, a brave English admiral, descended of an ancient Shropshire family,
, a brave English admiral, descended
of an ancient Shropshire family, reduced in fortune by its
adherence to Charles I. was born about the year 1650,
at Coton-hill, Shrewsbury, an ancient house now occupied
by Mr. Bishop, a maltster of that place. His father, colonel John Benbow, dying when he was very young, this
son had no other provision than being bred to the sea, a
profession which he eagerly adopted, and in which he was
so successful, that before he was thirty he became master,
and partly owner, of a ship called the Benbow frigate,
employed in the Mediterranean trade, in which he would
have probably acquired a good estate, if an accident had
not brought him to serve in the British navy. In the year
1686, he was attacked in his, passage to Cadiz by a Sallee
rover, against whom he defended himself, though very
unequal in' the number of men, with the utmost bravery,
and, although the Moors boarded him, they were quickly
beat out of the ship again, with the loss of thirteen men,
whose heads captain Benbow ordered to be cut off, and
thrown into a tub of pork pickle. When he arrived at
Cadiz, he went ashore, and ordered a negro servant to
follow him, with the Moors heads in a sack. He had
scarcely landed before the officers of the revenue inquired
of his servant, what he had in his sack? The captain answered, “Salt provisions for his own use.
” The officers
insisted upon seeing them, which captain Benbow refused.
The officers told him that the magistrates were sitting,
and he might appeal to them, but that it was not in their
power to act otherwise. The captain consented to the
proposal, and the magistrates treated him with great civility, told him they were sorry to make a point of such a
trifle, but that since he had refused to shew the contents
of his sack to their officers, the nature of their employments obliged them to demand a sight of them; and that
as they doubted not they were salt provisions, the shewing
them could be of no great consequence. “I told you,
”
said the captain sternly, “they were salt provisions for my
own use. Caesar, throw them down upon the table, and,
gentlemen, if you like them, they are at your service.
”
The Spaniards were exceedingly struck at the sight of the
Moors’ heads, and no less astonished at the account of the
captain’s adventure, who with so small a force had been
able to defeat such a number of barbarians. This anecdote, in our opinion, reflects but little credit on the
feelings of our seaman, nor does it clearly appear why he
should think this barbarous display necessary for his reputation. These magistrates, however, sent an account of
the matter to the court of Madrid, and Charles II. then
king of Spain, invited Benbow to court, where he was received with great respect, dismissed with a handsome
present, and his Catholic majesty wrote a letter in his
'behalf to king James, who, upon the captain’s return,
gave him a ship, which was his introduction to the royal
navy. After the revolution he was constantly employed,
and frequently at the request of the merchants, was appointed to cruize in the channel, where he ably protected
our own trade, and annoyed and distressed that of the
enemy. He was likewise generally made choice of for
bombarding the French ports, in which he shewed the
most intrepid courage, by going in person in his boat to
encourage and protect the engineers, sharing in all their
hardships. It is certain that several of those dreadful bombardments spoiled several ports, and created a terror on the
French coast, notwithstanding all the precautions their government could take to keep up their spirits. This vigour
and activity recommended Benbow so effectually to king
William, that he was very early promoted to a flag, and
intrusted with the care of blocking up Dunkirk; the privateers from thence proving extremely detrimental to our
trade during all that war. In 1695, we find him thus employed with a few English and Dutch ships, when the famous Du Bart had the good luck to escape him, with nine
sail of clean ships, with which he did a great deal of mischief, both to our trade and to that of the Dutch. Rearadmiral Benbow, however, followed him as well as he
could; but the Dutch ships having, or pretending to have
no orders, quitted him, which hindered from going to the
Dogger-bank, as he intended, and obliged him to sail to
Yarmouth roads; and here he received advice that Du Bart
had fallen in with the Dutch fleet of seventy merchantmen,
escorted by five frigates, and that he had taken all the latter,
and thirty of the vessels under their convoy; which might
probably have been prevented, if the rear-admiral could
have persuaded the Dutch to have continued with him.
As it was, he safely convoyed a great English fleet of
merchantmen to Gottenburgh, and then returned to Yarmouth roads, and from thence to the Downs, for a supply
of provisions. He afterwards resumed his design of seeking
Du Bart; but his ships being much cleaner than the
rear-admiral’s, he escaped him a second time, though
once within sight of him. In 1697, he sailed the 10th of
April, from Spithead, with seven third-rates and two fireships, and after some time returned to Portsmouth for
provisions; after which he had the good fortune to convoy
the Virginia and West-India fleets safe into port. He
then repaired to Dunkirk, where he received from captain
Bowman two orders or instructions from the lords of the
admiralty; one to pursue M. Du Bart, and to destroy his
ships if possible, at any place, except under the forts in
Norway and Sweden; the other to obey the king’s commands, pursuant to an order from his majesty for that
purpose. On the 30th of July, rear-admiral Vandergoes
joined him with eleven Dutch ships, when he proposed
that one of the squadrons should be so placed, as that
Dunkirk might be south of them, and the other in or near
Ostend road, that if Du Bart should attempt to pass, they
might the better discover him: but the Dutch commander
objected that his ships being foul, they were not in a condition to pursue him. Rear-admiral Benbow being disappointed in this project, immediately formed another; for,
observing in the beginning of August that ten French frigates were hauled into the bason to clean, he judged their
design was to put to sea by the next spring-tide; and therefore, as his ships were all foul, he wrote up to the board, to
desire that four of the best sailers might be ordered to Sheerness to clean, and that the others might come to the Downs,
not only to take in water, but also to heel and scrub, which
he judged might be done before the next spring-tide gave
the French an opportunity of getting over the bar. But
this was not then thought advisable, though he afterwards
received orders for it, when it was too late. By this unlucky accident, the French had an opportunity of getting
ut with five clean ships; which, however, did not hinder
the admiral from pursuing them as well as he was able,
and some ships of his squadron had the good luck to take a
Dunkirk privateer of ten guns and sixty men, which had done
a great deal of mischief. This was one of the last actions
of the war, and the rear-admiral soon after received orders
to return home with the squadron under his command. It
is very remarkable, that as the disappointments we met
with in the course of this war occasioned very loud complaints against such as had the direction of our maritime
affairs, and against several of our admirals, there was not
one word said, in any of the warm and bitter pamphlets
of those times, to the prejudice of Mr. Benbow. On the
contrary, the highest praises were bestowed upon him in
many of those pieces, and his vigilance and activity made
him equally the favourite of the seamen and the merchants; the former giving him always the strongest marks
of their affection, and the latter frequently returning him
thanks for the signal services he did them, and for omitting
no opportunity that offered of protecting their commerce,
even in cases where he had no particular orders. With
respect to political parties, he never seems to have had
any attachments, which probably made him be respected
by them all. On one occasion king William consulted
him about a question agitated in those times, respectingthe expediency of preferring tars, as they were called, or
gentlemen in the navy; and though Mr. Benbow considered himself, and was considered by all the world, as
one of the former, yet he told the king it was safest to
employ both, and that the danger lay in preferring gentlemen without merit, and tars beyond their capacities.
, a brave English admiral, the second son of Hugh, lord viscount
, a brave English admiral, the second son of Hugh, lord viscount Falmouth, was born in 1711, and having early embraced the naval service, arose, through the usual gradations, to be captain of the Shoreham of 20 guns, in 1740, and distinguished himself as a volunteer under admiral Vernon, in November, at the taking and destroying the fortifications of Porto Bello. At the siege of Carthagena in March 1741, he had the command of a party of seamen, who resolutely attacked and took a fascine battery of fifteen twenty-four pounders, though exposed to the fire of another fort of five guns, which they knew nothing of. Lord Aubrey Beauclerk being killed March 24, at the attack of Bocachica, capt. Boscawen succeeded him in the command of the Prince Frederic of 70 guns; and on the surrender of that castle, was entrusted with the care of its demolition.
, a brave English admiral, was the third son of sir John Monson,
, a brave English admiral,
was the third son of sir John Monson, of South Carlton, in.
Lincolnshire, and born in 1569. For about two years he
studied at Baliol college, Oxford: but, being of an active
and martial disposition, he soon grew weary of a contemplative life, and applied himself to the sea-service, in which
he became very expert. In the beginning of queen Elizabeth’s war with Spain, he entered on board of ship without the knowledge of his parents; but in 1587 we find he
went out commander of a vessel, and in 1588, he served
in one of the queen’s ships, but had not the command of
it. In 1589, he was vice-admiral to the earl of Cumberland, in his expedition to the Azores islands, and at the
taking of Fayal; but, in their return, suffered such hardships, and contracted such a violent illness from them, as
kept him at home the whole year 1590. “The extremity
we endured,
” says he, “was more terrible than befel any
ship during the eighteen years’ war: for, laying aside the
continual expectation of death by shipwreck, and the daily
mortality of our men, I will speak of our famine, that exceeded all men and ships’ I have known in the course of my
life. For sixteen days together we never tasted a drop of
drink, either beer, wine, or water;and though we had
plenty of beef and pork of a year’s saltirxg, yet did we forbear eating of it for making us the drier. Many drank salt
water, and those that did, died suddenly, and the last words
they usually spake, was, ‘drink, drink, drink’ And I dare
boldly say, that, of five hundred men that were in that
ship seven years before, at this day there is not a man
alive but myself and one more.
”