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Nelson and His Navy - Cochrane

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Regular readers of the excellent Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian will probably wonder where he gets all his ideas from. One of his sources is undoubtably the life of Thomas Cochrane, the tenth Earl of Dundonald (1775-1860). He began his naval career rather inauspiciously as a midshipmen on his uncle's ship, the frigate HIND (28). Within three years he was a lieutenant at 6'2" with a shock of red hair must have cut an imposing figure. He was later one of the most daring and skilled captains of his day. He had little use of the press gang, such was his fame and skill at taking prizes. In his sloop, the SPEEDY, he fought and captured EL GAMO, a Spanish frigate,three times her weight in broadside! Later in command of the frigate PALLAS, he captured Spanish treasure ships from which he alone earned £75,000. He sailed into Portsmouth with solid gold candelabra strapped to the mastheads and earned the soubriquet le loup des mers from the unfortunate French. However his fault, if indeed fault it is, was that he was unable to allow any unfair action by his superiors to go unchallenged. In the Regency navy this was like committing professional suicide. Frequently he was given poor ships, boring cruises and little chance for his considerable talents. Still he managed to rise to the top and when in command of the frigate IMPÉRIEUSE he continued his attacks and prize-taking. This included regular trips ashore to lay siege to castles, blow up bridges and much, much more.

It was Cochrane who invented the smoke-screen, it was he who first thought, and designed a weapon of mass destruction, poison gas (This was thought so terrible that the plans were kept secret until 1908, ironically it was in use a few years later during the Great War, though not to Cochrane's recipe). Unfortunately because of his political campaigns (he was the Radical MP for Westminster) he made many enemies and his plans were shelved, usually out of spite. His personal campaigns against the many instances of corruption within the naval administration proved to be his undoing and in 1814 he was allegedly involved in a Stock Exchange scandal. He was almost certainly innocent but his detractors wasted no time in getting him removed from the Navy List, stripped of his knighthood, imprisoned and publicly disgraced.

In 1818 he took command of the revolutionary Chilean navy, then in revolt against Spain. With his characteristic skill, Cochrane rid the South American Pacific coastline of Spanish ships and hence helped secure independence for Chile and Peru.

From there he went to revolutionary Brazil and repeated his exploits for that embryonic state.

He then went to command the Greek Navy, then in revolt against the Turks. He persuaded them to build steam powered warships but had little chance to use them as the Turkish fleet was effectively destroyed by the combined Anglo-French fleet.

From there he returned to Britain and suceeded in not only clearing his name but getting himself restored to the Navy List in 1832 as an Admiral. Many thought this was as much the fact that he was thought to be less damaging within the establishment than sniping at it from without. He went on to command the North American and West Indian stations. Even when aged seventy-nine he was considered for command of the Baltic fleet but was passed over, not on account of his age, but rather it was thought his "adventurous spirit" might lead him to try "some desperate enterprise" which would make the delicate diplomatic wrangling difficult. During the Crimean war the British government came close to trying his poison gas as a way of breaking the stalemate which existed. It was only the breakthrough at Sevastapol which persuaded the prime minister, Palmerston, otherwise. He ended his life as Admiral of the Fleet and was given a magnificent monument in Westminster Abbey. It records he was 'illustrious throughout the world for courage, patriotism and chivalry'.

Throughout his long career Cochrane kept notes and wrote a gripping autobiography. It has recently been re-published by Constable, with an introduction by the naval historian, Tom Pocock. ISBN number 0 09 475080 7.