had been visible to enable us to take an observation and ascertain the latitude, and there was every appearance of a continuance of the same violent weather, and the risk of the fleet being disabled by it.

On the morning of December 10, a consultation took place between Lord Howe and Sir Roger Curtis, and Captain Christian, as to the fleet trying to get to Tor Bay. The two latter urged the great danger of the experiment, and the certain loss of the fleet if a mistake were made in making the land; and the fears of these two officers had led to the decision that the fleet should keep the sea, when Bowen the master, upon hearing the conversation which took place on