Jane Austen's Sailor Brothers by J. H. Hubback (top 10 novels .TXT) 📖

of ideas seems very clear. Perhaps it may have been some memory of these old times, and the wishes of his sister who had passed away, that induced Francis to make Martha his second wife in 1828.

That their religious life was the mainspring of all their actions is sufficiently clear throughout the whole lives of the two brothers. During this time at Ramsgate, Francis was noticed as “the officer who knelt in church,” and up to the day of his death there is one entry never absent from the diary of Charles Austen—“Read the Lessons of the Day.”

In May 1804 Captain Francis Austen was appointed to the Leopard, the flagship of Rear-Admiral Louis, who held a command in the squadron blockading Napoleon’s Boulogne flotilla. This flotilla, begun in 1802, had by 1804 assumed very large proportions. With the object of stirring up the descendants of the Norman conquerors to a new invasion of England, Napoleon, always dramatic in his effects, made a progress through the maritime provinces attended by the Bayeux Tapestry, the display of which was expected to arouse much martial ardour. It was assumed that his great army of veteran soldiers, encamped above the cliffs of Boulogne, was only waiting for favourable weather to embark on board the two thousand flat-bottomed boats. His review of this fleet in August 1804 was, however, so seriously disturbed by one or two of the British men-of-war that the new Emperor was obliged to recognise the impossibility of crossing the Channel unless he had the command of (at least) the narrow seas.

All the naval history that follows, up to the day of Trafalgar, was the outcome of his attempt to obtain this superiority for his “Grand Army of England.” The failure of Villeneuve, on his return from the West Indies, to reach the appointed rendezvous with Ganteaume off Brest, broke up Napoleon’s combination; the army marched to Austerlitz and Vienna, the flotilla was left to decay, and the site of the two years’ camp is commemorated only by the Column of Napoleon himself.

The work of watching Boulogne and the neighbouring ports was, in common with all other blockades, as a contemporary writer says, “a trial to the temper, spirits and health of officers and men.” There was a strong feeling in England against this system, which seems to have been popular with naval authorities. This opinion is voiced in the following cutting from the Naval Chronicle of that date:

“Were it indeed possible to keep so strict a watch on the hostile shores that every effort of the enemy to escape from the ports would be unavailing, that the fortuitous circumstances of calms, fogs, gales, the obscurity of the night, &c., would not in any degree advance his purposes, then would the eventual mischief inseparable from a blockade, by which our marine is threatened, find a compensation in our immediate security. But until this can be effected with a certainty of success, the national interests ought not to be compromised, and our future offensive and defensive means unnecessarily abridged.” This extract is perhaps of greater interest as an example of the journalese of the date, than for any unusual depth in the ideas which it expresses, which merely amount to the fact that it was considered that the “game was not worth the candle.”

Against this we may set another view of the blockades as expressed by Dr. Fitchett:

“It was one of the compensations of these great blockades that they raised the standard of seamanship and endurance throughout the British fleets to the highest possible level. The lonely watches, the sustained vigilance, the remoteness from all companionship, the long wrestle with the forces of the sea, the constant watching for battle, which for English seamen marked those blockades, profoundly affected the character of English seamanship. When, indeed, has the world seen such seamen as those of the years preceding Trafalgar? Hardy, resolute, careless alike of tempest or of battle; of frames as enduring as the oaken decks they trod, and courage as iron as the guns they worked; and as familiar with sea-life and all its chances as though they had been webfooted.

“If the great blockades hardened the seamanship of the British fleets, fighting for long months with the tempests of the open sea, they fatally enervated the seamanship of the French navy. The seaman’s art under the tri-colour decayed in the long inaction of blockaded ports. The seaman’s spirit drooped. The French navy suffered curious and fatal loss, not only of nautical skill but of fighting impulse.”

Nelson’s comment is opportune: “These gentlemen are not accustomed to a Gulf of Lyons gale, which we have buffeted for twenty-one months, and not carried away a spar.”

Captain Austep’s idea of the best way to minimise the evils of a blockade was to give the men as much work to do as possible in the care of the ship. At one time this took the form of having the boats re-painted. Over this question we have the following characteristic letter:

“Leopard, DUNGENESS, June 23, 1804.

“SIR,—I have received your letter of 21st instant, relative to the paint and oil I have demanded for the preservation of the boats of his Majesty’s ship under my command, and in reply to it beg leave to inform you that I did not make that demand without having previously stated to the Navy Board by letter the situation of the boats of the Leopard, and the necessity of an extra proportion of paint being supplied for them; and as by their answer they appeared to have approved of my application, inasmuch as they told me orders had been sent to Deal to issue it, I concluded nothing more remained for me than to demand the necessary quantity. Presuming, however, from the tenor of your letter, that you have received no direction on the subject, I shall write to renew my application.

“With respect to ‘no colour than white being allowed for boats,’ I would only ask you, as knowing something of the King’s naval service, how long one of our six-oared cutters would look decent painted all white, and whether a darker colour would not be both more durable and creditable? If, however, stfch be the regulation of the Board (from which I know there is no appeal), I have only to request, when you receive any order to supply the paint, that you will give an additional quantity of white in lieu of black.

“The paint to which you allude in your letter as having been supplied on the 9th and 12th June, was sea store, and ought to have been furnished to the ship months ago. Nor is it more than sufficient to make her decent and fit for an Admiral to hoist his flag in.

“I am, Sir, your humble servant,

“FRANCIS WM. AUSTEN.

“Geo. Lawrence, Esq., &c., &c”

Shingle ballast was one of the grievances of naval officers at that time. It was, naturally, much cheaper than iron ballast, but it had a particularly awkward habit of shifting, and the larger stones occasionally drilled holes in the ship. It was also very bulky and difficult to stow.

Francis Austen was neither slow to enter a protest, nor easily put off his point. He writes:

“Though the ship is deep enough in the water, she can only acquire the proper stability by having the weight placed lower. By a letter which I have this day received from the Navy Board in answer to my request, I am informed that the Leopard cannot be supplied with more than the established proportion of iron ballast, but if I wish for more directions shall be given for supplying shingle. I have, therefore, to request you will be pleased to move their Lordships to give directions for the Leopard’s being supplied with the additional iron ballast as requested in my letter to the Navy Board.”

About this time Francis Austen began to keep a private notebook, which is still in existence, in which he recorded (not always seriously) points of interest in the places he visited. He seems to have kept this notebook while he was in the Leopard, then laid it aside for three years, and begun it again when he was Captain of the St. Albans. His notes on the “Anchorage Off Boulogne” contain some interesting details.

“Directions for Sailing into the Roads.—There is no danger whatever in approaching the anchorage usually occupied by the English squadron employed at the blockade of Boulogne, as the water is deep and the soundings are regular. There is a bank called the ‘Basse du Basse,’ which lies about a mile off Ambleteuse, extending in a direction nearly parallel to the shore, but rather diverging outwards to the westward of Boulogne Pier; on it there are in some places as little as three fathoms at low water, and within it considerably deeper water.” He goes on with some special advice for the various types of vessel.

“The situation usually occupied by the British squadron off Boulogne is, with the town bearing from S.S.E. to E.S.E., distant about four miles, in from i6 to 20 fathoms water; coarse sandy bottom, with large shells and stones, which would probably injure the cables materially, but that from the depth of water and strength of the tides, little of them can ever drag on the bottom.

“From Cape Grisnez to Portel the coast is little else than one continual battery, and I conceive it to be absolutely impregnable to any attack from the sea. Of its defences towards the land I know nothing. I had no means of knowing anything relative to the landing-places.

“Trade.—On this point I had no means of acquiring any certain information, but believe, previous to the war with England, it was a place of great resort for our smuggling vessels from the Kentish coast. As it is a tide harbour, and completely dry at low water, no vessels of very large draught of water can go in, nor anything larger than a boat until nearly half flood.”

A hundred years have wrought great changes. The Folkestone and Boulogne steamers have some larger dimensions than the Leopard herself, and they go in and out at all states of the tide.

One heading is always devoted to “Inhabitants,” and under this Francis Austen remarks: “The inhabitants are French, subjects to Napoleon the First, lately exalted to the Imperial dignity by the unanimous suffrages of himself and his creatures.” The sarcastic tone of the reference to Napoleon was characteristic of the general tenor of publications in England at the time. “The Tom Thumb egotism and impudent bulletins of the Corsican usurper continue almost without a parallel in history,” says the Naval Chronicle. The language in which this protest is couched is hardly that we should use now in speaking of Napoleon.

Charles, when the war broke out again, was reappointed to the Endymion, and served on her with some distinction until October 1804, when he was given the command of the Indian sloop.

Among other prizes taken under Captain Paget, who finally recommended Lieutenant Charles Austen for command, the Endymion had captured the French corvette Bacchante on the return voyage from St. Domingo to Brest; she had left France about three months before, meeting with the Endymion on June 25, 1803. This prize was a remarkably fine corvette, and was added to the British Navy.

Somewhere about this time Charles had come across Lord Leven and his family, and was evidently useful to them in some way, besides being doubtless extremely agreeable. When Lord and Lady Leven were in Bath, they made some effort to become acquainted with the family of Mr. Austen, and Jane writes to Cassandra describing a visit paid one morning by her mother and herself:

“When I tell you I have been visiting a countess this