The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane | Page 5

Charles II. in 1669. His successors were
faithful to the Stuarts, and thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the
ninth Earl, inheriting a patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal
of his ancestors, spent it all in the scientific pursuits to which he
devoted himself, and in which he was the friendly rival of Watt,
Priestley, Cavendish, and other leading chemists and mechanicians of
two or three generations ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a
famous name and a chivalrous and enterprising disposition, had to fight
his own way in the world.
Lord Cochrane--as the subject of these memoirs was styled in courtesy
until his accession to the peerage in 1831--was intended by his father
for the army, in which he received a captain's commission. But his own
predilections were in favour of a seaman's life, and accordingly, after
brief schooling, he joined the Hind, as a midshipman, in June, 1793,
when he was nearly eighteen years of age.
During the next seven years he learnt his craft in various ships and seas,
being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Hon. Alexander Cochrane,

but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love of his
profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1794, he
was made commander of the Speedy early in 1800. This little sloop, not
larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four men and six
officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war. Her whole
armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new commander
tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck proved too small
and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be returned. So
Lilliputian was his cabin, that, to shave himself, Lord Cochrane was
obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a dressing-table
of the quarter-deck.
Yet the Speedy, ably commanded, was quite large enough to be of good
service. Cruising in her along the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane
succeeded in capturing many gunboats and merchantmen, and the
enemy soon learnt to regard her with especial dread. On one
memorable occasion, the 6th of May, 1801, he fell in with the Gamo, a
Spanish frigate furnished with six times as many men as were in the
Speedy and with seven times her weight of shot. Lord Cochrane, boldly
advancing, locked his little craft in the enemy's rigging. It was, in
miniature, a contest as unequal as that by which Sir Francis Drake and
his fellows overcame the Great Armada of Spain in 1588, and with like
result. The heavy shot of the Gamo riddled the _Speedy's_ sails, but,
passing overhead, did no mischief to her hulk or her men. During an
hour there was desperate fighting with small arms, and twice the
Spaniards tried in vain to board their sturdy little foe. Lord Cochrane
then determined to meet them on their own deck, and the daring project
was facilitated by one of the smart expedients in which he was never
wanting. Before going into action, "knowing," as he said, "that the final
struggle would be a desperate one, and calculating on the superstitious
wonder which forms an element in the Spanish character," he had
ordered his crew to blacken their faces; and, "what with this and the
excitement of combat, more ferocious-looking objects could scarcely
be imagined." With these men following him he promptly gained the
frigate's deck, and then their strong arms and hideous faces soon
frightened the Spaniards into submission.

The senior officer of the Gamo asked for a certificate of his bravery,
and received one testifying that he had conducted himself "like a true
Spaniard." To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm, and on the
strength of the document its holder soon obtained further promotion.
That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to
consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane,
after three months' waiting, received the rank of post captain. But his
desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second in command,
should also be recompensed led to a correspondence with Earl St.
Vincent which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter enemy.
In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent alleged
that "it was unusual to promote two officers for such a service,--besides
which the small number of men killed on board the Speedy did not
warrant the application." Lord Cochrane answered, with incautious
honesty, that "his lordship's reasons for not promoting Lieutenant
Parker, because there were only three men killed on board the Speedy,
were in opposition to his lordship's own promotion to an earldom, as
well as that of his flag-captain to knighthood, and his other officers to
increased rank and honours; for that, in the battle from which