Man of War

The Fighting Life of Admiral James Saumarez: From The American Revolution to the Defeat of Napoleon

Anthony Sullivan

• Publisher: Frontline Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781526706515
• eBook ISBN: 9781526706539
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

The career of Guernsey-born Admiral James Saumarez reads like an early history of the Royal Navy. His first battle was against the American revolutionaries in 1775, but thereafter his main opponents were the French and the Spanish, and the first fighting ship he commanded, the eight-gun galley Spitfire, was involved in forty-seven engagements before being run aground.Rising through the ranks, Saumarez fought on land and at sea, and was involved in actions in the English Channel, being given command of a squadron of ships based at Guernsey. He served on HMS Victory, took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent, the Blockade of Cadiz, and was with Nelson at the Battle of the Nile.Promoted to Rear Admiral, he led his ships at the battles of Algeciras and the Gut of Gibraltar. Saumarez was then dispatched into the Baltic, where he helped thwart Napoleons attempt at conquering Russia.So prominent was Saumarez during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, he was featured in the Hornblower novels and other fictional books, including Master and Commander. Tony Sullivan, however, tells the true story of one of the most remarkable individuals of the great days of sail, in the first biography of Saumarez for more than 170 years.

Chapter 1

Childhood and Early Career:
March 1757 – March 1775

Situated just thirty miles off coast of France and once part of the Duchy of Normandy, the island of Guernsey has been attached to the English crown for almost 1,000 years. The Bailiwick of Guernsey also covers the neighbouring islands of Alderney, Sark and Herm. Guernsey’s capital, situated on the east coast, is St Peter Port. With its large deep-water harbour the capital is also a major port that today handles both local and international trade. Throughout most of the eighteenth century the principal occupations on Guernsey, as on Jersey, were privateering and smuggling. Mostly aimed at French trade, in the 1780s these activities drove the governor of Cherbourg to attempt several invasions. In the 1760s Guernsey was a sparsely populated island. Much that is today built over was then open fields. St Peter Port had no street lights or pavements and the roads also served as open sewers. Some roads in the capital were little more than cart tracks, the tall buildings either side of High Street leaning so close to one another that their roofs almost touched. Although the island was attached to the English crown, one would hardly think it walking round the island. The two main languages spoken were Guernesiais (an archaic form of French) or Norman French. There were neither English newspapers nor a post office on the island and travel to the mainland could take several days.

Guernsey’s principal families lived in the capital close to the Royal Court either on Smith Street, the High Street or the Pollett. Amongst these families the de Sausmarez’s were one of the oldest and most distinguished, tracing, as they could, their ancestry all the way back to the Normans. Earlier members of the family included a bailiff, several rectors and a dean. Their recently completed family home, a large threestorey Georgian townhouse in dressed granite, reflected the saumarez’s status, expressing as it did ‘a certain grandeur new to St Peter Port’1. Matthew Saumarez, born in October 1718, was the fourth son of Matthew de Sausmarez, a colonel in the militia and part-time privateer. Matthew’s elder brother, Philip Saumarez, sailed as first lieutenant with Commodore Anson on his journey round the world in 1740–4 and later captained the 60-gun Nottingham prior to his death at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747. His younger brother, Thomas, also served in the navy and, as captain of the 50-gun Antelope, captured the French 64 Belliqueux in a much-publicised action off Lundy Island in November 1758. Matthew studied medicine becoming a surgeon at the Town Hospital where he treated the upper echelons of St Peter Port society. Whilst the de Sausmarez’s were justifiably proud of their ancestry this was a period of renewed tensions with France and Matthew, Philip and Thomas all dropped the ‘de’ and the second ‘s’ from their family name in order to sound more English.

In 1743, three years after the birth of his first child Susannah and the subsequent death of his wife, Susan Dumaresq, Matthew married Cartaret, the nineteen-year-old daughter of James le Marchant, another prominent member of St Peter Port society. Their first child, Philip, was born in 1750, their second child, Anne, in 1752 and their third child, John, arrived in 1755. James Saumarez was born on 11 March 1757 at the family home and baptised two days later at the Town Church. His younger siblings were Thomas (b.1760), Charlotte (b.1763), Richard (b.1764), Nicolas (b.1766), Mary (b.1768) and Cartaret, the Saumarez’s last child who was born in 1770. Beginning his education at Dame School in St Peter Port, from around 1764 to 1767 James studied at Elizabeth College, alongside his elder brother John. Elizabeth College was not a well-run school at that time and the quality of its education was poor. Whilst Saumarez always said his brother was a much better scholar of Latin and Greek, he did develop a love of poetry. Impressed by a recital of several lines from Milton’s Paradise Lost when no more than eight years old, a friend of the family sent the young Saumarez a copy of the Golden Verses of Pythagoras that he had soon committed to memory.

Entertained from a young age by stories of his uncle’s daring exploits at sea and with his older brother Philip already serving in the Royal Navy, it was no surprise to James’s father that he professed a desire to enter the same profession. His Majesty’s ships often stopped off at St Peter Port to pick up provisions and Matthew, a former naval surgeon, often entertained captains and other officers at the family home. In September 1767 Matthew persuaded Captain Lucius O’Brien to enter Saumarez’s name in the books of his ship, the 28-gun frigate Solebay, as a captain’s servant alongside his relatives Durell Saumarez and Nicholas Dobree. Although signed on to Solebay Saumarez did not actually go to sea. Admiralty rules dictated that youngsters like Saumarez could not become midshipmen until they were fifteen, but midshipman were also required to have served aboard a ship for six years before taking the lieutenants’ exam. This resulted in a practice known as ‘book time’ which, although not officially sanctioned by the Admiralty, was widespread. Saumarez’s name remained in Solebay’s books until 30 June 1770 during which time he completed his education at a school near Greenwich, possibly to improve his English. James was only at this school, recommended to his father by a friend of the family, for around ten months before Matthew, seemingly disappointed by the quality of education his son was receiving, travelled to London and took him home.

Unfortunately at this important point in Saumarez’s naval career the record becomes a little murky. Ross states that Saumarez now joined Montreal, James Alms, and that on 9 August 1769 the ship sailed for the Mediterranean from Portsmouth. Of course in 1769 Saumarez was still on the books of Solebay and Montreal’s log shows that on that particular date the ship was not at Portsmouth but was in fact cruising off the Italian coast, roughly thirty-five leagues off Genoa under the command of Captain Philip Cosby. If we assume that this is an error of dates by Ross and that he meant 1770 not 1769 we are still presented with a problem as from 27 July to 20 August 1770 Montreal, now commanded by Alms, was at anchor at Spithead.

On 9 August 1770 the 60-gun Pembroke, Phillip Durell, arrived in Mahon Harbour, Minorca, en route to Marseilles. It is unclear how Saumarez had made his way out to the Mediterranean but on 14 August, the day of Pembroke’s departure from Mahon, Saumarez was entered into her books as a captain’s servant. Pembroke was the flagship of Commodore Proby, a friend of the family who had sailed as a midshipman with Saumarez’s uncle Philip. The commodore having been forced home due to ill health, on 28 September 1770 Saumarez moved yet again, this time joining the 32-gun Winchelsea, Captain Samuel Goodall, at anchor at Leghorn Road. Saumarez would remain aboard Goodall’s frigate for the next sixteen months. Goodall, in company with most Royal Navy captains, was eager for the youngest members of his crew to keep up with their education whilst at sea and so he allowed Saumarez and his other ‘youngsters’ frequent access to his Great Cabin, both to write and to study the books in his small library; various copies of the Spectator and Samuel Johnson’s Idler magazine along with a few stray volumes on Roman history. On 8 November Saumarez took the first major step on his naval career when he was entered in Winchelsea’s books as a midshipman.

Following his promotion Saumarez moved in with the other midshipmen sharing Winchelsea’s cockpit, a space situated just forward of the officers’ quarters on the lower deck that was also used as an operating theatre during battle. In common with all Royal Navy ships, the midshipmen were berthed next to the marines who were deliberately positioned between Winchelsea’s officers and her crew. A ship’s crew was split into as many divisions as there were lieutenants aboard ship and each division was split into sections led by the ship’s midshipmen and mates. Saumarez was now responsible for ‘the good order and discipline’2 of the men in his section; ensuring that they did their duties, had clean clothing and that those who were unwell were recorded on the sick list and reported to the ship’s surgeon. During a battle the midshipmen were charge of the gun crews and they had to ensure that the long guns and all their associated equipment – handspikes, rammer, worm, sponge – were in good order. At noon Saumarez and Winchelsea’s other midshipmen practised taking the ship’s position with their sextants. (Their recordings would later be checked by Goodall.) At various times they also took soundings, oversaw the signalling and, most exciting of all, they were in charge of the ship’s boats. Any spare time a midshipman might have was usually spent studying subjects such as navigation, gunnery and seamanship and, just as important, learning the various social graces required of a young officer. Prior to leaving home Saumarez’s father had presented him with a purse containing fifteen guineas. Matthew trusted that his son, who was not yet fourteen years old, would use this money wisely but told him that he could draw on his banker whenever low on funds. It gave Saumarez’s father great pleasure to notice the irregularity of these drafts, for they proved few and far between.

On 16 December Winchelsea sailed for Gibraltar. Cruising from Cape Trafalgar off the south-west coast of Spain to Leghorn (Livorno) in Italy, Winchelsea spent the next fourteen months in the Mediterranean. The ship was variously at anchor at Tangier, Gibraltar, Malaga, Cadiz and Genoa. In February 1772 Winchelsea was ordered home, but Saumarez, eager to see his friends and family after two and a half years at sea, was informed by his captain that he was being transferred to the 28-gun Levant, Samuel Thompson, as both Goodall and his father thought he should remain at sea in order to complete his education as a midshipman. Saumarez’s time aboard Winchelsea had made a deep impression on the young officer; in later life he would talk of Captain Goodall with great affection and was deeply saddened by his death in 1801.

Saumarez transferred to his new ship on 15 February. The following day Levant sailed from Gibraltar and dropped anchor at Port Mahon. Ordered into the Gulf of Smyrna to protect British trade at the height of the Russo-Turkish war of 1768–74, Levant sailed from Minorca three days later and arrived at Smyrna (modern day Izmir) on 25 March 1772, following a brief stop off at Malta. She would remain at anchor at the Aegean port for the next fourteen months. Saumarez’s would later refer to his time in Smyrna as a ‘blank in his existence’;3 however, it was not without incident. In August a fire broke out near the governor’s house and Levant’s boats assisted in removing bread and rice from the town’s storehouses. Saumarez would most likely have been in command of one of these vessels. By the time the fire was finally extinguished it had ripped through the port, destroying an estimated 10,000 houses. Still recovering from this disaster, in December Smyrna was attacked by 2,000 soldiers led by the governor of Booroonabad, Ayvas Aga. Smyrna’s governor, Caro Osman, was forced to flee but returned later that month with 12,000 cavalry to retake the town.

On 29 May 1773 Levant weighed anchor and departed Smyrna for Minorca. Having spent ten weeks at anchor in Port Mahon Levant sailed for Gibraltar, arriving there on 16 September. In February 1774 Saumarez’s ship was ordered to the Tagus but after six weeks in Portugal was recalled to the Aegean due to a heightening of tensions in the region. Levant returned to Smyrna almost a year to the day after she had left on 28 May. Having spent a further four months at Smyrna, in September Levant sailed for England via Gibraltar, finally arriving back at Spithead on 29 March 1775. Two weeks later Saumarez was discharged along with the rest of Levant’s officers and crew and returned home having spent the best part of five years away at sea.

Chapter 2

Lieutenant Suamarez:
August 1775 – August 1778

Having now spent more than six years in the navy (including his ‘book time’ aboard Solebay), Saumarez was eligible to take the lieutenants’ exam, his next step on the ladder of promotion. Introduced by the Admiralty in 1677, the exam was a tough and thorough test of a midshipman’s abilities and there was no guarantee of success. On 9 August 1775 Saumarez made his way to the Navy Office, a neat and fairly plain-looking building not far from the Tower of London on the corner of Crutched Friars and Seething Lane. Called to his examination, the young midshipman presented the journals he had kept aboard Winchelsea and Levant, together with certificates from Captains Goodhall and Thompson, confirming to his examiners, Captains John Campbell, Abraham North and the Comptroller of the Navy, Maurice Suckling, that he was more than twenty-one years of age and had been at sea for more than seven years. As Saumarez was well aware, the minimum age required to sit the lieutenants’ exam was twenty but due to his two years of ‘book time’ aboard Solebay he was not yet nineteen when he appeared before Suckling, Campbell and North. However, the deceit over his age was far from unusual, especially in an era where there were no birth certificates, only locally held records of baptisms. Nelson, for example, was the same age as Saumarez when he passed his own lieutenants’ exam. Having asked Saumarez a series of questions to test his seamanship, Admirals Suckling, Campbell and North were soon satisfied that the young officer could ‘splice, knot, reef a sail, &c’ and was ‘qualified to do the duty of an able seaman and midshipman’. There had not been any exams for several months whilst Suckling accompanied his fellow lords commissioners on their annual tour of the dockyards and by the end of the day twelve ‘young gentlemen’ (almost three times the usual number) had gone out into the world as passed midshipman. Saumarez was lucky: he was one of the first candidates to be seen and the first to have his name entered in the books.

Having passed his lieutenants’ exam Saumarez was not immediately promoted as there was no ship was available. However, war with the American colonies had broken out in April of that year and Commodore Sir Peter Parker was assembling an expedition to sail to America to assist the army in putting down the rebellion. Admiral Keppel had been a friend of Saumarez’s uncle, Philip, serving with him under Anson during his voyage around the world and he recommended Saumarez to Parker. Following a successful interview with the Admiral in London, Saumarez travelled to Sheerness to embark on Parker’s newlycommissioned flagship, the 50-gun Bristol, as a passed midshipman on 9 October 1775. From Sheerness Bristol travelled to Spithead where, on 19 December, Parker hoisted his broad pendant. On 29 December Bristol sailed for Cork in company with Actaeon and Deal Castle. Arriving off Cork on 6 January Parker’s squadron met up with the rest of the expedition bound for South Carolina; six frigates, two bomb vessels and thirty transports bearing seven regiments of infantry and two companies of artillery under the command of Earl Cornwallis and Brigadier-General John Vaughan.

The expedition sailed from Cork on 12 February 1776 but had not been out of port long before it encountered foul weather. During the stormy voyage across the Atlantic Saumarez came to the attention of Cornwallis, who had embarked aboard Bristol with his aide, Lord Chewton, just prior to sailing. Impressed by the attention with which the young officer undertook his duties, Cornwallis offere...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Maps
• Acknowledgements
• Prologue
• Chapter 1 Childhood and Early Career
• Chapter 2 Lieutenant Saumarez
• Chapter 3 Lieutenant to Post Captain
• Chapter 4 Russell and the Battle of the Saintes
• Chapter 5 Half Pay in Guernsey
• Chapter 6 Crescent versus Reunion
• Chapter 7 Channel Service and the Escape of Crescent
• Chapter 8 Orion and the Battle of Ile de Groix
• Chapter 9 The Mediterranean Fleet and the Battle of Cape St Vincent
• Chapter 10 Mutiny and Blockade
• Chapter 11 Chasing the French
• Chapter 12 The Battle of the Nile
• Chapter 13 Admiral Bruix’s Cruise and the Blockade of Brest
• Chapter 14 The Battle of Algeciras
• Chapter 15 The Peace of Amiens
• Chapter 16 Commander-in-Chief, Channel Islands
• Chapter 17 The Baltic
• Chapter 18 Commander-in-Chief, Baltic Fleet
• Chapter 19 Saumarez: British Diplomat Afloat
• Chapter 20 The Prince of Ponte Corvo
• Chapter 21 The Carlshamn Cargoes
• Chapter 22 Baltic Fleet: Final Season
• Chapter 23 Final Command
• Chapter 24 Retirement
• Chapter 25 Summation
• Notes
• Bibliography