48 NAVY NEWS, SEPTEMBER 2008
Zulus, Lions and admirals
OVER the past 115 years,
yards of our trenches against a with Maj Harvey’s self-sacrifice,
the Navy Records Society
tremendous fire,” Eason recorded saved Lion. But Jutland was “a
has shed light where it is
admiringly. “I must say the Zulus particularly trying experience” for
are a very brave race of people.” his shipmates, nevertheless.
dark on so many naval He corrected himself: “Perhaps it “There they are, cramped
matters – especially when
is not bravery but ignorance.” and confined down below in so
it comes to the personal
Some of the Zulus pretended to many small compartments, with
papers of great leaders:
be dead, then lunged at the Britons no certain knowledge of events,”
wandering around the battlefield Grant wrote. “They listen to the
Rodney, Beatty, Jellicoe, in the aftermath. The British thud of one enemy shell and the
Keyes, Hawke.
response was brutal, unforgiving. explosion of another.
Some subject matter does not,
The wounded were put to the “This unavoidable lack of
however, warrant a complete
sword, something the native occupation, together with the
volume, hence an eclectic mix
contingent supporting the Empire
rumours that get about (and they
of articles and documents find
Army particularly relished.
certainly do get about), to the
themselves cohabiting.
Another lesson of firepower
effect that some ship has been
Naval Miscellany Volume
over bravery came at the British
blown to pieces, is more than
VII (Ashgate, £65 ISBN
sailor’s expense four decades later.
enough to arouse uneasiness in
978-97546-64314) is the latest
Obsessed with rate of fire, the
their minds.”
offering and eclectic it most
gunners in many dreadnoughts
Lion’s captain that day was one
certainly is: a dozen chapters
of the Grand Fleet ignored the
Ernle Chatfield. Four decades
ranging from the mustering of
most basic safety precautions. It
later, as an Admiral of the Fleet,
ships for Edward I’s Scottish
would cost the Royal Navy heavily
Chatfield, became drawn into a
campaigns in the 14th Century
at Jutland.
long-running political/naval row.
to the Zulu Wars, Jutland, political But it could have been even
In the late summer of 1940, a
intrigue in the Admiralty and the worse that May afternoon in
French squadron of cruisers and
birth of an independent Royal 1916.
destroyers slipped through the
Australian Navy. The actions of Maj Francis
Strait of Gibraltar unmolested.
Many of these subjects fall well Harvey, the Royal Marine
Less than four months before,
outside this reviewer’s limited commanding HMS Lion’s Q
the French had been our Allies,
knowledge; a few do not and there turret are well known. He earned
but after defeat in six weeks at
are some real gems within these a posthumous VC for ordering his
the hands of the Wehrmacht, they
pages. magazine flooded as fire raged,
were our foes.
The role of Naval brigades in sparing the battle-cruiser the
Churchill famously – or
the Boer War have entered naval fate of HM Ships Queen Mary,
infamously – dispatched a potent
legend, yet a generation before Invincible and Indefatigable.
force to Oran to neutralise the
they fought with distinction in the But it wasn’t only Harvey’s
French fleet.
● Admiral Beatty – his cap typically at a jaunty angle – poses beneath the guns of his fl agship HMS Lion
controversial war against the Zulu actions which saved Lion; the
Operation Catapult mauled
with his staff in 1916 Picture: D Aldous, Southsea
people. less-publicised efforts of her chief
the French Navy, but it did not
Signal Bosun Henry Eason kept gunner, Alexander Grant, also
eliminate it as a possible threat. Admiralty and the unhurried And so it proved. For the rest exonerated North – although the
a diary throughout his naval career, played their part.
And nor was it a particularly actions of the Foreign Office, of his life the admiral fought to prime minister’s endorsement was
but the spring of 1879 would be Grant recorded his memoirs 30
popular operation among the unsuited to the demands of total clear his name – supported by less than ringing.
the most eventful days of his life years later, memoirs which proved
higher echelons of the RN, war, conspired with the fog of war the glitterati of the Senior Service The admiral had just cause to
when he and his shipmates from invaluable to Professor Arthur
including one Vice-Admiral Sir to allow the French to escape. who complained the “Admiralty be bitter at his treatment, yet he
HMS Shah were dispatched to Marder when he compiled his
Dudley North, Commander-in- The real villain of the piece – as machine broke down”. continued to serve his country...
relieve the British garrison in the monumental history of the Royal
Chief Gibraltar. the letters, documents and other The Admiralty refused North’s joining the Home Guard on his
beleaguered fortress of Ekowe. Navy in the dreadnought era.
North did not hold his tongue; papers reproduced here show – repeated requests for an inquiry; return to Britain.
War as they say is 99 per cent They then vanished for the next
he voiced his displeasure to the seems to be First Sea Lord Dudley the affair was still bubbling away So there you have it: an
boredom and one per cent sheer three decades, until resurfacing
Admiralty. Pound (although Churchill is 15 years later. interesting and varied mix of
terror, as evidenced by Eason’s for a new generation of historians
The Admiralty was not amused. clearly an éminence grise). It took Chatfield’s intervention articles.
diary. For much of their time in to pore over.
It was even less amused when The wily Pound took a to finally twist the government’s The £65 price tag (admittedly
Africa, the Shahs marched, built They show that he fully realised
that French squadron passed the hard line, perhaps to hide the arm. “Whitehall and Gibraltar fairly typical in academic circles)
camps, were laid low by illness, the danger of stockpiling cordite
Pillars of Hercules. Admiralty’s shortcomings, perhaps were miles apart,” he wrote to will no doubt put many readers off,
watched the natives conduct their charges – which propelled the shells
The case seemed clear-cut. in retaliation for North’s criticism then premier Harold Macmillan particularly if they’re interested in
war dances. Their one per cent from the ship’s main armament –
North was sacked. of Catapult. in 1957. only one of the dozen subjects on
occurred at dawn on Wednesday in advance of the guns actually
Except that the case was not North was, the Admiralty’s “They threw all the blame on offer.
April 2 1879 at Gingindlovu. needing them. Grant put a stop to
clear-cut. It was rather muddy. Permanent Secretary warned, “a North and failed to disclose the But within these pages there is
A Zulu impi (army), perhaps it; he even had the foresight to tell
Bunglings in Whitehall, person of influence who may well Admiralty’s blame.” something for pretty much every
12,000 strong, bore down on the his men to take off their shoes (the
confusing orders from the start a controversy”. Macmillan agreed and finally serious naval historian.
6,000-strong relief force laagered highly-explosive cordite powder
(camped) a good distance from had a habit of being picked up
Ekowe. What followed was a on the men’s boots and carried
lesson of firepower over bravery. around the ship).
The bluejackets poured down an Lion’s officers were sceptical,
Still in Nelson’s shadow?
impenetrable wall of machine-gun but Grant whipped his gunners
and rifle fire, even rockets. into shape; his methods were
VICE-Admiral of the Red
but Orde provides frustratingly cannot see beyond a horizon that
In an hour and a half it was all actually faster than the prevailing Cuthbert Collingwood
The Grove
little detail. mistakenly stops with Trafalgar.
over; the Zulus were decisively routine.
is one of the most
One overriding problem with Collingwood, like his biographer,
beaten. “They came within 30 And so his precautions, coupled
Review
the book is that its author cannot came from Northumberland,
distinguished offi cers in shed the old fashioned prejudices
which perhaps accounts for the
the history of the Royal
that naval historians have more extended and repeated trips down
Navy.
recently tried to mitigate. This leads
Unfortunately he is in the new
the rabbit holes of the lives of the
He played key roles in the
at various times to confusion as to
book too. There is almost as much
prominent members of north-
Glorious First of June, the Battle
why Collingwood had reservations
about Nelson in it as about its real
eastern society. One can also detect
of Cape St Vincent and the Battle
– to say the least – about the
subject. Collingwood is always
perhaps a family prejudice in the
of Trafalgar, writes Prof Eric Grove
antics of Lord St Vincent, who is
described in juxtaposition to his
attention paid to Sir John Orde, to
of the University of Salford.
nowadays regarded with something
contemporary with discussion of as
whom page after page is devoted
He succeeded Nelson in
less than the hero worship that
many (sometimes more) aspects of
at the expense of Collingwood
command of the Mediterranean
clouds Orde’s judgement.
Nelson’s life than Collingwood’s.
himself.
Fleet and worked himself to death
The author also cannot resist The auth
One might have expected a
The book is ‘all over the
over the following fi ve years, as the
juxtaposing Collingwjuxtaposings ood’s
barrister like Denis Orde to
place’ and would have benefi ted
Royal Navy maintained its galling
wise dictum wise die “Cherish
have displayed more focus
from good and professional
and inexorable pressure on the
yyoour men,u and
and discipline, as his efforts
editing. However, the publishers
Napoleonic Empire while Britain
take care of yta our
in research have clearly
have compounded the author’s
searched for allies who might
stores and then s
been considerable.
diffi culties. They normally do not
defeat the greatest land power in
yyoour ship will be
Far too much space
like or use footnotes, but on this
the world.
serviceable’ with a
is expended on
occasion, they have concocted an
Sadly, Collingwood would not
stasttatement (uncited,tem
extended profi les
amazing mish-mash of referencing
live to see the tide turn. But no
more of thamore o t anon)
of participants
where some things are footnoted
one – not even Nelson – made a
of the fof the alse ‘black
in the story of
and others are not. Woe betide
greater contribution to eventual
legend’legend’d of cr o uelty and
Collingwood’s
any of my students who presented
coalition victory. No-one trained
bad conditions in Nelson’bad conditin s
life, at the
work in such a confused state.
their crews and fl eets better than
(and Collingw(and Colling ood’s) Navy.
expense of analysis of
It is all, frankly, unprofessional
Collingwood and it is right that
Collingwood’s own career
More serMore sers ioiously for the
and it does not do justice to the
the premier training establishment and attributes.
storstory he has to tell,yy he has to he has Orde does
otherwise high standards of Pen
of the modern Royal Navy proudly I got quite lost in the discussion
not understand the strastand tegic
and Sword’s production. I hear
bears his name. of Collingwood’s family, with
signifii ifi cance of the Baf ttle of
among colleagues in the fi eld, the
I was looking forward to reading a major digression on a distant
Trafalgar, an engagement that
dire epithet ‘vanity publisher’. Pen
Denis Orde’s new biography, relative executed for participating
had more directly to do with
and Sword do not deserve this, but
In the Shadow of Nelson: The in the 1715 Jacobite rebellion,
dominance in the Mediterranean,
they must get their act together
Life and Times of Admiral Lord before it turned to the admiral’s
than it had with an invasion threat
quickly.
Collingwood (Pen & Sword, true forebears.
to Britain that had gone away (to
Those interested in the Nelsonic
£25 ISBN 978-184415-7822); It is really quite diffi cult to follow
the Danube to be precise).
era will probably enjoy In the
Collingwood is an interesting Collingwood’s family background
This means he has diffi culties
Shadow of Nelson. The author
man, whose attractions lie in and entry into the Navy. A careful
fully appreciating Collingwood’s writes very well when he allows
conscientiousness and humanity exegesis of the confusion as to
major successes in the succeeding himself to. But I expect I shall not
rather than the fl amboyance why Cuthbert joined the navy was years in containing Napoleon’s be the only reader, whose heart
and charismatic style of his that his well-connected merchant remaining sea power and creating sinks when yet more irrelevant
HP BOOKFINDERS: Established
contemporary. father had little success in trade. strategic problems for the French. material appears and ‘Cuddy’
professional service locating out
Collingwood and Nelson were In these circumstances, able young This key period, the most Collingwood fades back yet again
of print titles on all great and genuine friends and sons saw the Navy as a perfect important in Collingwood’s into Nelson’s shadow.
subjects. No obligation or SAE
were perfect complements to each combination of service and profi t. career, receives only 25 pages of a There is a good deal of interest
required. Contact: Mosslaird,
other, like Beatty and Chatfi eld in Collingwood was also suitably 289-page book. in it, but a great admiral like
Brig O’ Turk, Callander, FK17 8HT
a later age. Unlike the latter pair, connected to the Navy by family, There is all too little discussion Collingwood deserves better. It is
Telephone/Fax: (01877) 376377
they were of equal seniority but, a maternal uncle being Richard of the politico-strategic activity a great pity that, for the want of
inevitably, ‘Cuddy’ Collingwood that was his subject’s stock in trade
martin@hp-bookfinders.co.uk
Braithwaite, later Admiral of the strong editorial discipline, such
was overshadowed by Horatio White. Collingwood spent most of and which is largely unappreciated clear enthusiasm for the subject
www.hp-bookfinders.co.uk
Nelson. his early years in Braithwaite’s ships in a popular naval world, that has not fulfi lled its potential.
0048_NN_Sept.indd 148_NN_Sept.indd 1 118/8/08 15:32:218/8/08 15:32:21
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