by Roy Adkins
The intention of the gunboats on this occasion was to destroy the Panther, which had been Admiral Duff’s flagship. Five days later, the Panther left quietly for England during the night. The Spaniards did not believe it possible that such a large warship could slip past them unnoticed, and Mrs Green said that at about noon,
a row galley came over from Algezira ... to look if the Panther was in the Mole, or if actually gone. It was universally believed that Admiral Barcelo was on board in disguise. They came by much too near and in a very insulting manner, paraded about. It was plain to be seen that a person in a fisherman dress was the whole time looking through a spy glass, as many of our officers were doing the same. He seemed to be making particular observations, sometimes standing up. This person was either Barcelo or some officer of trust. Our frigate and another vessel fired at the galley. She kept her colours up the whole time and when she had sufficiently amused herself, went off.4
The garrison had learned about the gunboats a week earlier from the crew of a vessel from Minorca, who said they were being constructed at Majorca and towed to Algeciras. Everybody expected more attacks, but Barcelo next deployed them to tighten the blockade. Their presence meant that boats with fresh food supplies had even more trouble breaking the blockade. Before the siege, a constant supply of livestock came in by sea from Morocco and elsewhere, along with other fresh produce. Households could then buy whatever food they needed on a daily basis, because perishable produce turned bad rapidly in Gibraltar’s hot and humid environment. Writing just before the siege, the former resident Francis Carter said that although the climate was healthy, ‘eight months in the year are disfigured with the levanters [easterlies] that blow in whirlwinds round the hill, obscure the sky with mists and clouds, and render the atmosphere heavy and insupportable; they cause such a dampness, that all the furniture mildews and rots, steel and iron utensils rust ... and no provisions will keep a day’.5 These easterly winds could create unbearable conditions and spark violent storms, though the heavy rainfall did ensure a reasonable water supply, considering the absence of streams and rivers on Gibraltar.
Although wildlife was relatively abundant on the Rock, little mention is made of anyone trapping or shooting birds or other creatures for food. Drinkwater did say that game birds and wild rabbits were caught, but that ‘garrison-orders ... forbid officers to shoot on the western side of the rock; but parties often go in boats around Europa point, to kill wild pigeons, which are numerous in the caves’. Some wildlife was less welcome: ‘Moschetoes are exceedingly troublesome towards the close of summer; and locusts are sometimes found. The scorpion, centipedes, and other venomous reptiles, abound amongst the rocks and old buildings; and the harmless green lizard, and snake, are frequently caught by the soldiers, who, after drawing their teeth, treat them with every mark of fondness.’6
Carter described one unexpected species: ‘On casting an eye up this barren hill, one would not imagine any living creature could exist upon it; yet it is inhabited by a numerous species, that occupy the tops of the highest rocks, and who may be said to be the true lords of the hill, whence neither Moors, Spaniards, nor English, have ever been able to dispossess them, I mean the monkies.’ They could be a real nuisance, he explained: ‘so little are they afraid of man, that often they declare war, and act in a hostile manner; not long ago, they had got a trick of throwing such a number of stones on our miners at work under the head of the rock, that they frequently obliged them to leave off and retire without their reach.’7
Starving people will eat virtually anything, but monkeys were perhaps too abhorrent, and in any case only soldiers on duty were allowed on the Upper Rock where they congregated. Monkeys were more likely to be a source of sport, which the Anglo-Dutch travel writer Richard Twiss observed on a visit just six years before the siege started: ‘Many apes and monkies inhabit its caverns and precipices,’ he said ‘and are frequently shot.’8 According to Drinkwater, they were certainly present during the siege: ‘The hill is remarkable for the number of apes about its summit, which are said not to be found in any other part of Spain. They breed in inaccessible places, and frequently appear in large droves, with their young on their backs, on the western face of the hill. It is imagined they were originally brought from Barbary by the Moors, as a similar species inhabit Mons Abyla.’9 These Barbary macaques have no tails and are often called apes, but are in fact the only free-ranging monkeys in Europe.
Morocco was Gibraltar’s most valuable source of fresh supplies, and so it was extremely unsettling to hear that the emperor, Mahomed I, was being enticed into favouring Spain, his former enemy. On 11 July, information came by boat from Tangier that two garrison boats had been chased on shore there by the Spaniards and that the emperor ‘winks at the hostilities committed by them and even countenances their depredations, by permitting the Spanish boats to seize our vessels coming into Tangier; several have been taken under the walls of the place’.10
A few days afterwards at Gibraltar, another night-time gunboat assault took place, which Ancell described: ‘Between one and two o’clock this morning, the Spanish gun-boats began an attack upon our shipping. The fire was returned by us, but it is imagined without any effect, they being imperceptible to the eye, the flash of their guns being the only object we had to direct us.’ Forty-eight hours later the gunboats were back: ‘About two this morning, little wind, the enemy’s gun-boats again attacked the shipping and garrison, without doing any particular damage, except rousing the wearied soldiery and timid inhabitants from their nightly slumbers.’ Some hours later, a soldier deserted from the north front of the Rock, where he was working. After managing to climb down a ladder, he was seen running across the isthmus sands, and the fear was that ‘there is not the least doubt but he will inform the enemy how far their shot reaches’.11
By now, the smallpox epidemic was almost over, after claiming many more victims in June and July, especially children. ‘One only comfort’, Mrs Green noted, ‘is that the smallpox seems to be dying away. Indeed it was dreadful to hear the daily losses. More than 500 have died. The smallest number has been of soldiers, as there has not been more than 50 died, but their poor families are greatly thinned, and their grief is great at not having been allowed to innoculate. It might have saved the lives of scores, therefore it is a very great distress to think of this misfortune.’12 In terms of saving Gibraltar and in saving more lives, Eliott’s decision not to allow inoculation was sound, even though it caused immense sorrow.
If possible, their troubles worsened when, on 12 August, the Dolphin from Lisbon was taken, and there was more criticism of the navy’s inactivity. One soldier wrote:
Early this morning, a brig from the westward was attacked, at the entrance of the Bay, by several Spanish cruisers. She fought them all, and made a running fight of it, till she got within long-gun-shot of Europa, when it fell a dead calm, and was boarded and towed off by the gun-boats and gallies. We know the vessel to be the Dolphin brig, Captain Grant, from Lisbon, with supplies for the garrison, belonging to the [merchant] house of Messrs. Moubray and McKellar. The loss of the vessel has chagrined us much, especially as it is the general opinion, she was lost for want of due assistance.13
Both merchants were from Scotland. Henry Moubray had lived on Gibraltar since 1762 and Donald Mackellar came three years later. Mrs Green was furious:
she was directly known to be a brig belonging to Merchant Mackellar, called the Dolphin. He has long expected her, is loaded with oils, sugars, etc. The same vessel had been a long time in Tangier harbour, has been fortunate enough to get in here with supplies. She now sailed in with a fine wind at the day break. Unluckily, it failed at half past 4. She made for Europa, their batteries fired and from Bonna Vista [Buena Vista], but not one shot hit the galleys. We fired our shot from the New Mole Head to encourage her. She came at last very near our guns and we flattered ourselves she was out of danger, as the small galleys seemed shy of our batteries.14
It was not to be, because two large row galleys from Ceuta suddenly appeared:
This encouraged the others, so that to the universal concern of the whole garrison, they boarded her. She would not strike! I saw the whole manoeuvres from the instant she first came round, saw all her sails shot away, the grape shot flying all over her rigging. The last shot carried away her lower sails and yards, then it was easy to board her, and I plainly saw the first Spaniard get on board. It is impossible to express the discontent of the garrison on this occasion. The Enterprize was in the Mole, but everybody expected all the boats would have been armed and sent out, which if they had when the first signals were made from the point, it is beyond all doubt we should have got her safe in. It certainly is the most unpleasant circumstance that has happened to us and has occasioned many severe things to be said against our Navy Folks. No wonder.15
The badly damaged Dolphin was towed to Algeciras, and only three days later the prisoners-of-war were returned, including Cumberland Adams, also originally from Scotland, who was Mr Mackellar’s clerk and had been wounded in the wrist by grapeshot. ‘Admiral Barcelo was exceedingly kind to them,’ Mrs Green noted, ‘and at the same time expressed his wonder that our boats had not been sent out. He made the captain a present of 70 cobbs and told him, he was under the necessity of putting down in his journal of what prizes was taken by them, [and] that this brig was taken within gun shot of this garrison.’ Among the passengers were an officer of the 56th, the merchant Mr Hamilton, who was the husband of the first woman to be injured, and Mrs Gray, her sister-in-law, who Mrs Green described as ‘a smart looking person who says that Admiral Barcelo was exceedingly polite and kind to her’. Mrs Gray also told her that there were letters on board for the garrison, but they were kept, which added to the widespread anguish.16
At the end of August, it was clear that the emperor of Morocco had been persuaded to lease Spain his ports, including Tangier, making Mrs Green very agitated: ‘This morning a small boat with 5 men came over from Barbary, last from Tangier. They had no possibility of bringing any supplies, only a packet from our consul Mr Logie to the Governor, containing very unwelcome news, which is, that all communication between us and Barbary is stopped and in consequence, we cannot expect any supplies.’17 Logie had written his letter over ten days before, warning Eliott that many vessels were being held at Tangier:
if the Emperor had sold his ports and the sea coast of his territories to our enemy, he ought first to have declared his intention, or ordered the British subjects to quit his dominions. The crews of all the boats taken, I am at the expense of subsisting and in a very short time the remaining crews of all the garrison boats and vessels will be destitute of money or credit to subsist with, which will oblige many to enter into the Enemy’s service to prevent starving. The Enemy take all the Portuguese boats and vessels that attempt coming on this coast, so that excepting from Spain, no vessels are permitted to enter this port.18
He added: ‘The Emperor gives no answers to the letters of complaints I write to him.’19
British ships could no longer even use the Moroccan ports for shelter, as Drinkwater explained:
a small boat arrived from Barbary, with information that the Moors permitted the Spaniards to capture every English vessel which took refuge under the protection of their guns; that the Spaniards would not allow any boats to leave the Bay of Tangier, and only waited for orders from Admiral Barcelo to burn and destroy what remained. This intelligence very sensibly affected us. To be cut off from what we had always considered our domestic market, was a stroke we little expected.20
The closest places that were now able to supply Gibraltar with fresh produce were Portuguese ports and the island of Minorca, and one soldier commented: ‘The enemy now keep us blockaded closer than ever; there are not less than eight or ten armed vessels constantly under Cabrita Point, two or three at Tariffa, six or eight at and about Tangier, three or four at Tetuan, some at Ceuta, and, I believe, several off the Gut’s Mouth; so that it is almost impossible for any vessels to escape ... When a sail appears standing for the Streights, signals are made at the watch-towers along the coast.’21 These watchtowers or signal towers were originally constructed to give warnings when pirates from Barbary were spotted, and they still proved invaluable to the Spaniards.
With a bombardment seeming ever closer, William Green had a ‘bombproof’ with immensely thick stone walls built in the garden of his townhouse to protect his family from cannonballs and shells. Mrs Green described the structure when it was complete:
The Colonel had a bomb proof begun in our house in town by digging under the garden and making an opening in the front courtyard, opposite the eating parlour. It will consist of three apartments, and it runs deep in, and in the further part, near to the coach house in the street, is an apartment with a window large enough for a man to get through, which may be very useful, in case of any quantity of rubbish should ever chance to fall into the front court. The top of this cave is covered over with hardened clay and done as is usual with bomb proofs. If it is never wanted as such, it will make most excellent cellars.22
The garrison defences were also improved, which pleased Ancell: ‘Our Governor has made great additions to our fortifications; several new batteries have been erected upon the hill, and others planned out. Should the enemy not open [fire] till these are completed, we shall sing to the Dons, the old song of Defiance, and laugh at their approaches.’23 While the defences and guns on the Rock were being upgraded, the Spaniards were systematically developing their own fortifications, and not everyone shared Ancell’s determination and resilience. In the extreme summer heat that August, many were finding it difficult to cope, and tempers of the soldiers became extremely frayed. The officers had more opportunity than the men to maintain some semblance of a normal life, and in mid-August Charles Mawhood, colonel of the 72nd Regiment, dined with Captain Phipps of the Royal Engineers, followed the next day by a dinner hosted by Colonel Picton and another at Major Fancourt’s the day after that. Mrs Green also reported on a remarkable dinner that was hosted in part by Charles Ross, lieutenant-colonel of the 39th, ‘he sending an English sheep to the Master of the Assembly House. 21 gentlemen. Very riotous.’24
The following day, the Greens also had a few gentlemen to dinner and a ‘pretty large party in evening’.25 The main meal of the day was dinner, which was eaten in the early afternoon, and years later Colonel Landmann wrote that ‘three o’clock was the ordinary time for this meal; but on occasions of hard service it was postponed till four’.26 Colonel Mawhood was not among the guests of the Greens, as he had been suddenly afflicted ‘with a complaint in his bowels’ and appeared dangerously ill. He was fifty years old and had been in Gibraltar for only a few months, having arrived with Rodney’s convoy in January, two years after being appointed colonel of the newly raised 72nd Regiment, the Royal Manchester Volunteers. His lengthy military career had included service in America during the War of Independence, during which time he had been defeated by Washington’s army at the Battle of Princeton in what was nevertheless called ‘one of the most gallant exploits of the war’.27
On 23 August, it was reported that Mawhood was not expected to live. This was by far the hottest day, for which fires around the bay were blamed. ‘Immense fires in Spain and Barbary occasioned by their burning the old grass,’ Horsbrugh said, ‘which affected the air so much that the thermometer rose to 93, and the evening was insupportably hot.’ Spilsbury agreed: ‘For these three days past great fogs in the mornings, and very hot afternoons; last night Apes Hill [Barbary] was on fire, and made this place so hot it was hardly bearable. The thermometer 92°.’28 During these intolerable conditions, Mawhood clung on for several days, and on the 28th Mrs Green heard that, in a disturbed state of mind, he had twice tried to commit suicide:
This evening Doctor Baynes called and acquainted us of the very bad way Colonel Mawhood was in, and telling us it was not pos
sible for him to hold out many hours. He had made two alarming attempts, proceeding it is supposed from delirium – one, of some nails; one of a bathing tub – everybody is concerned, as he was a man much esteemed in the world and quite a gentleman. He has not been well from the first of his coming to the Garrison in January.29
Luckily his suicide attempts failed, as he would have been denied a Christian burial. The very next day he died, and at night an autopsy was performed. Mrs Green learned the results: ‘A mortification in his bowels had taken place, and likewise a stone as large as a pistol ball was found in his gall bladder. It was no wonder he had been long ill and oppressed. As the doctors agree, he could not have been in any health or spirits for a long time past.’30 The gallstone was unlikely to have been the cause of his sudden deterioration, as it was probably too large (about half an inch) to enter the narrow duct from the gall-bladder to the bowel. Being unwell for several months was likely to have been due to twisting of the gut leading to the death of the tissues as the circulation was cut off, something that today can be dealt with by surgery. The toxic effect of the dead gut and loss of absorption of fluids and nutrients would have caused Mawhood to die.31 His death is an extreme example of the range of medical problems they all might have suffered, with little prospect of treatment.
The next evening, Colonel Mawhood was laid to rest in the burial ground for officers, just outside the walls at Southport, where stones were placed on top of the graves to prevent them being washed away by violent winter rains.32 Considering the siege conditions, there was surprisingly elaborate formality, but rather less ceremony than Mrs Green expected, especially as she felt that, for somebody of his status, he should have been buried inside the King’s Chapel:
The whole 72nd Regiment with their colours and arms as usual on such occasions. They formed a lane from the Colonel’s house to let the corpse pass through. The Governor was chief mourner, his four aid de camps walking before him, and the Adjutant General and Quarter Master General on each side of the Governor. Every officer off duty in the garrison. Lt Gen de la Motte walked at the head of the brigade of Hanoverians. Pall bearers – Colonel Green, Colonel Picton, Colonel Godwin, Lt Col Cochrane, Lt Col Trigge, Lt Col Mackenzie, Lt Col Craig, Lt Col Kellet. All with crapes round their arms, and all the 72nd with crapes, which they wore about a fortnight afterwards ... Capt Lesley [Leslie] of the Enterprise frigate paid a very handsome compliment to Colonel Mawhood’s corpse, as he had minute guns fired from the time the body moved to its being buried, and all the King’s vessels had their colours half-staff.33
