The War for All the Oceans

by Roy Adkins

  Cochrane continued preying on enemy shipping around the southern coast of Spain, periodically taking his prizes to Gibraltar, and while there in June he received news that completely changed the focus of his operations: ‘On the 1st of June, the Trident arrived from England with convoy, and the intelligence of a revolution in Spain, which, being shortly afterwards confirmed by proclamation, a friendly communication was opened between the garrison and the Spaniards, and on the 8th Lord Collingwood arrived at Gibraltar in the Ocean, to be in readiness to act as circumstances might require.’14 Napoleon’s response to the Spanish uprising was swift, forcing King Ferdinand VII to abdicate, while Napoleon’s brother Joseph was proclaimed king of Spain, which was now reduced to a satellite of France controlled by an army of occupation, as Cochrane explained:On the 6th of June 1808, Napoleon issued a decree, notifying that, as it had been represented to him by the Spanish authorities that the well-being of Spain required a speedy stop to be put to the provisional government, he had proclaimed his brother Joseph, King of Spain and the Indies! To this extraordinary proclamation the Supreme Junta, on the same day, replied by another, accusing Napoleon of violating the most sacred compacts, forcing the Spanish monarch to abdication, occupying the country with troops, everywhere committing the most horrible excesses, exhibiting the most enormous ingratitude for services rendered by the Spanish nation to France, and generally treating the Spanish people with perfidy and treachery, such as was never before committed by any nation or monarch . . . On these and other accounts the Junta declared war against France by land and sea, at the same time proclaiming durable and lasting peace with England.15

  After refitting at Gibraltar, the Imperieuse set sail on Midsummer’s Day and met up with Collingwood off Cadiz, where Cochrane was ordered to return to the Mediterranean and give assistance to the Spaniards against the French. The Imperieuse cruised along the Spanish coast while Cochrane took stock of the situation, and in several places where the French had not yet taken control the British landed and were welcomed by the Spanish. General Philibert-Guillaume Duhesme and his French troops, based at Barcelona, had been trying to reopen the main route to France, as communications had been already cut. Cochrane goaded the enemy at Barcelona by flying the English and Spanish flags with the French flag below, in the position indicating defeat. He then fired a 21-gun salute in mockery:The French, who were in possession of the place, to our great amusement resented the affront by firing at us from all their batteries, but their shot fell short. We could distinctly see the inhabitants crowding the house-tops and public places of the city by thousands, and the French cavalry and infantry meanwhile patrolling the streets. Knowing that the French held their own with difficulty, especially in the adjacent towns, we again hove-to and displayed English colours over French, and then Spanish over French, firing an additional salute, which increased the cannonade from the batteries, but to no purpose.16

  While the French were willing to waste precious gunpowder and shot firing at a frigate that was out of range, Cochrane continued to annoy them. He then ‘bore up along the coast, and when clear of the enemy’s lines, a number of [Spanish] boats came off complaining bitterly of the French troops who were burning their towns on the least resistance, or even pretended resistance, and were permitted by their officers to plunder and kill the inhabitants with impunity. Perhaps it would be more in accordance with military justice to say, that with the ideas of equality and fraternity then prevalent amongst the soldiers, their officers had no control over them.’17 The brutal way Duhesme’s troops were treating the local people while trying to secure the route to France caused much anger, and Cochrane received similar complaints about the French further along the coast. With only a frigate he could not confront the French forces head on, but began to liaise with the Spanish to cause maximum disruption using amphibious assaults. The town of Mataró, to the north of Barcelona, had already been taken by the French, but in July Cochrane set about attacking the coastal road, since, as he described, the landscape gave the Imperieuse the chance of controlling one of the main routes from France into Spain:The Imperieuse could effect nothing against the French in Mataro, from its unassailable position, but having received intelligence that a considerable force under General Duhesme was advancing towards Barcelona [actually from Barcelona to Mataró], it occurred to me that their progress might be checked. Landing accordingly with a party of seamen, we blew down the overhanging rocks and destroyed the bridges so effectually as to prevent the passage either of cavalry or artillery, at the same time pointing out to the Spaniards how they might impede the enemy’s movements elsewhere along the coast by cutting up the roads,- an operation on which they entered with great alacrity, after being shown how to set about their work. The nature of these operations will be readily comprehended by the statement that a considerable portion of the main road ran along the face of the precipitous rocks nearest the sea.18

  Unfortunately for the Spanish, the Imperieuse was running short of supplies and had to sail to Port Mahón in Minorca for provisions and water. The ship was only absent for a few days, but the French seized the opportunity of forcing their way from Mataró to the fortified town of Gerona, which they began to besiege. On his return Cochrane ‘learned the mode in which the French had surmounted the obstacles interposed by the Spaniards in cutting up the roads, viz. by compelling the inhabitants to fill up the gaps with everything movable, even to their agricultural implements, furniture, and clothes. After this, the French, by way of deterring the Spaniards from again interfering with the highways, sacked and burned all the dwelling-houses in the neighbourhood.’19 The response of Cochrane was to attack the road yet again: ‘Taking a party of marines on shore, we again blew up additional portions of the road to the eastward, and as the gaps made on our last visit had been chiefly filled up with wood, and other inflammable articles . . . we set fire to them, and thus not only renewed the obstacles, but created fresh ones, in the assurance that as everything movable was now destroyed, the obstruction must become permanent. Whilst this was going on the seamen and marines of the Imperieuse destroyed a battery completed by the French, and threw over the cliff the four brass 24-pounders. ’20

  These cannons were recovered from the beach the next day, and then the Imperieuse sailed down the coast to Canet de Mar, where the French garrison was greatly depleted because troops were dealing with the sabotage of the road. This enabled the British to capture more guns from another shore battery and create utter confusion, as Cochrane related:After these [the guns] had been secured, I again took a party of seamen and marines on shore, and broke down or blew up the road in six different places. On paying a visit to the town, there was scarcely a house which the French had not sacked, carrying off everything that was valuable, and wantonly destroying the remainder. The inhabitants were in a miserable condition. The two next days were employed in blowing down rocks, and otherwise destroying roads in every direction which the French were likely to take, the people aiding heart and soul, anxiously listening to every suggestion for retarding the enemy’s movements, and evincing the greatest alacrity to put them into practice.21

  With much of Duhesme’s army occupied with besieging Gerona, Barcelona was left poorly defended, itself under siege. One outpost was the castle of Mongat, 10 miles north-east of Barcelona, and on 29 July the local Spanish resistance fighters approached Cochrane with a promise of eight hundred men to help him take the fortress. Overnight Cochrane landed men who simultaneously blew up and blocked with rockfalls the road on either side of the fort, cutting off the garrison from reinforcements sent from Barcelona. On the 31st, when the Imperieuse again anchored off the fort, the Spanish stormed, captured and held a French outpost on the hillside, despite heavy fire from the castle. Cochrane described the difficult process of surrender that followed:By this time I had got the Imperieuse well in, and had given the castle [Mongat] a couple of well-directed broadsides when the enemy hung out flags of truce. On this I landed with a party of marines, but the exasp
erated Spaniards, elated by their recent victory, paid no attention to the flags of truce, and were advancing up the hill to storm the place, the French still firing to keep them in check. I was immediately conducted to the castle, where the French troops were drawn up on each side of the gate. On entering, the commandant requested me not to allow the peasantry to follow, as they would only surrender to me, and not to the Spaniards, of whose vengeance they were evidently afraid. After giving the commandant a lecture on the barbarities that had been committed on the coast, and pointing out the folly of such a course, inasmuch as, had his troops fallen into the hands of the Spanish peasantry, not a man would have escaped with life, I acceded to the request to surrender to us alone, and promised the escort of our marines to the frigate. The commandant then gave me his sword, and his troops forthwith laid down their arms.22

  The British were now faced with another battle, to protect their prisoners from the Spanish while they boarded the Imperieuse. As Cochrane commented, ‘what became of the men forming the captured outpost I never knew, and was not anxious to enquire’23 - he already had enough trouble dealing with the Spanish around the main fort:It was not without a few blows, and forcing some of the assailants over the parapet, that we succeeded in keeping them off. The Spaniards were with some difficulty made to understand that, however exasperated they might be at the conduct of the French, the latter were British prisoners, and not a hair of their heads should be hurt. When we were somewhat assured of their safety, the prisoners were marched down to the boats; and glad enough they were to get there, for the Spaniards accompanied them with volleys of abuse, declaring that they might thank the English for their lives, which, had the Spanish party succeeded in storming the fort, should have been sacrificed.24

  Mongat castle was then blown up, and the Spanish flag hoisted over the ruins. When General Duhesme’s army retreated from Gerona two weeks later, they were forced to reach Barcelona by a long detour inland, abandoning their ammunition and field guns. The disruption caused to the French was out of all proportion to the cost of deploying a single frigate off the Spanish coast for a few days, and the French in Barcelona were now in a difficult position as the Spanish increasingly disrupted inland routes, while British ships ensured that supplies and reinforcements could not reach the French by sea.

  After the destruction of Mongat, Cochrane decided to take the war directly to France, thinking that ‘as the French troops kept out of our reach, there was no beneficial object to be gained by remaining on the Spanish coast; and it occurred to me, that by giving the French, in the neighbourhood of Marseilles, a taste of the evils they were inflicting on their Spanish neighbours, it would be possible to create an amount of alarm, which would have the effect of diverting troops intended for Catalonia, by the necessity of remaining to guard their own seaboard’.25 In mid-August 1808 the Imperieuse arrived in the Bay of Marseilles and for over a week Cochrane conducted an intense campaign of burning any boats he could find and destroying shore batteries and semaphore stations, which completely disrupted French coastal communications and tied up troops destined for Spain. The campaign, he said, had another benefit, as they obtained secret codes:In this cruise against the French signal stations, the precaution of obtaining their signal books before destroying the semaphores was adopted; and in order to make the enemy believe that the books also were destroyed, all the papers found were scattered about in a half-burnt condition. The trick was successful, and the French authorities, considering that the signal books had been destroyed also, did not deem it necessary to alter their signals, which were forwarded by me to Lord Collingwood, who was thus informed by the French semaphores, when re-established, of all the movements of their own ships, as well as of the British ships from the promontory of Italy northward.26

  At the beginning of September Cochrane moved eastwards and boldly attacked the port of La Ciotat, midway between Marseilles and Toulon, but was eventually driven off by French ships from the latter port. Sailing back to Marseilles the Imperieuse was joined on the 7th by the Spartan, commanded by Captain Jahleel Brenton, and together they carried out further raids along the French coast. Near Port Vendres, close to the Spanish border, they encountered a large force of French troops protecting the shore batteries. The French were too strong to attack directly, and so Cochrane devised a plan to divide their forces:We now passed close to a small fishing town, where other guns were observed in position, both on the right and on the left, these being manned by regular troops and backed by hundreds of armed peasantry . . . By way of feint, to draw off the attention of the cavalry, both Spartan and Imperieuse manned their small boats and the rocket boats with the ships’ boys, dressed in marines’ scarlet jackets, despatching these at some distance towards the right, as though an attack were there intended. The device was successful, and a body of cavalry, as we anticipated, promptly set off to receive them.27

  While the French cavalry raced to cut off what appeared to be a major attack by marines, the Imperieuse and Spartan incessantly pounded the town, and after an hour Cochrane’s real marines landed, took the battery and spiked the guns. The French cavalry had by now realised the deception and were galloping back. They looked likely to cut off the British force, and from the direction in which the British ships were sailing, their guns could not easily be brought to bear on the French, particularly since for much of their route they were not visible from the ships. It seemed certain that the landing party would be captured, but Captain Brenton described what happened next:The Spartan was following the Imperieuse, at less than a cable’s length distance, the ships going about three knots, when the Imperieuse was observed suddenly to swing round, with much more rapidity than any action of the helm could have produced. The fact was, that Lord Cochrane from the mast head saw a squadron of the enemy’s cavalry galloping towards a gorge on the coast, which had they passed, they would have cut off the retreat of our people, who were employed in spiking the guns. His Lordship immediately ordered the ship’s anchor to be let go, and the swinging round brought her starboard broadside to enfilade this gorge, by which the cavalry were instantly turned [forced to retreat].28

  By this manoeuvre Cochrane could train his guns on the one point on the route where the cavalry were exposed, firing at the precise moment they reached it. The broadside of grapeshot from the Imperieuse was so effective, Cochrane commented, that ‘all who were not knocked out of their saddles rode off as fast as they could’.29 Brenton described the manoeuvre as ‘a beautiful instance of ready seamanship’.30

  Cochrane often led the attacks himself and inspired his men at least as well as Nelson had done. A large part of his success was his concern for the crew’s safety, and Captain Brenton testified that ‘he admired nothing more in Lord Cochrane than the care he took of the preservation of his people. Bold and adventurous as he was, no unnecessary exposure of life was ever permitted under his command. Every circumstance was anticipated, every precaution against surprise was taken, every provision for success was made, and in this way he was enabled to accomplish the most daring enterprises, with comparatively little danger, and still less of actual loss.’31 Napoleon called Cochrane ‘Le loup des mers’32 - the sea wolf - and such was his reputation that when he ran short of water he sailed up the River Rhône to beyond the point where it changed from salt water to fresh and took on water without any opposition.

  With very limited resources, Cochrane demonstrated just how effective naval raids could be against troops and communications in coastal areas. The raids along the Mediterranean shores of France meant that French troops were diverted from Spain to meet the threat, but most important of all French morale was profoundly affected. Back in Britain, Sir Walter Scott was to comment:Lord Cochrane, during the month of September 1808, with his single ship the Imperieuse, kept the whole coast of Languedoc in alarm, - destroyed the numerous semaphoric telegraphs, which were of the utmost consequence to the numerous coasting convoys of the French, and not only prevented any troops from being sent from that pr
ovince into Spain, but even excited such dismay that 2000 men were withdrawn from Figueras [the fortress just over the border in Spain] to oppose him, when they would otherwise have been marching farther into the peninsula. The coasting trade was entirely suspended during this alarm; yet with such consummate prudence were all Lord Cochrane’s enterprises planned and executed, that not one of his men were either killed or hurt, except one, who was singed in blowing up a battery.33