 Chapter 30 of the Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, completing the autobiography of a seaman, Volume 2, by Henry Richard Fox Bourne and others. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Timothy Ferguson. 1851 to 1860. When in June 1851 he returned to England and surrendered his office as commander-in-chief of the North American and Indian Squadron, the Earl of Dundonald was in his seventy-sixth year. That he was still young and vigorous in mind is sufficiently shown by the illustrations of his inventive genius and philanthropic earnestness that have been given in the last chapter. The most striking proof of this, however, so far as he was allowed to prove it, has yet to be given. Very soon after his return he sought to impress upon Sir James Graham, then First Lord of the Admiralty, under the Earl of Aberdeen's administration, the value of his secret war plans and before long a special reason for advocating their adoption arose. Their efficacy had been frequently acknowledged by the highest authorities, but as England was at peace nothing more than an acknowledgment was made. The outbreak of war with Russia induced Lord Dundonald to bring them forward again in 1853. At first Sir James Graham declined to entertain the subject. The government believed that Russia would be easily and properly defeated by the ordinary means of warfare and therefore contented itself with them. In this decision Lord Dundonald acquiesced per force, but on its appearing that the fight would be harder than had been anticipated, he again claimed a hearing for his proposals, believing that by their acceptance he could not only bring his own career as a bridge seam into a glorious termination, but also a yet-dearer object to him by doing so render inestimable service to his country. In this spirit he wrote again to Sir James Graham on 22 July 1854. Important, aggressive enterprises, he said, being now suspended by Russia, whose armies on the defensive may indefinitely prolong the war and thereby expose our country to perilous consequences resulting from protracted naval cooperation I am desirous through you respectfully to offer for the consideration of Her Majesty's cabinet ministers a simple yet effective plane of operations, showing that the maritime defences of Kronstadt however strong against ordinary means of attack may be captured, and their red-hot shots and incendiary missiles prepared for the destruction of our ships turned on those they protect. A result of paramount importance, now that the forces in the Black Sea have been diverted from the judiciously contemplated attack on Sabastopol, compared to the success of which any secondary enterprise in the Baltic would prove of very small importance to the successful result of the war, permit me therefore in the event of my plans being approved unreservedly to offer my services without command or authority, except over the very limited means of attack, the success were of cannot fail in its consequences to free and ensure perhaps forever all minor states from Russian dominion. Personal acquaintance with Vice Admiral Sir Charles Napier and rear Admiral Chads warrants my conviction that no feeling of rivalry could exist, save in the most zealous performance of the service. Sir James Graham's reply was complimentary, you offer for the consideration of Her Majesty's government, you wrote on the 26th July, a plan of operations by which the maritime defences of Kronstadt may, in your opinion, be captured and in the most handsome manner you declare your readiness to direct and superintend the execution of your plan if it should be adopted. When the great interests at stake are considered and when the fatal effects of a possible failure are duly regarded, it is apparent that the merits of your plan and the chances of success must be fully investigated and weighed by competent authority. The cabinet unaided can form no judgement in this matter, and the tender of your services is most properly made by you dependent on the previous approval of your plan, the question is a naval one into which professional considerations must enter largely. Naval officers therefore of experience and high character are the judges to whom in the first instance this question ought to be submitted. Let me therefore ask you before I take any further step whether you are willing in strict confidence to lay your whole plan before Sir Brian Martin, Sir William Parker and Admiral Barkley, whom, from his place at this board, is my first naval adviser. If you do not object to this measure, but to any of the naval officers whom I have named, I should be disposed to add Sir John Burgoyne, the head of the engineers, on whose judgement I place great reliance. I'm sure you will not regard this mode of treating a proposal, as inconsistent with the respect which I sincerely entertain for your high professional character, resting on past services of no ordinary merit, which I have never failed to recognise, but my duty on this occasion prescribes caution and deliberate care, and you will do justice to the motives by which this answer to your request is guided and lettered. To this suggestion Lord Dundonald readily acceded, and his secret war plans were once more referred to a committee of investigation. Nothing however was gained by this step. I have received, wrote Sir James Graham on the 15th of August, the report of the committee of officers of whom, with your consent, the plan for the attack on Kronstadt was submitted on the whole after careful consideration. They have come to the unanimous conclusion that it is inexpedient to try experiments in present circumstances. They do full justice to your lordship, and they expressly state that if such an enterprise were to be undertaken, it could not be confided to fitter or abler hands than yours. For your professional career has been distinguished by remarkable instances of skill and courage, in all of which you have been the foremost to lead the way, and by your personal heroism you have gained an honourable celebrity in the naval history of this country. Letter ends. That letter was disappointing to Lord Dundonald, but as the value of his plans was not disputed, he hoped that he might yet be allowed to put them in execution. Be pleased, he said, in his reply to Sir James Graham, to accept the sincere assurance of the high estimation in which I hold the kind and favourable expression of your sentiments towards me. It is indeed gratifying to perceive that the experienced admals to whom you referred the professional consideration of my secret plan have not expressed any doubt as to its practicability. The report of the admals, however, had as unfavourable an effect as could have resulted had they declared openly against the project. Week followed week without any successful issue to the efforts of the Baltic fleet, and added to Lord Dundonald's chagrin at not being permitted to achieve the desired success, was his distress at finding unmerited blame thrown by the government, and by nearly all classes of the public, upon a brave and skillful seaman for not doing what with the means at his disposal, it was impossible for him to do. Admiral Sir Charles Napier had failed, through no fault of his own, in the project of attacking Kronstadt, a fortress of almost unrivaled strength, and by reason of the shallow water surrounding it, unapproachable by the heavy line of battleships and frigates, which constituted all his force. And during the months of his necessary inactivity, and after his return to England, Lord Dundonald was almost his only offender. Injustice to Admiral Napier, against whom the indignant dissatisfaction of the nation is said to be directed, he wrote in a letter to the Morning Post on the 21st of September, permit me to say that success could not have attended the operations of ships against stone batteries firing red-hot shot, however easily unresisting walls may be leisurely demolished. There is but one means to place these parties on an equal footing, and that I confidentially laid before the government. The unreasoning portion of the public, he wrote to Sir James Graham on the 11th of November, have made an outcry against old admirals, as if it were essential that they should be able to clear their way with a broadsword. But, my dear Sir James, were it necessary, which it is not, that I should place myself in an armchair on the poop, with each leg on equation, I will undertake to subdue every inch of the fortification at Kronstadt within four hours from the commencement of the attack. And Sebastopol, he argued, could be as easily captured if he were only allowed to put his plans in operation. But it was not allowed. Nothing new can be attempted at the present moment, answered Sir James Graham. Winter will put an end to all active operations in the Baltic, and I still venture to hope that at Sebastopol our arms will be triumphant. Let her ends. Lord Dundonald, though pained not so much on his own account, as in the interests of the nation, at the way in which his officers were treated, persevered in making them. It was now too late in the season to affect anything in the Baltic, but the siege at Sebastopol was being carried on without any immediate prospect of success, and he yearned with all the ardour that he had displayed half a century before for an opportunity of rendering success, both certain and immediate. To this end he wrote again to Sir James Graham, and also for the first time to the Earl of Aberdeen on the 30th of December. The pertenacious resistance made at Sebastopol and the possibility of events that may still further disappoint expectation, he said to Sir James, have induced me to address Lord Aberdeen, saying that if it is the opinion of the Cabinet, or of those whom they consult on military affairs that, failing the early capture of Sebastopol, the British Army may be in danger, I offer to the discernment of the Cabinet my still-secret plans of attack, whereby the garrisons would be expelled from the forts or annihilated in defiance of numerical force, and possession obtained at least during sufficient time to enable the chief defences to be blown up and the harbour fleet to be destroyed. If you will so far favour me, I should be gratified by having an opportunity of demonstrating to your strong mind, free from professional bias, the fact that combustible ships may be not only placed on a parity with stone forts, fitted to fire a red-hot shot, but secured from injury more effectually than if encased in iron. So James Graham's answer was like its forerunners complimentary, but nothing more. I can never cease, he wrote to do justice to your patriotic desire to serve your country, which is evinced by your desire to encounter in your own person the dangers attendant on your experiment and not to transfer the hazard of the enterprise to others. But to the enterprise itself he would give no sanction. Your plans, he said, by my desire were submitted to the consideration of the most competent naval and military officers, whose impartial judgment cannot be impunged, and, on the whole, they did not recommend the trial of the experiment which you are anxious to make. Neither Lord Aberdeen nor I can venture to place our individual opinions in opposition to a recorded judgment of the highest authority on a question, which is purely professional. I see no advantage therefore in renewing the discussion with you at the present moment, let friends. Had the impartial judgment, by which Sir James Graham held himself bound, been adverse to the principle of Lord Donald's plans, or declared them to be anything more than inexpedient in present circumstances, more weight might have been attached to it, but even then he could have pointed to the opposite verdict, given in 1847, by other judges quite as impartial and competent who, while objecting to part of them on the score of their deadly efficacy, had officially announced their belief in the applicability of another part, the part of which Lord Donald now proposed to make most use, and recommended its adoption when the opportunity of employing it may occur. He therefore refused to be thwarted in his efforts to render to his country the great service that he considered to be in his power, and Sir Charles Napier's removal from the command of the Baltic Fleet in January 1855 gave him an opportunity of offering to use that power under conditions that would relieve the admiralty of all direct responsibility in the event of his failure. I am much gratified, he said in another letter to Sir James Graham, to learn that Hermos Gracious Majesty has been pleased to reserve the high dignity of Admiral of the Fleet as a reward for services. Under this impression, permit me to solicit the favour of being allowed to contend for that distinction, not by reference again to opinions, which may prove fallacious but by actual experimental proof of the safety and facility of assailing fortifications by my secret plans, by them the damage and loss of life sustained by the Allied squadron in their late attack on the fortifications of Sabastopol might have been partly, if not wholly, averted and probably a tenfold destruction inflicted on the enemy. If this is admitted, and I do not think it can be disputed, I hope you will allow me to demonstrate the general applicability of these simple comparatively costless, and in my opinion infallible means of annihilating the power of all kinds of batteries that can be approached to Winwood within half a mile. These plans have been entertained and pondered over by me during forty years, and now again I offer to explain, to test, and to put them in execution. Let her in. Sir James Graham's answer was very terse. I have had the honour, he wrote on the 23rd of January, of receiving your Lordship's letter, in which you tend to your services to take command of the Baltic Fleet. I consider the tender highly honourable to you, but I cannot give you any other assurance." No other assurance would have been of any avail. The Earl of Aberdeen's cabinet, having lost the confidence of the country, was dissolved almost immediately after the letter was written, to be replaced by an administration in which Lord Palmerston was Premier, and Sir Charles Wood, First Lord of the Admiralty. To Lord Palmerston, the Earl of Dandonell wrote on the 13th of February, The high position of our country being at stake on the result of the war, he said, and our long established naval renown pledged on the successful conduct of affairs in the Baltic. I addressed to my kind friend, Lord Lansdowne, who has been long conversant with the objects, which by his advice I now offer to your Lordship's notice as First Minister of the Crown, co-jointly, if you judge proper, with that of the cabinet over which you preside. He then briefly described the principle of his secret plan, adding, I respectfully offer to execute this plan and answer for its success against Kronstadt and against all minus strongholds in the Baltic. That ends. Four weeks elapsed before the letter was answered. In the meanwhile, Lord Dandonell, beginning to despair over satisfactory hearing from any Minister of State, unless he was induced there to, by popular demand, addressed a petition to the House of Commons, urging the importance of his plans and praying for a searching inquiry, to ascertain whether the aforesaid secret plans are capable speedily, certainly and cheaply, to surmount obstacles which our gallant persevering and costly armies and fleets have failed to accomplish. His reasons for doing so he explained in a letter addressed to the Times on the 10th of March. Peace, he there said, being desirable not only for the interests of our country, but for those of the world at large and the negotiations now pending being doubtless injuriously influenced by the obstinate resistance of Sebastopol, which could be overcome in a day, and the impossibility of successfully attacking Kronstadt by naval means, which might be speedily reduced, I have drawn up a petition to Parliament in order that secrecy and silence on my part and deficiency of information on that of the public may no longer prove injurious to the success of our arms. Hostilities having proceeded so far, assuredly, it is more expedient to reduce a restless nation to a third or fourth rate power than be ourselves reduced, let not my motive be mistaken, I have no wish to command a fleet of a hundred gunships or to attack first wreck fortresses by encased batteries or steam gunboats. That which I desire is first secretly to demonstrate to competent persons the efficiency of my plans and then to obtain authority during eight or ten days of fine weather to put them in execution. The means I contemplate are simple, cheap and safe. They would spare thousands of lives, millions of money, great havoc and uncertainty of results. Their consequences might and probably would affect the emancipation of Poland and give freedom to the usurped territories of Sweden. Those who judge unfavorably of all age naval commanders, assuredly, do not reflect that the useful employment of the energies of thousands and tens of thousands of men can best be developed and directed by a mind instructed by long observation, matured by reflection. An advantage to which physical power that could clear its way by a broadsword can bear no comparison. My unsupported opinion in regard to a naval enterprise in 1809 proved to be correct. Every other undertaking in the British Service and as Commander-in- Chief in Chile, Peru, Brazil and Greece was successful and so would the protracted and unaccomplished undertaking so injurious to the result of negotiation has succeeded had I possessed sufficient influence to be patiently listened to. The petition aroused much interest among the public, but was unheeded by the House of Commons and therefore produced very slight effect on the ministry. My published petition, wrote Lord Dundunnel to Viscount Palmerston on the 17th of March, has brought me numerous letters and amongst others a communication I believe from high authority that if I do know any means, whereby to spare the slaughter that must take place on storming Sebastopol, I ought to make it known. I wish I could impart to your lordship what I feel under the present circumstances and how anxiously I desire that a speedy decision may succeed the lingering delays that I have so long endured. A few days after that, chiefly through the assistance of his friend Lord Bram, Lord Dundunnel obtained an interview with Lord Palmerston at which he further detailed his plans and urged that they should be promptly employed in hastening a conclusion of the war with Russia. To Lord Palmerston, he also wrote again on the 31st of March, it has occurred to me he said that the supposed inhumanity of my plans may have caused the use of the word inexpedient in the report of the commission applied in July last by the Admiralty and may even now influence the decision of the cabinet. Perhaps another view may have been taken of the consequences of divulging my plans as regards the security of this kingdom. To these possible objections he urged that no conduct that brought to a speedy determination of war which might otherwise last for years and be attended by terrible bloodshed in numerous battles could be called inhuman and that the most powerful means of averting invasion and indeed all future war would be the introduction of a method of fighting which rendering all vigorous defence impossible would frighten every nation from running the risks of warfare at all. Those arguments appear to have had some weight but after further correspondence Lord Palmerston's government like all other governments to which they had been offered refused to put the plans in execution. Further evidence in their favour was obtained from some eminent scientific men and it was put beyond dispute that although they might not have such deadly efficacy as Lord Dundonald anticipated on which point the critics spoke with hesitation they could not fail if properly applied in producing very important results but it was all in vain all that Lord Palmerston would agree to was to have the experiment tried on a small scale at Sebastopol and by two engineer officers who were to be instructed in their work while Lord Dundonald Lord Dundonald consented to the trial if it were conducted by his son Captain the Honourable Arthur Cochran R.N. but this was not agreed to and the whole project fell to the ground. At that result Lord Dundonald was hardly more disappointed than was a large section of the English public friends and strangers soldiers sailors newspaper writers and merchants wrote to him from London Edinburgh Liverpool Birmingham Belfast and all other parts of the kingdom urging that if the enterprise was not undertaken by government it should be executed by means of a private subscription I am perfectly convinced wrote one that you can do all the injury to the Russian fortifications that you say you can do if miserable jealousy at the Admiralty refuses you the means take them from those who like myself are very proud to be your countrymen I am not a rich man but I shall gladly subscribe 100 pounds to any scheme that you will propose and carry out yourself if your lordship will appeal to the country wrote another in less than a week you will receive subscriptions to any amount you will then be independent of government routine and the public will without further delay have an opportunity of testing the value of your invention towards which the eyes of all Europe are anxiously turned at the present juncture let us end those suggestions and the evidence afforded by them of a widespread sympathy in his efforts to render a last great service to his country afforded real satisfaction to Lord Dundon old but their adoption was quite impossible as a British officer he could not for a moment think of entering upon a warlock project independently of the state therefore he left the work on which his heart was set undone and soon though by no means so soon as he could have made it the Russian war was brought to a conclusion whatever may have been the cause of the rejection of his offer to Hegson that conclusion by means of his secret war plans the Earl of Dundon old experience no lack of personal courtesy during the period of correspondence or throughout the brief remainder of his life his closing years which he had by many acts by which was nearly completed the tidy reparation for the former injuries which had begun with his reinstatement in the navy by King William IV and in which the most gratifying circumstance of all was the restoration of his honors as a knight of the bath by her gracious Majesty Queen Victoria the death of Sir Byron Martin and the promotion of Sir William Gage to the office of Vice Admiral of the United Kingdom wrote Sir James Graham on the 23rd of October 1854 vacate the appointment of Rhea Admiral it is an honorary distinction and you're standing in the naval service and your gallant achievements entitle you to this reward I have taken Her Majesty's pleasure and the Queen has graciously approved my recommendation I propose therefore with your lordship's permission that you shall be gazetted Rhea Admiral of the United Kingdom I accept the proposed honor with gratitude to Her Majesty and with thanks to you and to Lord Dundon old on the 24th permit me however to express a hope that such distinction shall not preclude my further service to the crown and country which long and matured consideration on professional subjects assures me I could now perform even more effectually than at an earlier period we just note the letter ends a month later he was honored by a compliment from one who kind and gracious in all his acts had never failed in showing towards him special grace and kindness my dear lord wrote Prince Albert on the 26th of November a vacancy has occurred in the honorary brethren of the Trinity House by the lamented death of Sir Brian Martin it has always been customary in that corporation to have the royal navy represented amongst the elder brethren by one of its most distinguished officers I therefore write to inquire whether it would be agreeable to you to be elected a member of that body as I should in that case have much pleasure in proposing as master of the corporation your name for the election of the elder brethren believe me always my dear lord yours truly Albert may it please your royal highness Lord Dundon wrote in reply on the 27th to accept my dutiful and most grateful thanks for the honor your royal highness is pleased to confer I assure your royal highness I shall ever look forward with anxiety to prove my devotion and gratitude to her most gracious majesty to signal acts of justice and favor and to your royal highness for this highly appreciated mark of your consideration better end a token of the estimation in which Lord Dundon was at length held by all classes of his countrymen may he be recorded after frequent refusal on the ground of his age and love of privacy he consented in May 1856 to seek admission to the united service club its members thereupon at once resolved at the proposal of Vice Admiral Sir George F. Seymour which was seconded by Lieutenant General Sir C. F. Smith to invite that highly distinguished officer Admiral the Earl of Dundon to become an honorary member of the club until the time of his lordship's ballot takes place in spite of compliments like these however it was his earnest desire that before his life has ended every shadow which had darkened it might be cleared away and that he might not pass into the grave without the assurance that he was formally and in every respect acquitted of the unjust charges brought against him nearly half a century before while one single consequence of those charges remained in force he considered that he was not so acquitted and with this object he laboured to the last I ventured to remind your lordship he wrote to Lord Palmerston on the 26th of May that the undeviating rectitude of my conduct through a long life has already induced the crown in the exercise of its justice to restore my rank and honours there yet remains my dear lord a gracious and important act to perform namely to order my banner to be replaced in King Henry VII's chapel and to direct the repayment of the fine inflicted by the court of King's bench and the restoration of my half pay suspended during my removal from the naval service unless these are done I shall descend to my grave with the consciousness not only that justice has not fully been done to me but under the painful conviction that its mission will be construed to the injury of my character in the estimation of posterity independently of the justice of this claim on its own merits I venture to express a hope that your lordship will admit that during my temporary absence from the naval service my exertions tended materially to promote the interests of our country by opening to commerce to the ports of the pacific and those of all the northern provinces of brazil the trends the appeal was unsuccessful the part of it having reference to the replacement of Lord Donald's banner in Westminster Abbey was considered by Lord Palmerston to be a question with which it was not in his province to deal with regard to the fine he said I am afraid that there are no funds out of which it could be repaid and I should doubt there being any precedent for such a proceeding and I find on inquiry that pay or half pay has not been granted to any naval officer for any period during which he may have been out of the service that reply induced Lord Donald to write again to Lord Palmerston on the 7th of June I submit he then said that the fine being imposed for an alleged offence of which I was wholly innocent it ought to be repaid even if there be no special fund appropriated for such a purpose the peculiarity of my case may account for there being no precedent for such a proceeding if none there be the same peculiarity may distinguish my case from that of all other naval officers to whom no pay or half pay has been allowed for any period during which they may have been out of the service I may have been the only naval officer unjustly expelled and assuredly I have been the only one so expelled after manifesting by various acts a truly patriotic zeal for the honor and interest of our country no other naval officer after such act was ever expelled the service and otherwise punished on me conjectural evidence since demonstrated to have been utterly groundless I submit that instances have occurred of military officers recovering pay or half pay after unjust expulsion as in the case of Sir Robert Wilson and I am not aware of the existence of any cause for a distinction in this respect between the two services I feel the deepest gratitude and satisfaction that my life has been spared to a period when I may reasonably hope that a portion of justice yet due to me for the erroneous verdict and its injurious consequences will not be withheld of that justice the first installment namely the restoration of my naval rank was granted by his late majesty king William and the second by her present most gracious majesty who on the representation of my noble friend the Marquis of Lansdowne was pleased to reinstate me in the order of the bath for the third and conclusive portion of the justice still remaining due to me I cannot desist from looking to your lordship letter hands it is not necessary to detail the later correspondence that ensued upon this subject Lord Dundunal found that the final reparation which he sought was not then at any rate to be conceded to him by the government and therefore he resolved to employ his last remaining powers in seeking from his countrymen that thorough justice which he rightly considered would result from an honest review of the incidents of his life during 1858 and the beginning of 1859 he was engaged in the preparation of his narrative of services in the liberation of Chile, Peru and Brazil from the Spanish and Portuguese domination footnote the following letter dated Buckingham Palace March the 4th 1859 gave pleasure to Lord Dundunal my lord I have received the commands of his royal highness the prince consort to return you his best thanks for the copy of your narrative which you have been good enough to send to his royal highness and upon which his royal highness will place our head value I am directed further to say that it would add materially to that value if you would have the kindness to write in the first page of the accompanying volume that it was presented by your lordship to the prince I have the honor to be my lord your most obedient humble servant C. B. Phipps read his note footnote ends that work was immediately followed by his autobiography of the seaman of which the first volume was completed in December 1859 the second in September 1860 bringing down the story to the date from which it has been continued in the present work footnote almost the last letter written by Lord Dundunal was this to Lord Bram my dear Lord Bram I have the pleasure to forward you the second volume of my autobiography in which you will find that use has been made of the kind expressions towards myself contained in your works of the injustice done to me I need not tell you who are so well acquainted with the subject if the accompanying volume succeeds in impressing on the public mind these sentiments so unflinchingly set forth in your works it will have answered its purpose and that it will do so I have no reason to doubt now that the subject can be canvassed apart from political ranker I am my dear Lord Bram ever faithfully yours Dundunal Lord Bram's answer was dated from Paris on the 31st of October the very day of his friend's death I have just received your very kind letter and I dare say the volume will very speedily reach me one thing I fear you do not come down late enough to relate I mean the impression made upon all present when I took you to the Tullarids and when the name of Cochrane so well known to them and which I cannot bring myself to change for your present title was no sooner heard than there was a general start and shudder I remember saying as we drove away that it ought to satisfy you as to your disappointment at Basque roads and you answered that you would rather have the ships read as note footnote ends that his mind was full of vigor to the last is best proved by that autobiography but the body was worn out after two years of great physical suffering passed in the house of his eldest son at Queensgate Kensington he died on the 31st of October 1860 85 years old he was buried in Westminster Abbey where in his last moments he had expressed a desire to rest in company with other great servants of the nation a public funeral was not granted to him but his son was permitted to conduct that funeral in a way worthy of his great reputation and agreeable to the wishes of all classes of his countrymen through the personal intervention of her most gracious Majesty and the Prince Consort moreover who counteracted the efforts of subordinates his insignia of the order of the bath which had been ignomiously spurred from King Henry VII's chapel one in 50 years before were restored to their place on the 13th of November thus his last and most cherished wish was fulfilled and another precious boon was added to the many favours for which his family can never cease to be grateful to their sovereign and her noble husband the burial was on the 14th of November the poor bearers were Admiral so George Seymour the Brazilian minister Admiral Grenfell who five and thirty years before had been associated with Lord Dundonald in securing the independence of Brazil Captain Goldsmith Captain Schomburg Captain Hay and Captain Nolloth among the mourners was Lord Bram who had come from Paris to render this last honour to one who had been his friend through 50 years standing over the grave and looking round upon the assemblage he exclaimed no cabinet minister here no officer of state to grace this great man's funeral but the funeral was graced by the reverent homage of hundreds gathered within the Abbey walls and of the thousands who though absent acknowledged that England had lost one of her bravest warriors and most unselfish patriots one whose warfare had been marked by acts of daring rarely equalled and whose patriotism had brought upon him suffering such as few in modern times have had to endure the solemn anthem chanted over his grave his body is buried in peace but his memory shall live forever echoed far and wide and awakened in every breast keen sentiments of sympathy for what he had borne and of pride in what he had done but it is not upon begins ashes to ashes lay the hero down within the grey old Abbey's glorious shade an hour while huller Nair was worthier laid since Marta first won palm or victor crown to as well the state he served no fathering pays to grace with pomp and honour all too late his grave whom living statesman dogged with hate denying justice and withholding praise let England hide her face above his tomb as much for shame as sorrow let her think upon the bitter cup he had to drink heroic soul branded with felons doom a sea king whose fit place had been by Blake or our own Nelson had he been but freed to follow glory's quest upon the sea leading the conquered navies in his wake a captain whom it had been ours to cheer from conquest on to conquest had our land but set its wisest worthiest in command not such as hated all the good revere we let them cage the lion while the fire in his high heart burnt clear and unsubdued we let them stir that frank and forward mood from greatness to self-consuming ire the fret and chafe that wait on service scorned justice denied and the truth to silence driven from men we left him to appeal to heaven against fraud set high and evidence suborned we left him with bound arms to mark the sword given to weak hands left him with working brain to see rogues traffic and fools rashly reign where strength should have been guide and honor lord left him to cry aloud without support against the creeping things that eat away our wooden walls and boast as they betray the base supporters of a baser court the crawling worms that in corruption breed and on corruption bat until at last mistaken honor the proud victim cast out to their spite to writhe and pant and bleed under their stings and slime and bleed he did for years till hope into heart sickness grew and he sought other seas and service new and his bright sword in alien laurels hid nor even so found gratitude but came back to England bankrupt save of praise to eat his heart through weary wishful days and shape his strength to bearing of his shame till slow but sure drew on a better time and statesman owned the check of public will and at the last light pierced the shadow chill that fouled his honor with the taint of crime and then they gave him back the nightly spurs which he had never forfeited the rank from which he ne'er by ill deserving sank more than the lion sinks for the yelp of curse justice had lingered on its road long the lion was grown old the time gone by when for his aid we vainly raised a cry to save our flag from shame our dex from wrong the infamy is theirs whose evil deed is past undoing yet not guiltless we who penniless that brave man could not see restored to honor but denied its mead a bellisarius old and sad and poor to our shame not to his so he lived on till man's allotted four score years were gone and scarcely then had lived to establish sure proofs of his innocence and their shame that so wronged him and this done came death to seal the assurance of his dying breath and wipe the last faint tarnish from his name at last his fame stands fair and full of years he seeks that judgment which his wrong is all have sought before him and above his pawl his flag replaced at length waves with his peers he did not live to see it but he knew his country with one voice had set it high and knowing this he was content to die and leave to gracious heaven what might ensue ashes to ashes lay the hero down no noble heart and you the bitter lot to be misjudged maligned accused forgot twine martyrs palm among his victor's crown footnote these lines by Mr. Tom Taylor were published in punch Victor and Marta those are the words fittest to be inscribed on the monument that will be set up in the hearts of Englishmen in honor of the Earl of Dundonald entering life with great powers of mind and great physical endowments for his only fortune he made his name famous and won immortal honor for himself by daring and successful enterprises in the naval service of his country which none have surpassed at any age so young as he is and which few have rivaled during a long lifetime spent in war but he sought to follow up those triumphs of his prowess on the sea by peaceful victories at home over private jealousy official intrigue and political wrongdoing and thereby he bought on himself opposition which boldly resented caused the unjust forfeiture of the rewards that were his due and weighed him down with the terrible load of disappointed hope and undeserved reproach seeking relief from those grievous offerings and opportunity of further work in a profession very dear to him and in generous aid of nations striving to throw off the tyranny to which they had long been subjected he entered the service of three foreign states in succession but in helping others he brought only fresh trouble on himself he rescued Chilean Peru from Spanish thralldom only to find the people who he had freed therefrom were themselves enthralled by passions which even he could do nothing to overcome and which drove him from their shores barely thanked and quite unrecompensed he fought the battles of the young empire of Brazil against Portugal doubled her territories and more than doubled her opportunities of future development only to be cruelly spurned by the faction then in power and denied the fulfilment of national pledges which a latter generation has but subtly and slightly regarded Hadi yet was his treatment by the Greeks who having asked him to lead them in their contest with their Turkish masters refused to follow his leadership gave him no assistance in his plans for fighting on their behalf and in return for services which in spite of all the difficulties in his way he was able to render them offered him little bit insult thus more than half his life was wasted wasted as far as he himself was concerned though the gain to others from every one of his achievements was great indeed returning then to peaceful work in England he chiefly spent the years remaining to him in efforts to win back the justice of which he had been deprived and in efforts he had more zealous to benefit his country by exercise of the inventive talents in which he was almost as eminent as in his warlike powers but those talents were slighted though from them has in part resulted an entire and wholly beneficial revolution in the science and practice of naval warfare and though many of his personal wrongs were redressed he was allowed to die without the complete wiping out of the stain that had been put upon his honor of the long course of suffering it must be admitted he was himself in some measure the cause endowed as few others have been endowed with the highest mental qualities he lacked other qualities necessary to world the advancement and the prosperous enjoyment of life truth and justice he made the guiding principles of all his actions but he knew nothing of expediency and was no adept in the arts of prudence unrivaled strategy was displayed by him in all his warlike enterprises but against the strategy of his fellow workers he was utterly defenseless he made enemies where a cautious man might have made friends and he allowed those enemies to assail him and to inflict upon him injuries almost irreparable with weapons and by onslaughts which a cautious man would easily have ordered off judged by the harshest rules of worldly wisdom however it must be acknowledged that these faults brought upon him far heavier punishment than he merited and perhaps it will be deemed by posterity that they were faults very nearly akin to virtues the same want of prudence caused trouble to him in other respects it led him in furtherance of the inventions and other projects by which he sought to benefit the world into expenses by which his scanty sources of income were very heavily taxed it also sometimes made him the victim of others guileless himself he was not proof against the guile of many with whom he came in contact every kind word sounded in his ear every kind act appeared in his eye as if it proceeded from heart that's full of kindness as his own and he often lavished sympathy and gratitude on unworthy objects but shall we blame him for this kindness indeed was as much a characteristic of him as valor while the world was full of fame for his warlike achievements all who came within the circle of his acquaintance marvel to find a man so simple so tender so generous and so courteous when he was bowed down by sorrows that nearly crushed him he sought comfort in zealous efforts for alleviating the sufferings of others fortunate circumstances would have placed him in a station of universal honor which he could have occupied to the admiration of all unlockers but the circumstances of his life were unfortunate and therefore he had to endure such hardship as falls to the lot of few the harsh judgment by which he suffered has already been reversed it will be atone for when his worth is properly acknowledged by his fellow man end of chapter 30 recording by Timothy Ferguson Gold Coast Australia appendix of the life of Thomas Lord Cochran 10th Earl of Dundonald completing the autobiography the seaman volume two by Henry Richard Fox born and others this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Timothy Ferguson appendix captain abney Hastings letters to Lord Cochran so much has been said in the body of this volume in evidence of the insurmountable difficulties raised by the Greeks themselves to Lord Cochran's efforts to aid them as efficiently as he desired that there seemed no room without wearing the reader for their citing more than two or three of the letters addressed to him by captain abney Hastings they have therefore been reserved for quotation here their publication is desirable for two reasons in the first place they show how captain Hastings whom all the historians of the Greek revolution join in praising was harassed and his work rendered almost useless by causes which Lord Cochran in a much more difficult position was blamed for not overcoming in the second place they will serve as a contribution to the biography of a high-minded and valiant man a share in Lord Cochran zealous efforts on behalf of Greece and in the misfortunes incident there too of whose memorable career the world knows little one catarina hydra march 26 1827 my lord the usual contraries of the machine prevented my following you yesterday according to your desire observing you went to poros i thought i should act in conformity with your wishes by coming here to take in coals and avoid all possible delay i have gotten bored enough for about four days more i have expected you all day and not seeing you i have taken upon myself to depart for the service you have destined me for although i am not quite certain i know the exact station i shall go off gribusa and endeavor to find captains and george i leave a letter here for the primates requesting them to load a small vessel with coals for my return which i wish to take in on the opposite side this measure far from occasioning delay would be advantageous in that respect as well as having less close connection with the hidriots whose presence always has the effect of setting a bad example to the greeks i have on board i should feel obliged to your lordship to insist on this measure perhaps it would be advantageous for your lordship to decide upon the port you intend to occupy immediately and send there all the coals and other stores wanted for your naval force since you object to an island in the great archipelago i am of the opinion with general gordon that ambalaki is best suited for your station if all the coals were there much delay would be saved to the steam vessels one of the causes our engine went so badly was that some firebars being burnt the fire fell through and we could not keep up the steam and otherwise i had taken up the paddles which previously had two feet dip six inches the engine consequently went faster but the pumps would not supply sufficient water i have loaded them again pray have your further orders for me here as i shall touch for coals as aforesaid on my return i have the honor to be etc f a hastings to catarina poros april the ninth 1827 my lord i have the honor to transmit you an account of the catarina steam vessel up to march 16th by which you will perceive that with the 500 pounds credit i have on missus bayfitzante i still have a credit of 363 dollars in my favor not accustomed to keep such counts there may be errors but if any of that certainly against myself as i may have omitted charging expenses whereas i have never charged but what was really expended nor have i ever charged anything for myself directly or indirectly wages will become due again the 16th of this month for which i shall require about eight hundred dollars having but a few days salt meat on board i beg your lordship to cause an order to be written enabling me to receive such quantity as you may deem requisite i had the honor to be etc f a hastings three catarina scoppolo april the 19th ns 1827 my lord northerly winds prevented my passing cape doro until the 15th having spoken a vessel from skyro i learned that an austrian merchant vessel loaded with corn and ammunition for negrepont was laying at that island under convoy of an austrian vessel of war and that the corvette of tombasi was there watching the merchant vessel i touched at skyro the night of the 15th and found that the austrian was gone supposed for syra followed by hidriot schooner or kondorio tes who is supposed to have made some agreement with the austrian to deliver the cargo to him the greek corvette had sailed as i was told for this i arrived here the night of the 16th and found the brig and schooner was zealously employed on the service they had been sent upon having steamed more than i had at first intended i was in wanted fuel and set them to work here to obtain me would which they have done with more alacrity than i expected during these two holidays the engine of course required repairs i sent off the schooner to inform the vessels of the blockade when i should join them and a point of rendezvous i sail immediately and hope to take or destroy the vessels at trecherry and volo tomorrow i send this by way of the primates of the island who carry a letter to your lordship offering their services they have been apparently much opposed in all these islands by the heroes of the earth and are anxious to obtain protection from the naval force this island is fertile and could and could be made to pay well for protection the others have claims equally strong for protection st george to schiro scoppolo etc etc have more than 2000 liappas quartered upon them at this moment if athens is relieved these worthies might be turned into negropond with much effect i'm told the turkish transports are still at trecherry and volo not doubting to clear the gulf of greks a force to ajan however i hope to be with them tomorrow i suspect fuel could be obtained cheaper here than at magara and i see no reason for incurring the expensive transport of wood to poros for construction of gunboats when a great majority of the greek vessels are constructed here the wood does not grow here it is brought from agor on the main the deputies to birds can't answer can inform your lordship of these things i have the honor to be et cetera f a hastings ps having taken the coals out from between the boilers and side of the ship i am anxious to fill this space with wool as a protection against shot the coals stowed there are an inconvenience for many reasons and something is necessary to replace them as a protection for the boilers if your lordship would be good enough to order tombasi to procure me wool for that purpose i think you would be ultimately satisfied of its utility four catarina off to cherry mandate 23rd ns 1827 my lord i have the honor to inform you that in pursuance of your orders i carry the squadron under my command consisting of the corvette thermistor cleaves brig aris schooner aspana and schooner panea before the port of volo the evening of the 20th i found eight vessels at anchor in the port immediately i directed the thermistor cleaves and aris to anchor off a battery at the point and cannonade it whilst i entered the harbour with boats and schooners at 4 30 pm they anchored with much gallantry and soon silenced the musket shot from the battery at the same moment i entered the harbour with the boats and schooners and we shortly took possession of seven brigs they were all on shore and most without sails bent however by 9 p.m we succeeded in getting out five prizes three loaded with provisions and ammunition two light and this most fortunately without the loss of a man killed or wounded although we lay at anchor in the harbour for four hours and a half exposed to the fire of the castle of volo the ship received no material injury although several shots struck her we set fire to two prizes we could not succeed in getting out one light brig remains that we shot away her foremost and did such damage in her hull as will i hope prevent her putting to sea again last night i entered treachery with the boats of the mr cleaves aris and aspa and espacia to endeavor to carry out a brig of war turkish of 16 guns and two mortars but found her protected too advantageously by batteries and musketry i sent the prizes to your lordship under the convoy of the espacia and shall remain here a few days to endeavor to destroy the turkish brig of war and shall then return to join your lordship i beg leave to assure your lordship before i conclude that in these affairs i have met with the most cordial support from the captains of the vessels under my orders and their conductor as well as that of all the officers and men of the squadron has been highly meritorious i have the honor to be etc f a hastings ps as the schooner panahia will participate in the prizes i have ordered her to remain on the blockade although not sent by your lordship five katerina at sea april 24 1827 my lord an hour after i had the honor of sending in my last letter detailing the affair of volo i stood in to treachery with the vessels under my command vis the mr cleaves aris panahia the turks in this place had one brig of war which erroneously in my last i rated it 16 guns mounted but 14 long 24 pounders and two mortars she was made fast in a small bite with plank on shore and high rocks on each side of her behind which were posted a strong core of albanian troops she was likewise protected by a battery close under her bow and five other batteries in other parts four small schooners lay quite hauled up on the beach to attempt to carry away vessels so posted and defended by men who wanted neither alacrity nor resolution would have been exposing the lives of the crews in a very unwarrantable manner i therefore resolved to burn the pig which was affected in less than an hour i did not make any attempt upon the schooners which i considered too inconsiderable to justify a loss in capturing them in this affair the captain's officers and crews conducted themselves all much to my satisfaction in closed i have the honor to transmit to you a return of the killed and wounded in this affair which i'm happy to say is trifling i have left the rest of the squadron to maintain the blockade i have the honor to be etc f a Hastings a return of the killed and wounded on board the greek squadron at treachery april 11 catarina killed one seaman ralf hall aris killed one seaman aris wounded two seaman panayi wounded one seaman total two killed and three wounded f a Hastings seven catarina at sea april 26th ns 1827 my lord passing by kumi i observed several vessels at anchor there and a great number of large kayaks etc hauled up on the beach i stood in and overhauled them and found as i suspected that a most scandalous and extensive commerce in grain is carrying on to that place with the turks chiefly in greek vessels a brig under russian colors was chiefly discharged a syrian schooner was nearly full and the magazines on shore were full i said about loading the grain from the magazines but was unable to take off more than one third of what was in them i have good reason for supposing that other magazines equally stored are to be found in the town about an hour's distance here there were only a dozen turks who flooded our approach in the evening no less than nine small vessels were standing in to kumi i weighed and boarded six of them three being entirely empty i allowed to pass two i detained and have brought with me the want of men of time etc has prevented my putting a finishing hand to this infamous traffic but i have no doubt your lordship will see the propriety of sending a vessel of war without delay to destroy these depots it is idle to talk of blockading the gulf of negropont whilst such an extensive commerce is carrying on at other points of the island i have the honor to be etc f a Hastings seven katerina poros april 28 1827 my lord captains and george going to join you i take the opportunity of informing you besides what my other letters contain that my information from kumi imports that negropont contains two months provision for the army of katai and fortresses and that all their hopes are in the turkish fleet expected daily it seems to me of the first importance that the greek fleet should be ready to counter the turks and the gulf is a place particularly favorable to the smaller lighter and more skillful party might i suggest my lord the propriety of sending a couple of light vessels upon whom you could depend to cruise off the dark nails and give information in time the corvette brig and schooner off to cherry requested me to represent their want of provisions and the necessity they have of paying their crew regularly many i suspect have already quitted them with greek sailors no worries of pay can exist hitherto they have been accustomed to receive their wages in advance if they can be made to go to sea without that advance it is a great point gained to a met fulfilling the engagement would ruin all confidence and oblige the sailors to return to their ancient demands with respect to kumi i beg leave to urge the necessity of sending a vessel perhaps better captain st george than a greek who probably would not dare do his duty there was he so disposed to destroy the infamous traffic existing there may i beg of your lordship to order here the marine tribunal from napoli to a judge the prize is taken also to issue a public order respecting the distribution of prize money by which i may be guided in my payments you will observe that in my latter respecting the affair of cherry i mentioned simply having burnt the brig of war without saying how that letter being a dispatch for publication i thought it well not to proclaim to the enemy that we made use of red hot shot it was by those i burnt the brig and i could quite as easily burn by the same means the largest ship ever built might i suggest the advantage that would result from using the same projectile with almost every ship each vessel might as well as me have a furnace in her hold for the feeding of two of her guns the effect would be tremendous if the fleet was ready before the turks came out a slight excursion to salonica might be attended with profit and advantage i shall require a little time to repair damages i have lost my labored cathead my gym boom second top mast main gaff both spread shot through and the engine requires various repairs the steam waste pipe is completely gone and i must get another maid i hope and trust your lordship has still the intention of forming a national fleet into dockyard without this your difficulties will be amplified beyond measure i merely mentioned this because i hear intrigues are on foot to prevent such measures i a stranger who belonged to no party and who neither fear nor love the hidriots and spetsiots will tell you the truth on these points although your orders prescribed for me to remain a fortnight on the blockade of the gulf of negraponto was forced to return wanting ammunition fuel provisions and various repairs i shall use my endeavors to be ready for c as speedily as possible before i conclude give me leave to congratulate your lordship upon your brilliant success at the pariahs i have no doubt it has but a prelude to more important successes i have the honor to be etc f a hastings eight katerina poros april 30th 1827 my lord may i beg leave to present to you my very particular friend mr. necolo caller g you'll find him a young man of good education talent and what is of still great value or great probity i have known him many years and esteemed him equally long by his private fortune he is independent and has consequently always refused to meddle in the intrigues he regrets so much to see cause the misfortunes of his country so much for introduction mr. necolo caller g has been good enough to wait upon you to receive your orders respecting the prize i have likely captured these vessels contain grain chiefly and therefore would in that state be of no use to you your commissaries must turn it into biscuit before a descent to the pariahs the government has sent for the admiralty court from nappoli to sit there upon the judgment of vessels detained as to the sales i am of opinion that to appease the jealousy of the seaman a public sale should be held and your commissaries purchase it if they please they will thus always obtain it cheaper than they could buy it at syra and thus nobody can complain i am anxious to receive from your lordship in order respecting the distribution of prize money and this i think should be public here the two the government has received 15 percent upon all prizes of course your lordship will arrange as you think proper upon this subject but if any part of a prize goes to the public purse it is only but just it should aid in the payment of the wages of seaman i am now paying amongst wages out of my own pocket which i hope and trust your lordship will reimburse me as i cannot continue this system anything can be done in greece by prompt payments with the rears nothing is to be done my friend has much in various information respecting every part of greece and can furnish you with much useful matter i do not doubt but you will shortly appreciate his merit i have the honor to be etc f a hastings ps may i beg of you my lord to finish me with a commission of the tenant for mr darby the only officer doing duty as a sailor on board in truth he is no sailor and does not pretend but he is brave diligent and a gentleman and has served with me for about four months nine katerina poros april 30th 1827 my lord i had the honor to receive your orders on the 28th instant your lordship will have observed by the letters i had the honor of transmitting to you that the condition of this vessel is such as to render it impossible for her to put to sea immediately dr. gauss last night was occupied sending you off 68 pounders and i am happy to hear this morning that the monastery has fallen without them i must again repeat how indispensable it is that this fleet should be in readiness to encounter the turks who cannot now delay long their departure it is with deep regret i see the extreme discontent existing on board the savor brig which seems to me to be greatly augmented if and not entirely owing to the greeks being paid in advance and the english being in arrears of wages in this country my lord i must repeat nothing can be done without regular payments by paying out of my own funds when others could not be obtained i have established the confidence of the greeks and english in this vessel as far as money is concerned but i cannot continue to pay out of my own pocket funds are not forthcoming for the wages of this vessel i must beg leave to resign whilst i am on board my people will always consider me personally responsible for their wages and i must again remark that i have suffered already much too severely in my private fortune to admit of making any further sacrifices besides wages for the crew i have various expenses here to repair damage sustained by the vessel i have the honor to be etc if a hastings ps it seems to be necessary to relieve the vessels at volo or they will cut their station greek sailors on board their own ships will not remain more than a month at sea 10 catarina poros may the 6th 1827 my lord i do myself the honor of enclosing for your perusal two different extracts from public papers sent me lately from zante i am now ready for sea accepting powder of which i have only two quarter casks of very vile french stuff received from captain st george mr hesketh among other prizes made it nappily has brought some flannel cartridges for our guns filled and 40 casks of powder would your lordship have the goodness to cause an order to be sent to me to receive this powder there is still a great quantity of the stores sent out from england missing i have the bills of lading and can give copies to mr hesketh if you think proper to send to hydra spetsas and nappily again to collect them i suspect the hidriots have now in their possession about 160 carbines such as i have on board it appears strange to everybody here that all the commissary department should be absent i am informed provisions are wanted and yet nobody comes to buy the prize provisions as every greek is by nature a thief things disappear daily and if they remain much longer nothing will be forthcoming already my greeks have petitioned me about the prizes and everybody acquainted with greek sailors must be aware they will not go to sea again until they have been paid their prize money till now there was never an example of a ship quitting her prize until sold and the proceeds distributed i am sorry to be obliged to remind your lordship again that on my arrival here i paid my crew one month's wages due the 16th of last month and in 10 days more another month's wages are due and pay i must for as i have frequently remarked to your lordship no arrears can exist in this country the wages also is not the only expense i was obliged to purchase about 100 tons of firewood at scopolio fresh meat in harbors runs away with great sums and when the engine works it consumes about half a dollar a day of oil besides all this i've been obliged to hire three carpenters for 10 days to repair the damages done in late expedition i had a fluke shot off a bow rancor at tripp cherry i'd ought to have another one i must get a new mainsail made here it is very disagreeable to me to torment your lordship with all these statements but you must be aware that a vessel like this cannot be sailed without great expense there are here a number of seamen from the brig who want to enter with me i have as yet refused to receive them but if you thought it proper to give me an order i should then be justified in doing so i have the honor to be etc f a hastings nine katerina spets as may 30th 1827 my lord having lost two masts in a school of cape malia and having business at poros requiring my presence i thought it the most expeditious way to go myself to purchase other masts at hydra and settle my affairs at poros i therefore do myself the honor to transmit to your lordship a report of my proceedings after you left me near stem fang at sunset i lighted the fires and as soon as steam was up steered for the passage between zante and maria the wind freshening much in a contrary direction i found myself about 10 miles to the southward of zante in the morning about three a.m we perceived a large vessel standing towards us from the maria and went to quarters for her i thought at first she might be the hellas but on approaching she stood back to the mainland which made me conclude that it was a stranger the wind increasing i could not remain head to wind and made sail under the lee of zante in the forenoon i saw a large ship under the land far off steering to the south which i concluded was a turkish or neutral ship of war the wind debating i stand up around the eastern point of zante and not finding the hellas on the other side of the island i stood towards sephalonia opening up the two turkish frigates laying at clarenza in the evening i saw a large ship very far astern coming northward and supposed she was the hellas and the same i had seen in the forenoon under the land at sunset i altered courses and steered for clarenza and in the first watch we saw a good deal of firing in that direction the wind and sea augmenting i was unable to keep the ship head on to sea and therefore bore up for the rendezvous at oxia not finding the hellas at the station the wind augmenting the starboard wheel being out of repair and threatening to come to pieces if not looked to the water requiring to be drawn off the boilers etc all these things meant it necessary for me to search a port i looked inside oxia but found it unsafe and therefore bore up under the port of patala where i put things to rights as well as i could but found on examination we had but three days and a half's colds little water and only a few days bread under these circumstances i felt myself called upon to return also the means were still left to me of hoping to accomplish it having obtained an offing west of sephalonia i took off the paddle and sailed which gave us an opportunity of again repairing the wheels again in an unsound condition and saved our fuel the wind and sea calming i got up my steam and there being every appearance of calm weather i stood within five or six miles of modon hoping to meet the two frigates we saw off there when we passed northward however we saw nothing but a brig inside the harbour sailing close along the land late on the evening of the 28th when rounding capes st angelo was schooled from the high land carried away our four and second masts and left us in a very unenviable situation considering we had but a few hours calls on board however a breeze favouring us all night we arrived here at 10 a.m. 29th of may upon the four mast we lost one man yanni patini yoti i have the honor to be etc f a hasty 12 katerina speds as june 7th ns 18 27 my lord i had the honor of sending you a report of my proceeding since i left you and hope to have found you here on my return from poros that i might receive your further orders i returned last night having been subjected to more delay and fixation than can be imagined or expressed respecting the prizes taken at volo i could only procure one master poros sold me by tom basi others there were both at hydro and poros but the proprietors would not part with them i have therefore been obliged to purchase one here considerably too large and expensive but there is no remedy i hope to be ready for sea in three days but fear i shall have some embarrassment about money matters the purchase of masts of salt provision sales etc besides the page due to the crew puts me to considerable straits particularly as i had lent all the ready money i possessed to kellogy to redeem his brother however i shall do my utmost to get to see and i am anxious to know how when and where i can have the honor of rejoining the lordship a fire ship that departs today will deliver you this letter and your lordship may perhaps think it worthwhile to send a vessel here with orders for my further guidance may i beg of you also to add a private signal by which i may know all greek vessels at a tolerable distance by day also a night private signal the british squadron is assembled at smithner awaiting the admiral the camp at phalerum is broken up and general church is returned to a jena the puppet of government is occupied voting for the nomination of ministers if possible more incapable than themselves they talk of going to nappley griever and photon's proposes this the former as usual seized upon an american ship and dr howe charged with the distribution of the cargo applied to captain paterson of the constitution who is now at nappley guarding it i'm sorry to add that mr lee received a letter from england announcing that the enterprise having sailed her boilers burst opposite plymouth and she was towed into that port by a brick of war i have the honor to be et cetera f a hasting 13 keterina spetsas june 9th 1827 my lord i had the honor to receive your order of the seventh in joining me to repair to your lordship without delay if ready for sea a variety of circumstances unavoidable in a country deprived of even the shadow of organization has prevented my being yet ready to sail i received my foremaster on board today but the majority and best of my crew has left me i must look for others and intend to wait tonight and go to poros where i was tormented by hundreds to take them here i can get men but shall confine myself to a half dozen as i found it necessary to mix my crew in going to poros i shall not delay anything since i shall be occupied getting up my masts and rigging there making sails et cetera et cetera enroute and i can water more easily at poros than here i've informed the captain of the brig that brought this that if i am ready to sail before any further orders of yours arrive i shall repair to keregoto and await their instructions from you if i am not at keregoto i shall be found here i have the honor to be et cetera f a hastings 14 katerina syrah august 1st 1827 my lord in hopes of seeing your lordship here i have waited two days since which although not finished all the work of our machinery can be done on board there are two things which retain me namely money of which i require about seven hundred dollars and the fire bars which they continually civilly refuse me acting the true greek or in other words the dog in the manger if your lordship remains long absent i shall be sadly puzzled how to act without new fire bars we cannot steam again the local authorities here are so afraid of the hydriots and spetsiots that they dare not take any steps against them to leave this without the fire bars is useless if i can obtain these bars and your lordship does not arrive i will pay myself the necessary sum to get the vessel out of this port hoping you'll reimburse me but to go without the bars is only going to return again what i can do to forward the service i will gladly perform and anxious enough i am to get away from this place i have the honor to be et cetera f a Hastings 15 katerina poros august the 19th 1827 my lord on my arrival here i wrote to hydra to request the local authorities there to send me the necessary coals since you do not wish the last cargo to be used i have received no answer and upon inquiring yesterday from persons arrived from hydra i find they are not taking any measures to forward them to me my officer wrote me under the date of the 15th from nappily that he hoped to be able to cast the bars there in which case i shall have to wait for the coals from hydra the impertinence of the shopkeepers has at length attained a pitch that is scarcely indurable it is to be hoped that your lordship will make them send their coals bracket the remainder is lost close bracket 16 katerina poros august the 20th 1827 my lord i am delighted to find that you have an expedition in progress this vessel should be ready to accompany your lordship whether i can get the bars cast at nappily or not the ones we now have can be made to answer for 24 hours i shall ride to nappily to order the engineers to be here by the 23rd whether they succeed in casting the bars or not the coals i wrote for from hydra our government coals and it is well they should be used the first as i have been informed they are greatly diminishing without our consumption i should like to complete as speedily as possible and there is no time to spare between this and the 24th for shipping 100 tons of coal from hydra i have the honor to be etc f8 hastings 17 katerina poros august the 22nd 1827 my lord i am making a sale according to your lordship's plan to become the hull of the ship but want sail cloth for completing it i understand i'm sure caring has some in store would your lordship be kind enough to allow me to take 100 peaks i have a good deal of very bad french powder on board and even of turkish i suspect put into french barrels which i received from methana could your lordship permit me to exchange it against english powder it is very great importance that our cartridge powder should be good i have the honor to be etc f8 hastings 18 katerina gulf of lopanto september the 27th 1827 my lord i have the honor to transmit you a report of the proceedings from the day i left you till this moment captain thomas of the savoy joined me the 21st and proposed with much garlandry to go into the gulf in the daytime the wind being unusually out at night i consented with some difficulty in consequence of the little dependence i can place on my engine which might render it impossible for me to follow him immediately the savoy the gunboat bavaroise in tow and accompanied by two schooners you had left to keep blockade at mesolonghi but who contrary to my knowledge thus disobeyed your orders passed into the gulf in the evening of the 21st in most gallant style in despite of the enemy's very formidable batteries and one brig of war and two schooners at the maria castles and several vessels at lopanto i attempted to steam in that night but the engine failed me within two miles of the castles the next day the wind being strong in i attempted to sail in but when within gunshot of the castles the wind failed me and it was not until the evening of the 23rd that i could get past towing after me the phil haleen gunboat of whose commander i have always had particular occasion to be satisfied all our damage amounted to a few ropes cut on communicating with the maria the 24th i was informed that the enemy had nine vessels at salons and there were three austrians there that captain thomas had attacked them on the 23rd but in consequence of unfavorable weather he had not made any impression and that he was retired to latrachy i immediately dispatched a mystical to desire captain thomas to join me with all the vessels he could collect but not seeing him on the 26th and fearing that the turks might strengthen themselves during a delay i stood in on the 26th with the gunboat phil haleen but we no sooner approached than the wind came so strong out that we could not keep the ship head to wind and found it necessary to retire the turks have as someone's a very fine algereen schooner brig of 14 guns a brig of 16 guns bearing an admiral's flag three smaller schooners two armed transport brig and two large boats with guns and they have a battery on shore there are also three austrians while under their fire one of my engineers was slightly wounded i am now waiting for the arrival of captain thomas for whom i have sent again and i'm preparing for a final trial i have the honor to be etc f a hastings 19 katerina lutrachy october the 7th 1827 my lord captain thomas arrived here after our affair at salons with the prizes and sent off immediately to poros for provisions and ammunition i could not withstand in your orders for him to remain only seven days in the gulf allow him to depart in the state he then was having only five days provisions and four cartridges a gun he received some powder and provisions yesterday and in consequence of euro of the 27th which he received yesterday departs immediately if the length of the time captain thomas has remained in the gulf is contrary to your intentions i am alone responsible he was always anxious to depart my crew is in a very discontented state in consequence of the month being expired without their receiving their wages 12 have left me and if i do not get money i fear the whole crew will follow their example i have sent an officer to poros for provisions ammunition and money if possible i understand the english are about to prevent any offensive operations of general church and if not he would never be able to undertake any situated as he is for money and provisions this seems to render my remaining here any longer of no use as soon as i can get any money and provisions and arrange about the prizes i will quit the gulf but as i have no orders from you where to go i shall return to poros unless you can drive to send me some directions in the interim i have the honor to be etc f a hastings 20 catarina utraki october the 8th 1827 my lord i have the honor to receive your letter of the third and i'm happy to hear that the enterprise is arrived i have also received one thousand dollars with the stores etc which are very acceptable i dispatched the salvo yesterday according to your order of the 27th ultimate i still retain the gun boats which are very useful i wish further orders from your lordship to know whether we are to remain in the gulf and if you wish us to go out there is yet at the castles a brig and three or four turkish schooners i do not exactly know their position i intend to run down there one of these days and see what can be done with them if close under the walls of the castles which are very strong we could burn them some dark night if you would send me a dozen rockets i would go with a small boat close to them and do their business mr. hane announces to me that your lordship proposes coming up to Corinth in which case i will do myself the honor of waiting upon you and receiving your further orders i have dispatched a gun boat to general church to inform him of your intention and to bring him here if he wishes to confer with your lordship i have the honor to be etc f a hastings 21 caterina lucrachi october the 14th 1827 my lord mr. hane writes me that the turkish fleet is of patrice from time to time i have received vague accounts of vessels off there but nothing certain i shall fortify myself either here or at the port on the other side under the village of perisora i think the latter i want fuses for shells box was sent i suppose in mistake for fuses but it contained blue lights pray give an officer in order to send me at least 500 fuses in my last your lordship i mentioned of what service rockets would be to us as a means of attack of the enemy's vessels at the castles they will be of no less service as weapons of defense pray my lord let me have as large a quantity as possible i understood you were coming to Corinth which has detained me here or i would by this have been at the other end of the gulf to gain information and see after the brig for i fear thomas is not too prudent i've just been informed that much cannonading was heard in the quarter of lupanto the day before yesterday i hope no misfortune has befallen him i have the two gunboats and one mistico out to bring me information and i can receive nothing pray let me have the rockets i have the honor to be etc f a hastings 22 catarina put strava gulf of lupanto october the 17th 1827 my lord not having received any orders from your lordship i'm still in the gulf in consequence of an order from your lordship to captain thomas i dispatched the server on the seventh instant and sent the gunboat fill helene with her with letters to general church and orders to wait and bring the information how the server got past the castles for i was a good deal anxious on her account and should have gone myself to give her any assistance in case of need but that i understood you intended coming over to gorenth mr hain bringing me letters from general church i dispatched the other gunboat bavaroise with these and also some for server in case she was still in the gulf mr darby the commander of the bavaroise had directions to bring general church if he was anxious to communicate personally with your lordship day after day i awaited anxiously an answer till at length the mystico i had sent three days ago to general church to learn something of the fleet outside which mr hain wrote me for certain was turkish returned yesterday evening informing me that the server and two gunboats had gone out on wednesday general church writes me that he positively intends passing into rumelia and wants my aid but i am now quite alone except the mystico with whom i know not what to do he continually applies to me for provisions and will soon probably for money what am i to do about him although wishing to aid general church and the service in all i can i must acknowledge i have no confidence in his intended movement more particularly as he tells me he has no provisions and wants me to seize by force what i find in boats all i could get by this discreditable way of raising provisions would not certainly feed 100 men for three days and therefore could not aid general church and would be a gratuitous fixation of these miserable peasantry if general church had money and provisions much is to be done in rumelia but without these nothing can be achieved anywhere as soon as i've got the prizes back to the truckie and formed batteries i will go and visit general church and learn more particulars but i am very anxious for some orders from your lordship having received nothing but the official letter of thanks since i left you i write in haste and beg your lordship to let me have an answer as soon as possible i have the honor to be etc f a hastings 23 catarina leutrarchy october the 27th 1827 my lord i am ready to do all and anything for the good of the service but i fear general church has no means i had him on board for two days making reconnaissance around the gulf and from what i can gather the money said to be at corfo is a chimera i suspect he has not a shilling anywhere and cannot stir he talks it is true of expeditions and i have always assured him of my readiness to aid him but we cannot be consuming months after months in the hopes of receiving supplies i must limit the period of this embarkation and if he cannot then act i think i shall be justified in quitting him i shall try however to destroy the other vessels in the gulf first we are in great want of fire bars i am laying in a stock of wood but we have not yet been able to succeed perfectly with it i've taken out the bars and filled the ash pits this we find does better than with any bars in but we cannot as yet hope to get the steam up with it i hope however ultimately to succeed in fact our calls are nearly finished to show you how general church goes on his gunboat has only advanced 20 feet from the beach and yet he will not send away that swindler alan who commands her i told him i would not meddle with her until he dismissed that man and things remain thus general church while on board received letters announcing the unlooked for destruction of the turkish fleet still i have not entirely credited it and i am in anxious expectation of some decisive information about it i'm obliged to your lordship for the fuses and hoped to have had also some rockets we are beginning to get short again of provisions vis biscuit the loaded prize is condemned with a ridiculous clause for me to pay the crew they say nothing of the other vessels i send captain hain to a gena to hasten the condemnation of the light vessels and counteract the intrigues which i have no doubt tumbasi has recommend i shall also endeavor by him to have more biscuit we have now but for a fortnight i have the honor to be etc f a Hastings 24 katerina lutraki november the 8th 1827 my lord the general church has at length put himself in motion some provisions and money have arrived on the other side for him i mean at kalamaki and i hope to sail with it to join him tonight i fortunately received a fortnight's provisions yesterday when i had only one day's biscuit on board of destroying or ascertaining that i cannot destroy the vessels at lopanto i will go outside the gulf and blockade miss alongy patrice and the gulf hoping the general will blockade them by land i fear much however for provisions i will endeavor to get some from the ionian islands but money and everything else is scarce with me but i hear your lordship is in the same predicament and therefore i cannot complain may i beg of your lordship to grant commission to naval lieutenant monshul phalanga who has served on board this vessel from the 29th march 1827 and is a most deserving officer he is the only sailor officer i have and was always the only one of any use in that capacity he behaved extremely well both at volo trachery and salona at which later place he was wounded in the neck with a musket ball while setting fire to one of the abandoned vessels i may really say he's the only greek i ever saw who seems to conceive what an officer ought to be although he would be a great loss to me and i should be sorry to part with him but for his own advantage i can strongly recommend him for promotion in the command of a vessel since as i hear your lordship is in such dreadful want of officers to command i'm sure he would give you the highest satisfaction uh the honor to be etc f a heistings 25 caterina november the 17th 1827 my lord i have the honor to announce to you that after much delay and disappointment usual increase i'm about to proceed to labanto tomorrow and endeavor to destroy the turkish vessels there i then go outside to pass general church over into remilia and afterwards blockade miss alongie patrice and the panto the want of gunboats here is much felt by me at this moment as in going out i must leave the gulf to the turks who even should i be fortunate enough to destroy the enemy's vessels at lopanto will always have here on boats enough to command the gulf i must also beg of your lordship to consider us in money matters i am now 7 000 pounds out of pocket by greek affairs and i am daily now expending my own money for the public service our prizes are serving as transports for the army and i must either shortly abandon this important position or be paid it is most likely that if all the important points i have mentioned could be blockaded the turks would soon be reduced from the blockade being so much more easily maintained than elsewhere without money you must be aware that i cannot maintain this vessel and all to be expected from general church you must be aware is plenty of promises the general is already overwhelmed with expectance and if he had millions would not be able to command a farthing i will do all i can but i must repeat it is not quite fair i should end a beggar after all the labor vexation and disappointment i have experienced for so many years i have the honor to be etc f a heistings 26 catarina of cate papas november the 20th 1827 my lord i have the honor to inform you i passed the castles on the 18th with the three prizes in mistico and company i lost two men killed and one wounded in passing the other vessels passed without suffering any damage it had been my attention to attack the turkish squadron at lapanto but the wind was so strong on the land that i felt i could not affect my object and anxious to profit by the same wind to go out and aid the operations of the army outside and blockade the fortresses i passed through without waiting a more favorable moment of attack at patrice i found a schooner whose suspicious conduct in abstaining for a long time from hoisting any colors and when she afterwards showed austrian persisting in drawing closer under the turkish battery induced me to fire and bring her out after waiting a little and finding no attention paid to my warning i fired again and sunk her i hear she was austrian i have the honor to be etc f a heistings 27 catarina patala december the 2nd 1827 my lord i have the honor to write to you from k papas informing you that i had come out of the gulf of lapanto and was waiting to embark the trips of general church i now beg leave to acquaint you that i arrived at dragomestro the day before yesterday with the three prizes which have been serving as transports to general church's army for six weeks we brought over 600 soldiers artillery horses etc and i am now returning to k papas to embark a second division i heard of the gunboat helvetia on shore fabricus being at katakulo and i sent immediately to order him to join me which he did and is now at k papas while in katakulo the gunboat was attacked by a turkish brigade of 24 guns on shore fabricus defended himself with much spirit and obliged the brig to retire i have since heard the same brig is now off provisio if the service here will permit my absence i think of going to look after her the gulf of lapanto is now left entirely in the hands of the turks and i wish to send the gunboat in to assist the expedition against selona but the crew having been so long about here suffering much hardship and without pay are very dissatisfied i've given the boat a new mast anchor cable provisions ammunition etc and i will even advance them a little money if they will go into the gulf i should hope however that your lordship will reimburse me for these expenses extra of my own vessel as you may imagine i am almost entirely without coals and cannot get a sufficient quantity of the pitch pine to burn the other pine will not answer and therefore i am reduced sales general church had ordered around here a surre at brig he had at kenknoes and i wrote to m curing to request him to put coals on board her which i understand m curing refused from the manner in which i have been frequently treated one would imagine this vessel was not a greek but an enemy's vessel i trust your lordship will remedy this and put me on a fair footing with the other greek national vessels i wish your lordship could also contrive to let me have some money to cover the expenses of this vessel which for three months that we have been absent from poros cannot be supposed to trifling as i can see an important under existing circumstances to keep the blockade of patras mesolonghi and the gulf i will remain as long as my destitute situation will permit me since i have been here i do not think any vessels have entered the gulf i have the honor to be etc f a heistings 28 catarina drug amestra december the eighth 1827 my lord i have the honor to inform you that i have passed over the army of general church to this port amounting to about 1200 men with six pieces of artillery and about 60 horses mules etc the general has been joined by macri and some other captains which may have increased his force to 2000 men he is an hourly expectation of being joined by zalga and even van archiotti is expected to come over the monastery of ligavica on the road from arta to lopanto and mesolonghi is said to have been possessed by the troops of the general this post is of importance the troops of all march and patras to navarino and nothing remains but some albanians and the inhabitants lopanto is thinly peopled all have little provision as well as mesolonghi from what i know of lopanto on the castles i am confident that if your lordship was to attack it with the squadron new command and general church was to make even a demonstration of attack by land it must fall in 48 hours time lopanto lies on the face of a hill open to the sea every shot and shell and rocket must tell somewhere and they would readily capitulate we must not take the monastery of the prius as an example at lopanto the Turks have their families this particular always operates upon them but whether it did or not the place would be taken and i am not one who overrates the capabilities of the Greeks i fear however that general church has other projects and such as according to my opinion are very unlikely to succeed so much so that if your lordship does not arrive or send me orders i shall return to the archipelago rather than lend myself to measures which appear to me worse than useless i must beg again of your lordship and not to forget us in the way of money provisions ammunition calls etc we are now more than three months absent from boros i have the honor to be etc f a hastings 29 catarina of vasaladi december the 27th 1827 my lord i have known in 12 days before vasaladi and since our arrival i have every reason to believe they have neither received provisions or water the weather has usually been so bad that i have only been able to bombard it twice and the gunboat having few shot i have exchanged her 32 for one of our 68s with shells since i have not been able to batter it owing to the weather i am satisfied by now at their last shifts in the fort and if i could remain before it a week longer and bombarded for a couple of days i do not doubt it would fall into our hands i regret of all things not having the flat bottomed gunboat here with her we could have laid the fort before this general church was to attack and talaco and might have taken it in the first instance with little or no resistance but he delayed till too late and then came without an ounce of provisions and returned the day after to drag amestra this man is such an insufferable quack that i cannot act any longer with him he affects to command the navy as well as the army and although i have given him one or two rather rough lessons he the other day captured with a boat of his a spy of mine on his way to me and carried him off without mentioning a word of it to me the man merely came to me the other day supposing vasillade about to surrender that he might say he took it god knows there is no merit due unless to the boats blockading inside i have received letters today from the gulf and i find the expedition atrosonia is in alarm of being blockaded by the turkish vessels at lopento the loss of the gunboats from the gulf is almost irreparable if your lordship could send them around here with a brig it would be of infinite service i'm so in want of ammunition provisions fuel etc that i hardly know what to do but if possible i will re-enter the gulf to assist them there i wrote mr finlay announcing to your lordship that if the whole squadron was to come around here i'm satisfied that miss alongy patrice lopento and the castles might be taken they are much straightened for provisions at all but particularly at miss alongy and lopanto and the castles could be taken by force patrice is now provisioned daily by one of church's generals nenneke from zante via clarenza dr gas informs me how much you are in want of money i trust however if you obtain any i shall not be forgotten i've only received six hundred dollars from general church and my expenses have been enormous for fuel provisions etc i have the honor to be etc f a heistings 30 catarina off vasillade december the 29th 1827 my lord i have the honor to inform you that after having transported the troops of general church from cape papas to drega mestre i undertook the blockade of vasillade for which purpose i put in requisition the small craft after mentioned and employed them to intercept all communication with vasillade this flotilla i placed under the orders of my first lieutenant flanga and on the night of the 16th they entered and commenced the blockade which has been so strictly observed up to this day that nothing had entered vasillade one boat with a letter and fresh provisions was captured by afloat illa i inked the gunboat helvet here and company outside vasillade your lordship is aware that helvet here was armed with a long 32 pounder which in my opinion is very inferior in every point of view to a 68 but indisputably so for canating a fort only to be reduced by shells for this reason i changed a 32 pounder long gun for a 68 pounder cannonade on the 23rd i bombarded vasillade alone the gunboat having been detached with little effect the weather being unfavorable nor could i recommend until today when considering the distance we wore off about one and three-quarter mile and the diminutive size of the object fired at better practice has rarely been displayed four shells out of seven from the ship and gunboat exploded in and one blew up their magazine i immediately ordered an assault in which all boats took part the turks intimidated by the explosion and by our attitude of attack called for quarter which i granted them although they had previously forfeited their lives by firing on a flag of truce i sent to them with terms of capitulation i embarked the prisoners on board this ship and from thence conveyed them in safety to near mesolongi they were 30 in number and one greek badly wounded i have retained on board to be treated by our surgeon the original number was from 40 to 50 the deficit having been killed off by our previous cannonading and by the explosion i am happy my lord to testify to the exemplary conduct of the greeks during the whole of this service they have borne the fatigues and privations of a winter's blockade in open boats with extraordinary patience and the forbearance they displayed towards the turks rendered any interference of mine in their favor superfluous of my officers lieutenant forlanger and captain hain ma i have only to repeat the often told tale of their notorious conduct to my sure fab rickus commanding the gunboat helvetia i feel much indebted for his zeal and activity and i am happy to have so deserving an officer under my orders the fort of vasillade amounts 12 guns three of which are of that remarkably useful piece of ordinance the turkish lecorn i have offered to deliver the fort of vasillade to general church upon his renumerating for their services those employed in taking it i have the honor to be et cetera f a heistings list of small vessels employed in taking vasillade a mistico galaxy deo tea captain urg ski the same went with me into the gulf of lopanto and who has served with me ever since a mistico galaxy yoti a bony an armed rowboat two of my prize launches each armed with a nine pounder a brool sycra five mollocks solies or canoes for the shallows 31 catarina dragonestra january the 7th 1828 my lord i have the honor to acquaint you that general church arrived before vasillade on the second instant and i resigned to him that fort on the third requesting him to refund the expenses of taking it these consist of five dollars per man bounty besides the provisions of the employed in the blockade the general has promised to repay this although not without expressing some surprise at the demand yet the guns he receives in the fort would pay the whole sum on the same day i received an official letter from general church requesting me to inform him what cooperation he might expect from the navy in a projected attack of his on anatolyco according to the wish of general church i agreed to send all the boats at my disposal that night to attempt to capture an island named poros commanding the entrance in the lake of anticollo where the Turks had a post and we heard he was filling up the passage and about to place guns on another island which would render him entirely the master of the entrance i soon discovered that what general church calls the cooperation of the navy is in reality the navy executing the service and the army looking on at its leisure ready to take possession if success attended the arms of the former i had understood that i was to be supported by two rocket boats of general church and by the launch of the siren brig carrying a caranade to throw grenades but these did not appear a dozen policaries arrived from general church and were embarked in the expedition at half past three a.m of the fourth instant i arrived with five boats out of nine the rest having unaccountably kept behind at a narrow part of the passage of the lake across which the Turks had built a wall and stationed a gunboat behind it the Turkish boat was soon put to flight the sailors jumping into the water soon cleared away a passage for the boats and five of our boats rode upon poros the Turks keeping up a brisk fire of musketry from that island and of cannon from Amatolliko we were now within pistol shot of poros when i found to my surprise a fort on it which i had been assured there was not or i would not have attempted the attack knowing that in our warfare their holds are not to be thus taken seeing no reasonable hope of succeeding i ordered a retreat and having repast by the way we entered found general church's detachment lying flat in the bottom of their boats out of gunshot to say that my officers captain Haines m a and lieutenant flanga also marshal fabrikus commanding the gunboat helvetia accompanied me is to commend them for their accustomed zeal and gallantry i cannot conclude without mentioning the name cresanto who after having aided at vasaladi was with me here in his own boat and displayed much courage he had one man wounded the only loss we sustained perceiving that Anteliko was not to be taken by us that general church's trips were without provisions somewhere in a marsh where our boats could not get to embark them and that they might have marched on the mainland close to Anteliko being without provisions in this ship and seeing no possibility of rendering any service by remaining any longer before vasaladi i returned to this port to provide for our immediate wants and in hopes of meeting dr. goss and procuring from him some funds for the maintenance of my crew which i think your lordship will see the necessity of providing me with as i have not received more than two thousand dollars during five months and i have lightly been maintaining the ship in provisions and fuel besides finishing money and provisions to the gunboat and flotilla inside vasaladi i have the honor to be etc f a Hastings end of appendix recording by timothy furgusson cold coast australia end of the life of thomas lord cochran 10th earl of dundommald completing the autobiography of seaman volume two by henry richard fox born and others