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THE BYNG PAPERS, Vol. III. Edited by Brian Tunstall. Printed for the Navy Records Society, London: Clowes & Sons, 1932. 25s. 6d.
Reviewed by Lieutenant Commander Forrest Sherman, U. S. Navy.
The first and second volumes of the Byng Papers, which were published in 1930 and 1931, respectively, covered the activities of Admiral Byng up to his return from the Mediterranean in 1709. This third volume is devoted to the period 1711-17. Like the earlier volumes it contains a very complete general introduction and an additional introductory note for each of the seven parts into which the correspondence is divided. These notes supply the reader with a summary of the naval and political history of the period and, in addition to their own value, add greatly to the interest of the correspondence.
In July, 1711, Byng hoisted his flag as commander in chief in the Channel and held command until the preliminaries of peace were signed with France and the War of the Spanish Succession came to a close. The correspondence of this period relates not only to the operations of the squadron but also to the details of administration. Operations were limited to the protection and prevention of trade in
the Channel and the area to the westward-
After relinquishing the Channel command, Byng returned to the Admiralty where he remained until January, 1714, when he was deprived of his office through the activities of the Tories, who were teim porarily in power. With the accession of George I, Byng returned to the Admiralty in October, 1714. Meanwhile, however, there ensued a most curious series of let' ters between Byng and prominent Jacobite conspirators, in which he not only made a definite offer of service to James III but also submitted a plan for a Jacobite invasion of England. These letters to the Duke of Ormonde were dated January, 1715, after Byng had returned to the Admiralty. The editor of his papers assumes that he was acting as an agent' provocateur for the government, although there inevitably arises the suspicion that he may have been making provision against the possibility of James III coming to the throne after all.
In July, 1715, Byng was again ordered to the Channel command, while still retaining his position at the Admiralty in accordance with the custom at that time, and attacked his duties afloat with his usual energy and determination. & was learned from agents in France that the Jacobites were making extensive preparations including loading certain ships at Le Havre with arms, ammunition, and ^oney. The death of Louis XIV on September 2, 1715, rendered the situation acute since the new French government, beaded by the Duke of Orleans as Regent l°r Louis XV, would be dependent on and Under the influence of the British government. The Jacobites would, therefore, have 1° act quickly if at all.
At this juncture Byng completed the dispositions of his command for the purpose of intercepting any hostile expedition, and proceeded with nine ships to a position °S Le Havre. He then sent ashore three cuptains to demand permission to search aH Scotch and Irish ships and to complain °f such French merchant ships as were carrying war material in violation of the Provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht with Aspect to the Pretender. The French commander in chief referred the matter to the minister of marine in Paris. Meanwhile Hyng informed Lord Stair, the British Minister, of the situation. As a result of a Peremptory note from Stair, the regent °rdered all the arms and ammunition to be seized, forbade French ships to sail with arms or ammunition, and ordered the suspected British ships to leave France within ten days.
The correspondence is interesting not °nly for its purely historical aspects, but also for the points of international law mvolved. It furnishes an excellent example of diplomatic support of a naval commander, and goes far to support the views °f the editor with respect to the correspondence between Byng and the Jacobites. It is certain that Byng’s Channel Squadon effectually checked continental support of the efforts of James III and delayed his arrival in Scotland until too late for success. Thus British sea power ^ith Byng as the responsible commander afloat effectually defeated the Stuart cause. Byng struck his flag on October 15, 1715, and returned to the Admiralty; but bom March to November, 1717, he commanded the Baltic Fleet. He returned from this duty with an added reputation for tact and ability and was rewarded by being made an admiral of the fleet and the second member of the board of Admiralty.
This volume like its predecessors is full of colorful extracts from the administrative papers of the period. The papers illustrate strikingly the rather involved command organization existing at the time under which a member of the board of Admiralty could command afloat. The extent to which the Admiralty attempted and apparently succeeded in controlling matters, which even in the present day of rapid communications are considered prerogatives of the command afloat, is quite remarkable.
DEEP WATER. By Pryce Mitchell. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1933. $2.50. (An Atlantic Monthly Press Publication.)
Reviewed by Louis H. Bolander Captain Mitchell describes himself as one who “wanted to rise from the forecastle instead of the quarter-deck.” And though he came from a good family of Cornish and Welsh stock, with influential connections in both the British Navy and Merchant Marine, he deliberately chose the hardships of the man before the mast, believing that it would give him greater practical experience in his chosen calling. His subsequent career confirmed the wisdom of his choice, for in the sixteen years of which he writes, he rose from cabin boy to the command of a steamer in the service of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. These sixteen years, from 1877 to 1893, were momentous ones in the history of the sea. For though great clippers like the Cutty Sark, the Thermopylae, and the Torrens were still afloat, sail was fast giving way to steam. Mitchell as a boy and young man witnessed the disappearance of these majestic vessels.
His first experience at sea was as cabin boy on the barque Light Brigade, a ship that had transported the horses of the famous Light Brigade to the Crimea in 1854. On his second voyage, driven by the cruelty of a “bucko” mate to desert his ship at Melbourne, he took to the bush, leading a vagrant life for a year, and working occasionally for farmers and sheep ranchers. His Australian adventures, told with an infinite variety of picturesque detail, give us a realistic description of Australia as it was in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Returning to Melbourne, he found himself in the power of the keeper of a sailor’s lodging house, who forced him to assist in enticing sailors from their ships, and then to drug them and put them aboard other vessels. Finally he was himself shanghaied aboard a sailing ship, rounded the Horn, and returned to England.
From this time on he followed the sea with single-minded devotion, determined to learn every detail of his profession. In his watches below he studied seamanship and navigation, besides picking up every possible scrap of useful knowledge from his fellow-seamen, and from an occasional officer who condescended to help him. In five years he had won his third mate’s certificate, and in another year his second mate’s. Deciding that there was no future in sail, at the age of twenty-two he turned to steam and served on tramps, freighters, and mail packets, and finally when only thirty-one became captain of a liner.
Though Captain Mitchell is now past seventy, he recaptures his youth with astounding ease. His book abounds with names of ships, seamen, and officers- Events that occurred at least a half-century ago are told with the minutest detail- If he wrote with a diary or with the logs of the different ships in which he sailed before him, he does not mention it. He passe® over with scant mention hardships that would terrify most of us. On one of his voyages the parsimonious captain-owner left port with no lime juice as required by British law and a low supply of the poorest quality of hard-tack and salt beef. The crew all took scurvy but he lived through it, and recounts the incident with no bitterness. His experiences led him to deal with crimps, brutal officers, and cruel and cowardly seamen, but he accepts them as part of a seafaring life. Like the work of so many men of action who take up writing with no thought of style or literary effect, his narrative is straightforward and vigot' ous, and makes fascinating reading. From the first chapter to the last, every page Is interesting.
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