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I am, sir, with great respect, Your obedient humble servant, SPENCER. To Captain Saumarez, H.M.S. Crescent. Admiralty, December 24th, 1794. Crescent, Spithead, 1st March 1795.
I asked, as the boatman, an old chum of mine, proceeded to step the boat's mast. "You surely don't need the sail for a run half-way across the harbour?" "No," he answered; "no, I don't. But we're bound out to Spithead. The Daphne went out this mornin' at daylight to take in her powder, and I 'spects she's got half of it stowed away by this time.
His water-ray apparatus, a recent development of the X-rays which enabled him to see under water for a distance of fifty yards, had detected no contact mines, and yet Spithead ought to be enstrewn with them, just as it ought to have been swarming with submarines and destroyers. There must be some deep meaning to such apparently incomprehensible neglect, but what was it?
"To-day, as the second naval power, its menace is too great for any up-to-date Spithead mutiny to come off. But the pay question was so acute that it is possibly only the Germans and their 'menace' that saved us from the trouble."
I wonder what that young devil has been up to. Send him in at once, sentry." The sentry retired, and presently Erskine entered the room, saluted, and said: "I've come to report, sir, I have sunk everything that tried to get in through Spithead.
If men like Admiral Howe support the Admiralty Howe, one of the best friends the seaman ever had what do you think the end will be? Have you heard what happened at Spithead? The seamen chivvied Admiral Alan Gardner and his colleagues aboard a ship. He caught hold of a seaman Delegate by the collar and shook him. They closed in on him. They handled him roughly.
With a pausing tribute to the dead, and many a silent prayer, perhaps for sailors can and do pray we steamed into Spithead, forgetting, in all probability, the Eurydice and all connected with her. As our torpedoes were all ready for us, it was not long before they were on board and fitted in their places.
The squadron remained but a couple of days at anchor at Spithead; proceeding thence to Portland, whence, the Calypso and Ruby, ships belonging to the eastern division, having joined us, we all set sail in company for our cruise, bound for the West Indies.
The rest of the year was spent in surveying Torres Straits. They remained thus occupied till the beginning of 1845, when they sailed for Europe, and anchored at Spithead in June 1845, after an absence of three years.
Byng was tried at Spithead, found guilty of having failed in his duty, and shot on March 14, 1757. He died like a brave man. It went heavily against Newcastle in later days that he was believed to have promised the sacrifice of Byng before the trial had even begun. No one now believes that Byng was a coward; and nothing but a miracle could have enabled him with such a force to save Minorca.
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