Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

professional Men: yet, as they regularly appear in the Public Prints, and have therefore been published prior to their insertion in the Chronicle, our wish, that they should not occupy too large a portion of our work, has made us hitherto unable to keep pace with the brilliant exploits of The British Navy. This however we shall endeavour to rectify; and can assure our readers, that such letters, as we insert, are correctly copied from The Gazette, without the smallest omission, or abridgment.

To dwell longer on the various subjects of our work, might render our gratitude ostentatious, or improper. We therefore return our thanks in general for the patronage we have received, at a period so unfriendly to Literature, which we shall endeavour to merit by our exertions; and for the present take leave of our readers with the lines. Sylvanus Urban, in 1753, addressed to his numerous readers;

The varied Volume of the year's

A Treasury of Art;

The Index at the last appears,

And points out every part:

So let us constantly review

The varied scene that's past,
And as the rolling Years renew
Examine well the last.

The FRONTISPIECE, from a Design of Mr. ISAAC Pocock's, jun. represents BRITANNIA recommending to the attention of the Historic Muse, the celebrated VICTORS of the present War,

Nothing extenuate!

Nor set down aught in Malice.

VIGNETTE TITLE PAGE; BRITANNIA represented in her Naval character, from a Design of Mr. WESTALL.

VIGNETTE HEADPIECE, from an accurate Drawing by Mr. Pocock, representing the Model of THE TRITON, Capt. Gore, built on Admiral GAMBIER's improved Plan.

PLATE XIII. The Attack made by the COMTE DE GRASSE, with
the whole of the French Fleet, on the Van

of the English under Sir SAMUEL HOOD, April
the 9th (misprinted 19th), 1782-

[ocr errors]

Page.

46

68

[ocr errors]

120

XIV. VIEW of BASTIA, the chief City of Corsica
XV. JAMES FORT at ACCRA, on the Coast of Guinea
XVI. MAHON HARBOUR, in the Island of Minorca
XVII. The ROAD of LISBON, with the CASTLE of BELEM
XVIII. CAPTURE of the CLEOPATRA by Sir EDW. PEL-
LEW in LA NYMPHE

[ocr errors]

125

209

237

304

XIX. PORTRAITS of Two RUSSIAN MEN OF WAR
XX. The LEVIATHAN and L'AMERIQUE at the close of
the glorious First of June, 1794

XXI. VIEW of TOULON, with a POLACRE in the fore

[blocks in formation]

373

[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

504

XXII. NASSAU, in the Island of NEW PROVIDENCE
XXIII. Sir CHARLES KNOWLES'S Action on the 22d of
July, 1780, between the PORCUPINE and Two
SPANISH XEBECS

517

XXIV. VIEW of LIVERPOOL, with a Marble-head Schooner
in the fore-ground

597

CHART of TOULON, shewing the Situation of the French
Ships of War at the Time of its Evacuation by Lord
Hood
REPRESENTATION of Mr. PEACOCK'S FILTERING MA-

-

297

CHINE for purifying Water

332

The TEXEL, and VLIETER ROADS

CHART of the LINES of MAGNETIC VARIATION in the
Seas around Africa

436

591

PORTRAITS of the GREATER SPOTTED and BASKING

SHARKS

593

Provided it was so, that Theory and Practice could be so easily interwoven, as imagined, the Experimental Part would be the noblest, without which no man can properly call himself a shipwright. What variety of uses, as well as shapes, may be observed in such machines; and how admirably the experimental part has unveiled itself! SUTHERLAND on Ship Building.

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR

OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

SAMUEL, LORD VISCOUNT HOOD*.

His nature is too noble for the world!

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,

Or Jove for his power to thunder! His heart's his mouth!

What his breast forges that his tongue must vent;

And being angry, doth forget that ever

He heard the name of Death!

CORIOLANUS.

WHEN the future Historian shall impartially consider

the brilliant Naval Achievements of the present war, The Subduer of Corsica, who first shook the ensanguined power of The Mad Destroyer, will attain that elevation which is due to superior merit.

There are few, if any professions, whose biography has been so little considered as that of the Naval Officers of Great Britain. Where such a complication of important duty rests on the ability of a single individual, as must ever

Admiral of the White; an Elder Brother of the Trinity House; Master and Governor of Greenwich Hospital; and Ranger of Greenwich Park. Hol. II.

B

be the case in naval expeditions, and especially where so modest a deportment attends on the most successful undertakings, the public should be in possession of documents, beyond those afforded by the papers of the day, before they attempt to form a final opinion. With an impetuosity peculiar to their nature, our countrymen too frequently are led to decide from the impulse of the moment; forgetting, as Dr. Johnson so justly observes in his Life of Sir Francis Drake," that a man by nature superior to mean artifices, and bred from his earliest years to the labour and hardships of a sea life, is very little acquainted with policy and intrigue; very little versed in the methods of application to the powerful and great, and unable to obviate the practices of those whom his merit has made his enemies."

Lord Hood, the elder brother of Lord Bridport, was not originally destined for the Service ;-it was some time before the venerable rector of Thorncombe could obtain sufficient resolution to trust two sons, to the honourable yet perilous duty of The British Navy. His reliance and trust in Providence at length strengthened his resolution; but the moment must have been painful, when he took leave of the intrepid youth:-the wind howls with peculiar horror to him whose offspring is on the waves; the beating tempest of a winter's evening is painfully alarming to that parent, whose social hearth seems forsaken, through the absence of one that is at Sea.

Commodore T. Smith, then commander in chief on the Newfoundland station, who afterwards sat as president on Admiral Byng's court martial, was the first officer with

*

This spirited officer was known at that time in the Navy by the appellation of Tom of ten thousand. When a lieutenant on board The Gosport, a French frigate, with whose government we were then at peace, in sailing from Plymouth, passed him without lowering her top-sails. The captain of the Gosport was on shore, and Mr. Smith, fearless of the consequences, fired into the French ship, and obliged her to shew the customary homage. Complaint was immediately made; Lieutenant Smith was tied by a court martial and broke. His conduct, however, was so acceptable to the nation at large, that on the following day he was promoted post captain, without passing through the gradation of commander. Capt. Smith was afterwards advanced to the rank of Admiral of the Blue, and died respected by every one, on the 28th of August 1762.

whom Mr. Samuel Hood embarked in the Romney, during the year 1740. Having distinguished himself in the situation of a midshipman, on various occasions that demanded considerable skill and intrepidity, Mr. Hood in a striking manner excited the notice, and patronage, of the discerning commodore; and was accordingly promoted by him to the rank of lieutenant, in October (1746) during the rebellion, when Commodore Smith commanded a Squadron on the coast of Scotland.

It is interesting to trace the progression of distinguished characters; we therefore add that Mr. Hood was next appointed as lieutenant to the Winchelsea of 20 guns, which in the winter of 1746 engaged, and captured, a French frigate of superior force. During the action, which was very spirited, Lieutenant Hood received a severe wound. In (1748) he was removed to the Princess Louisa, then bearing Admiral Watson's flag; who, with ten other captains, had been advanced for their gallant behaviour in Lord Anson's action with Monsieur de la Jonquiere's squadron. Lieutenant Hood accompanied Admiral Watson to Louisbourg; and on the peace returned with him to England.

In the year (1754) Mr. Hood was promoted Commander of the Jamaica sloop, then stationed at the Bahama Islands; and the year following joined Lord Keppel in Hampton Road, Virginia, who commanded the expedition in which General Braddock was defeated. A putrid, or jail fever *, having raged with great violence in the fleet, under the command of Admiral Boscawen at Halifax, Captain Hood, with a presence of mind that thus early was visible in his conduct, being then at South Carolina, immediately entered as many supernumeraries as he could possibly accommodate at sea, and carried them without delay to the admiral; for which seasonable supply he received the hearty thanks of that officer. In the succeeding year (1756) having

* Before the admiral reached England, upwards of 2000 seamen died of this distemper.

« AnteriorContinuar »