Cochrane the Dauntless

by David Cordingly

  Cochrane also experienced problems with Captain Guise and Captain Spry, although the problems seem to have been largely of his own making. Both men had played a leading role in the attacks on Callao and the subsequent coastal raids, but Cochrane believed they had been plotting against him since his arrival in Chile. On his return from Valdivia he became convinced that they were involved in a plot with Zenteno to have him court-martialled. But although there were plenty of disagreements and disciplinary problems among the officers and seaman in the squadron there is no evidence of any plot against the commander-in-chief. However, Cochrane’s followers seem to have been providing him with damaging allegations against Captain Guise. On 11 July, Cochrane had him arrested for disobedience and for endeavouring to ‘bring into contempt the authority of his superior officer, the commander in chief’.28 The charges scarcely warranted such drastic action and when Cochrane asked for a court martial the Chilean government refused his request. This prompted Cochrane to tender his resignation again. O’Higgins and Zenteno strenuously urged him to change his mind and in the end he did so. The priority for the government at this time was assembling ships and men for the invasion of Peru. Preparations for a combined army and navy operation were almost complete and Cochrane’s active participation was regarded as essential.

  Meanwhile, Cochrane’s wife had been experiencing adventures of her own. Kate had seen very little of her husband during their first year and a half in Chile. If he was not away on extended cruises he was engaged with the administration of the squadron or visiting Santiago for meetings with O’Higgins or Zenteno. Like any sailor’s wife, Kate was having to get used to these prolonged absences but in Valparaiso she was never lonely. She was the belle of every ball and beguiled many a visiting naval officer, but she also had her share of alarms and adventures. The first of these was nearly fatal. When Cochrane departed for the second raid on Callao, Kate took the children and servants to a country house at Quillota. She was tracked down by an agent of the Spanish regime who threatened to kill her if she did not reveal her husband’s secret orders. There was a struggle and before her screams brought the servants to her aid, she had been wounded by the intruder’s stiletto. The man was taken away and condemned to death. Kate persuaded the authorities to spare him and his sentence was commuted to banishment for life.

  In March 1820, shortly after Cochrane’s return from Valdivia, Kate gave birth to their third child, a girl who was christened Elizabeth Katherine. Cochrane’s letters home around this time are full of optimism, in spite of his local difficulties. ‘You will be glad to hear that I am doing famously here, and have prospects for the future better than the past, as we are now in earnest preparing for the future invasion of Peru,’ he wrote to his brother William on 10 April. ‘What a noble country this will be in a few years… They have presented me with a farm of twenty thousand acres almost as big as the New Forest, and I am in treaty to purchase eighty thousand more of which you shall have a good slice when you can do nothing better.’29 Before he sailed for Peru he had acquired the estate of Herradura, in the beautiful valley of Quintero, some eight miles north along the coast from Valparaiso.

  The Liberating Expedition to deliver Peru from the colonial rule of Spain sailed from Valparaiso on 20 August 1820, cheered on by an enthusiastic crowd of onlookers gathered on the waterfront. There were seventeen transport ships carrying artillery and supplies, 800 horses and an army of 4,200 men, mostly Chileans but with a reinforcement of veteran freedom fighters from Argentina. The transports were escorted by eight warships under the command of Cochrane who was again accompanied by the gallant William Miller, now raised to the rank of colonel. General San Martin was in overall charge of the expedition. They sailed north for two weeks until they reached the town of Pisco, 130 miles south of Callao and Lima. Here San Martin decided to disembark his troops and here they remained for the next six weeks, to the surprise and annoyance of Cochrane who believed that a pre-emptive strike on Lima ‘was by no means difficult of execution, and certain of success’. This marked the beginning of a rift between the two leaders which would become increasingly bitter during the coming months.

  The two men had a very different approach to warfare. Cochrane believed in taking the enemy by surprise and launching a bold and overwhelming attack. San Martin was an experienced leader of irregular forces who had achieved impressive results in the past, but he had depended on superior numbers and the patriotic fervour of his troops to overcome an enemy usually better armed and better trained. He was aware that his liberating army was greatly outnumbered by the Spanish troops in Peru. It was therefore San Martin’s aim to avoid pitched battles and to encourage the people to rise up against their colonial rulers. At Pisco he issued a proclamation to the people of Peru which began, ‘You shall be free and independent. You shall choose your own government and laws by the spontaneous will of your representatives.’30 It was a strategy which took time but would eventually prove successful. The first breakthrough came towards the end of September when Pezuela, the viceroy of Lima, sent an envoy to San Martin under a flag of truce. An armistice was signed but negotiations broke down. Then came news that the province of Guayaquil in the north had declared its independence. A few weeks later one of the Spanish regiments deserted and joined the patriots.

  On 28 October San Martin re-embarked his troops and the expedition sailed to Ancón, a fishing village a few miles north of Lima. The troops were sent ashore but it soon became clear that San Martin was in no hurry to advance on the capital. Exasperated by this cautious approach, Cochrane decided it was time for drastic action. Without informing San Martin of his intentions, he took three of his ships – the frigates O’Higgins, Lautaro and Independencia – and sailed into the bay of Callao. His plan was simple, audacious and almost as hazardous as the attack on Valdivia. He intended ‘to cut out the Esmeralda frigate from under the fortifications, and also to get possession of another ship, on board of which we had learned that a million of dollars was embarked…’.31 The Esmeralda was the flagship of the Spanish fleet, a fine 44-gun frigate with a well-trained crew, and her capture would be a major coup. The problem was that she was protected by a strong boom of spars chained together and was anchored beneath the guns of the fortress which had recently been reinforced and now mounted some three hundred guns. In addition she was surrounded by twenty-seven gunboats.

  For this venture Cochrane made the most careful preparations. Alexander Caldecleugh, who watched him at work in the bay of Callao, recalled that he ‘frequently rowed about the bay in his gig with the lead in his hand, sounding with the greatest nonchalance, while shot of all shapes and sizes were directed at him from the shore batteries and gunboats’.32 He spent three days in planning, reconnaissance and preparing his men for the attack. On 5 November he issued a rousing proclamation in English and Spanish, and promised them a share in the prize money of all the vessels captured. When he asked for volunteers all the marines and seamen on board the three ships offered their services. His officers selected 160 seamen and 80 marines. They were informed that the attack would take place that night. Fourteen of the ships’ boats would set off at nightfall with their oars muffled to prevent them banging on the thole pins (a type of rowlock projecting upwards from the boat’s gunwale) and would head for the gap in the floating boom. To ensure that every man knew what was required of him Cochrane issued a detailed set of orders which covered every eventuality.

  To prevent the Spanish from expecting an attack that night Cochrane sent the Lautaro and the Independencia out of the bay as if in pursuit of some vessels off the coast. At 10.00 p.m. the ships’ boats, loaded with armed sailors and marines, set off into the darkness towards the distant lights of the harbour. The oarsmen heaved on the muffled oars and the only sound was the splash of the blades in the water. They arrived at the gap in the boom around midnight where Cochrane’s boat was intercepted by one of the guardboats. ‘The challenge was given, upon which, in an undertone, I threatened the occupants with instant
death, if they made the least alarm.’33 The threat was effective and a few minutes later the boats drew silently alongside the Esmeralda and the men clambered up her sides. As Cochrane boarded the ship he was hit by the butt end of a Spanish sentry’s musket, causing him to fall back on to a thole pin of the boat. The pin entered his back near the spine inflicting a severe injury which was to cause him years of suffering. ‘Immediately regaining my footing, I reascended the side, and when on deck was shot through the thigh, but binding a handkerchief tightly round the wound, managed, though with great difficulty, to direct the contest to a close.’34 Apart from the sentries, the Spanish crew had been asleep at their quarters and were taken completely by surprise. British and American seamen and Chilean marines laid into them with cutlasses and boarding axes. One group of Spanish sailors retreated to the forecastle where they put up a gallant fight but they were cut down and the rest leapt overboard or fled below to the hold to escape the slaughter. The fighting tops of the ship had been secured by sailors shinning up the shrouds and within fifteen minutes the ship had been taken.

  The uproar on the ship alerted the soldiers of the garrison who opened fire on the Esmeralda, killing several Spanish sailors and wounding Captain Coig, the commander of the ship. There were two foreign warships at anchor in the harbour, the British frigate Hyperion and the American frigate Macedonian. Cochrane had noted that they hoisted distinctive signals at night to prevent them being fired upon in the event of a night attack. Similar lights were now hoisted on the Esmeralda and this so confused the gunners in the fortress that the ship ceased to be a target. There are conflicting accounts of what happened next but it seems that some of the British seamen broke into the spirit room and got drunk while the Chileans began plundering the ship. Cochrane’s injuries compelled him to hand over command to Captain Guise who decided the best course was to ignore his orders, cut the anchor cables, loose the topsails and sail the ship out of the bay. This put paid to Cochrane’s ambitious plans to capture all the other shipping but ensured that the Esmeralda was secured without further damage. The operation had been achieved at the cost of eleven men killed and thirty wounded. The Spanish had suffered 160 men dead or wounded.

  The capture of the Esmeralda from under the guns of Callao was recognised by many observers as an extraordinary achievement. Captain Thomas Searle, commander of the Hyperion, considered it ‘a most brilliant affair’ and was astonished by the speed of the operation. ‘This was done so quick and in so masterly a style that I had scarcely time to get out of the line of fire.’35 Captain Basil Hall, commanding HMS Conway which was anchored in Callao Roads, praised Cochrane’s ‘matchless intrepidity and inexhaustible resources in war’ but also pointed to the wider significance of the Spanish flagship’s capture: ‘The loss was a death-blow to the Spanish naval force in that quarter of the world; for although there were still two Spanish frigates and some smaller vessels in the Pacific, they never afterwards showed themselves, but left Lord Cochrane undisputed master of the coast.’36 When General San Martin received the news he wrote to Cochrane congratulating him on ‘the importance of the service you have rendered to the country by the capture of the frigate Esmeralda, and the brilliant manner in which you conducted the gallant officers and seamen under your orders’,37 and he sent Cochrane’s despatches to O’Higgins with an accompanying letter which was full of praise for ‘the daring enterprise of 5th November’.38

  It was now the turn of Lady Cochrane to experience more adventures. In late October 1820 she had set off on a family expedition across the Andes to Mendoza. She was apparently unperturbed by the precipitous mountain tracks or the discomforts of the journey. They had to leave much of their baggage behind and had to sleep in mountain shelters without beds, but she was able to assure her husband, ‘I can safely say that I never slept better except when in the arms of my beloved Cochrane.’ They encountered a piercing wind on the top of the Cordillera and ‘there I experienced much inconvenience from faintness caused by the rarefied air… I never remember so unpleasant a sensation but I was very soon recovered’.39 Soon after her return to Valparaiso she embarked on HMS Andromache with her children and headed north to join her husband in Peru. She arrived at Callao early in January 1821. Shortly after her arrival she accepted an invitation to visit the estate of a member of the local Spanish aristocracy. The estate was at Quilca in the mountains behind Lima, and Kate took her eleven-month-old daughter Elizabeth with her and several attendants. They travelled on horseback through dramatic mountain scenery but on arrival at Quilca they were warned that a party of Spanish royalists were planning to take Kate and her child hostage. There was no alternative but to leave at once. On the return journey they had to cross a deep ravine by means of a cane and rope bridge. Kate was halfway across with the child in her arms when the swaying of the bridge proved too much for her and she had to lie down and wait to be rescued by one of her servants. They eluded their pursuers, reached the coast safely and were reunited with Cochrane on board his ship. However, Kate’s adventures were not yet over. On learning that a Spanish warship in the harbour was planning to escape with a cargo of bullion, Cochrane decided to get under way at once and intercept the ship. As they went into action Kate found herself on deck next to a gunner who seemed reluctant to fire while she was standing beside him. Kate seized the man’s arm ‘and directing the match, fired the gun. The effort was, however, too much for her and she immediately fainted and was carried below.’ There was a sad ending to all these excitements. The young Elizabeth had contracted a fever during the journey inland and died a few weeks later. By mutual agreement Kate and Cochrane decided that she and the other two children must return to England, at least for the time being. In March 1821 they set sail in HMS Andromache, accompanied by the wife of the recently deposed viceroy of Peru who had also decided that the time had come to leave the perils and uncertainties of Peru and head for the comparative safety of Europe.

  Cochrane would continue as Admiral of the Chilean navy for another two years but a quarrel with San Martin, and problems over prize money and pay led to him becoming increasingly bitter and disillusioned. As so often in the past some of his troubles were of his own making. His long-running vendetta with Captain Guise and Captain Spry came to a head some weeks after the capture of the Esmeralda. San Martin proposed that the captured ship should be renamed Valdivia to commemorate the taking of the Spanish stronghold. This posed difficulties among the sailors, partly because half of those who took part in capturing the Esmeralda had not been at Valdivia and partly because the Chileans did not want to serve on a ship named after Pedro de Valdivia, a Spanish conquistador. When Guise sent a letter to Cochrane signed by most of the officers, Cochrane chose to interpret this as a rebellious plot and ordered them to be court-martialled. Guise protested and resigned in protest but the court martial went ahead and five officers were dismissed from the navy. When Captain Spry refused to put to sea as a gesture of solidarity with his friend Guise, he too was court-martialled and dismissed from his command.

  Meanwhile, in spite of Cochrane’s belief that only positive military action would produce results, San Martin’s waiting game was having the desired effect. The blockade of the port of Callao and the threatening presence of the patriot army was causing the break-up of Spanish rule. Not long after Viceroy Pezuela had been deposed by an army coup, the Spanish forces in Lima evacuated the city. San Martin entered the capital as a liberator on 22 July 1821 and proclaimed the independence of Peru. When the news reached England it was Cochrane who was given much of the credit for the liberation of the country. A few months earlier The Times had been reporting numerous complaints from Valparaiso that Cochrane had been blockading the Peruvian coast and detaining British merchant ships.40 However, on 1 December, under the headline ‘Lord Cochrane’s entry into Lima’ The Times reported his triumphal arrival into the city in a magnificent chariot drawn by four cream-coloured horses. He was conducted to the Palace ‘amidst the most enthusiastic shouts from the people
of “Viva la Patria” and “Viva l’Almirante”.’ On reading the newspaper accounts Lord Byron, a leading light in the movement to liberate Greece, wrote, ‘there is no man I envy so much as Lord Cochrane’, and noted that Cochrane’s entry into Lima was one of the great events of the day.41

  On 3 August San Martin became Protector of the new republic. With a population suffering from food shortages, and troops roaming the countryside, he imposed an authoritarian regime to prevent the rash of looting and civil unrest from degenerating into anarchy. Cochrane put the worst possible interpretation on this. In his view San Martin had betrayed the cause they were fighting for and instead of establishing a liberal democracy he had set himself up as a dictator. Events would show that he entirely misjudged San Martin.42 A demand on behalf of the sailors for the payment of prize money and arrears of pay brought the simmering differences between the Admiral of the Chilean navy and the Protector of Peru to a head. Cochrane put in a claim for the immediate payment of $420,000.43 San Martin accepted responsibility for the payment of prize money but pointed out that the pay of the squadron was the responsibility of the Chilean government and not the new Peruvian republic. An acrimonious meeting on 5 August settled nothing, and disgruntled seamen began leaving Cochrane’s fleet and joining the fledgling Peruvian navy. When Cochrane learnt that San Martin had arranged for the contents of the state treasury to be shipped to Ancona in the schooner Sacramento, he intercepted the schooner and seized the money which amounted to $283,000 (£56,600). This caused an outcry but, apart from returning $117,000 which belonged to private individuals and the army, he kept the rest and used most of it to pay the squadron the prize money and pay which was owing to them.44 His high-handed action, his indiscreet language and his complaints about San Martin led to him being ordered to return to Chile. On 6 October he set sail from Callao with the ships of the Chilean navy.