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With their fleets passive, the French resorted vigorously to commerce warfare, and at the same time kept England constantly perturbed by rumors, grandiose plans, and actual undertakings of invasion. That these earlier efforts failed was due as much to ill luck and bad management as to the work of Bridport's fleet.
Joins the Channel Fleet. Black Rocks. Private Letters and Instructions. Appointed to the Orion. Crescent's Officers and Crew volunteer to follow him. Commands a detached Squadron. Returns to the Orion, attached to the Channel Fleet. Private Letters. Lord Bridport's Action. Orion, the headmost Ship, begins the battle. Official Letter. Two private Accounts.
Her captain soon gave a manifest proof of his zeal and abilities on this occasion. She was, before morning of the 23rd, the headmost ship of the fleet; and, before six o'clock, was the first which actually began the action with one of the enemy's largest ships. The following is a copy of Lord Bridport's official despatch: Royal George, at sea, 24th June 1795.
The broad streets with deep, unusual side-walks are a sign of Bridport's past, for they tell of the days when men and women span yarn before their doors, and rope-walks ran their amber and silver threads of hemp and flax along the pavements. But steel and steam have taken the place of the hand-spinners, though their industry has left its sign-manual upon the township.
Immense success rewarded his innovations, and the tea-gardens of 'The Seven Stars' had long become a feature of Bridport's social life. People hinted that Mr. Legg was not the meek and mild spirit of ancient opinion and that Nelly knew it; but this suggestion may be held no more than the penalty of fame an activity of the baser sort, who ever drop vinegar of detraction into the oil of content.
I am much pleased with your plan of the sword." The French and Spanish fleets returned to Brest, unobserved, on the 21st of June. In the mean time a part of Lord Bridport's fleet, in which was the Cæsar, proceeded under command of Sir Alan Gardner to the Tagus, which it left on the 18th; and, cruising back, returned to Cawsand Bay on the 13th July.
In Bridport's fleet at Portsmouth this was not so much a mutiny as a well organized strike, the sailors it is true taking full control of the ships, and forcing the Admiralty and Parliament to grant their well justified demands for better treatment and better pay. Possibly a secret sympathy with their grievances explains the apparent helplessness of the officers.
But I undertook to narrate a circumstance which exhibited Sir Harry Burrard Neale's character in its true colours. I need not enter into an account of that painful event, the Mutiny of the British Fleet. It broke out first at Spithead, on the 15th April, 1797, on board Lord Bridport's flag-ship, the Royal George; the crews of the other ships of the fleet following the example thus set them.
For the great, open side-walks make for distinction and spaciousness, and there shall be found in all Dorset, no brighter, cheerfuller place than this. Bridport's very workhouse, south-facing and bowered in green, blinks half a hundred windows amiably at the noonday sun and helps to soften the life-failure of those who dwell therein.
Next day they again fell in with the frigates, and on the morning of the 10th they were chased by Lord Bridport's fleet, from which they narrowly escaped. On the 14th they entered Rochefort, the last of the returning ships.
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