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The Crescent had not been in dock since the year 1785, and required much refitting: Captain Saumarez, therefore, on reporting his arrival to the Secretary of the Admiralty, sent also a statement of the ship's defects; in consequence of which, an order was sent for her to be docked at Portsmouth, and refitted for Channel service, while one hundred of her crew were lent to the Vanguard.
For the average gangsman was as void of sentiment as an Admiralty warrant, pressing you with equal avidity and absence of feeling whether he caught you returning from a festival or a funeral.
The fleet is under the immediate command of its commander-in-chief, just as the New York naval station is under the command of its commandant; but the commander-in-chief of the fleet is just as strictly under the command of the head of the admiralty or Navy Department as is the commandant.
I shall have to walk very straight for the next year or two, and be careful not to stub my toe, for the eyes of the Admiralty are upon me. However, I think I can straighten this matter out. I have six months' leave coming on shortly, which I intend to spend in St. Petersburg.
Some years passed before it occurred to the Admiralty that steamers could be of any use to the Navy, and it was not till 1823 that they purchased the Monkey tug, which, not withstanding its undignified name and humble employment, had the honour of being the first steam-vessel belonging to the Royal Navy. She was a vessel of about 212 tons, and 80 horse-power, and did good service in her day.
The British Admiralty, after investigation, gave out a statement declaring that the vessel struck a mine, and sank about fifteen minutes after. The news of Lord Kitchener's death shocked the whole Allied world. He was the most important personality in the British Empire. He had built up the British army, and his name was one to conjure by.
Orders and advices from the British Admiralty and War Office sped across the ocean, and that night few of the leaders in government circles in England or Canada closed their eyes. The opinions of the commandant of the fort were received with but little favour by the military and naval authorities.
An interesting indication of the number of the seafaring population of North America at that time is given by the statement in Parliament by the First Lord of the Admiralty, "that the navy had lost eighteen thousand of the seamen employed in the last war by not having America," no inconsiderable loss to a sea power, particularly if carried over to the ranks of the enemy.
The admiralty pursued its course of seizing men of the mercantile marine, taking them aboard ships, keeping them away for months from the harbours of the kingdom, and then, when their ships returned, denying them the right of visiting their homes. The press-gangs did not confine their activities to the men of the mercantile marine.
In the course of the three ensuing months it put back three times; and finally, on the 8th of December 1799, when the Admiralty, being desirous of ascertaining whether Torbay was a safe anchorage for the fleet during the winter months, ordered the Cæsar to continue on that station for the trial, and at the same time placed the London, of 98 guns, under the orders of Sir James.
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