1

90

1801.

BRITISH AND DANISH FLEETS.

THE abstract of the british navy, for the commencement of the present year,* shows a considerable increase in its line-of-battle total; but the number of line-cruisers in commission remains the same as in the last abstract, and the lower totals exhibit, in reference to the latter, a very slight improvement int their numbers. As one cause of this, the " Captured" column, owing chiefly to the reduced state of the dutch, and the blockaded state of the french and spanish navies, does not amount to half what it did in the preceding year.+

A very slight diminution occurs in the wrecked and foundered cases of the british navy in the year 1800; and the accidental losses of that year, including the melancholy loss by fire, ended the lives of upwards of 1300 british officers, seamen, and marines. All four of the foundered vessels belonged to the sloop-classes, and three of them had been french privateers. The number of cruisers employed in watching the enemy's ports, the boldness and perseverance with which their commanders performed that arduous duty, and the frequent gales of wind which occurred during the winter months of the year, render eleven wrecked cases, out of so many ships as were then at sea, no extraordinary number.t

The carronade still maintained, and more than maintained its ground. On the 21st of February, 1800, an admiralty-order had issued, directing that in future all ships of 24 and 20 guns should be fitted on the main deck for 32-pounder carronades, in lieu

* See Appendix, Annual Abstract No. 9.

+ See Appendix, No. 8.

See Appendix, No. 9.

of the long nines they had hitherto carried. This 1801. was giving the ships a great increase of force, without the necessity of detaching so many men to the guns; a 9-pounder long gun requiring seven men to fight it, but a 32-pounder carronade only six. Hence a greater number remained to handle the small-arms, and, a very important duty in action, to attend to the rigging and sails, and to work the ship in a proper manner. A few active seamen, promptly sent to repair a shroud or stay, will frequently save a mast; and a manœuvre, the success of which may decide the fate of a battle, often depends upon alacrity in splicing the old, or in reeving the new running-rigging.

The number of commissioned officers and masters, belonging to the british navy at the commencement of the year 1801, including among the flag-officers all that were promoted on the 1st of January, in consequence of the union of Great Britain and Ireland, as established by act of parliament on that day,

and the number of seamen and marines, voted for the service of that year, was 120000 for the first three lunar months, and 135000 for the remaining ten.*

Although no dutch navy existed capable of giving Northalarm to the British, Holland's northern neighbours, ern with Russia at their head, confederated together, to deracy.

* See Appendix, No. 10.

confe

1801. force England, either by diplomacy or war, to abandon a long recognised right, that of searching the ships of neutrals for contraband of war. This sudden uproar in the north arose out of a circumstance, of which we will here present a summary.

On the 25th of July, 1800, at 6 P. M., a british squadron, of three frigates, the Arrow sloop, and a lugger, fell in with the Danish 40-gun 18-pounder frigate Freya, captain Krabbe, having under her convoy two ships, two brigs, and two galliots. Attack Captain Thomas Baker, of the 28-gun frigate Nemesis, the senior british officer, hailed the Freya, Freya. to say he should send his boat on board the convoy.

upon

the

Both

Captain Krabbe replied that, if such an attempt
were made, he would fire into the boat.
threats were put into execution; and an action en-
sued, which, with so decided a superiority against
her, ended of course in the Freya's submission. This
affair, unhappily, did not pass off without loss. The
Nemesis and Arrow had each two seamen killed
and several wounded. The Freya had also two
men killed and five wounded, two of the latter badly.
The english vessels, accompanied by the danish
frigate and her convoy, then proceeded to, and
anchored in, the Downs; where the Freya, by the
order of vice-admiral Skeffington Lutwidge, the
commander in chief on that station, still kept flying
the danish ensign and pendant.

As, besides this fracas, a somewhat similar circumstance had occurred in the Mediterranean, the british government lost no time in despatching lord Whitworth to the court of Denmark, to place the business on an amicable footing. To give additional weight to his lordship's arguments, he was accompanied by a squadron of four sail of the line, (to which six more were afterwards added,) three 50-gun ships, and several frigates and smaller vessels, under vice-admiral Archibald Dickson, in the 74-gun ship Monarch. On the 29th of August lord Whitworth terminated the negotiation with the

danish minister, count Bernstorff; and a convention 1801. was mutually signed, agreeing that the Freya and convoy should be repaired at english expense, and then released; that the right of the British to search convoys should be discussed at a future day in London; that danish vessels should only sail under convoy in the Mediterranean, to protect them from the Algerines, and should be searchable as formerly; and that the convention should be ratified by the two courts in three weeks.

Russia.

Russia, although the ally of England, took offence Hosti. at the attack upon the Freya, and particularly at the lity of passage through the Sound of a british squadron. The first overt act of the emperor Paul's displeasure, was to sequester all british property in his dominions; the next, was to place his army and navy upon a war-establishment. On the 22d of September, however, about three weeks after it had been ordered, the sequestration was taken off. But on the 5th of November, the news of the capture of Malta having excited fresh anger in the breast of the emperor, an embargo was again laid on all the british shipping in the ports of Russia, amounting, at Armed this time, to about 200 sail. This was followed, in Neutrality. December, by a convention between Russia and Sweden, agreeing to the reestablishment of an armed neutrality between those powers. Denmark, also, at the instigation of the first of these powers, and of Prussia, was induced to join the confederacy. March. The menacing attitude thus assumed by the three principal northern powers requiring to be met in a corresponding way by England, the latter, on the 12th of March, despatched from Yarmouth roads, under the command of admiral sir Hyde Parker, in the London 98, with vice-admiral lord Nelson in the St.-George 98, as his second, a fleet of 15, afterwards augmented to 18, sail of the line, with as many frigates, sloops, bombs, fire-ships, and smaller vessels, as made the whole amount to about 53 sail: on board a division of which fleet had embarked, the

1801. 49th regiment under colonel Isaac Brock, two comMarch. panies of the rifle-corps, and a detachment of artillery, the whole under the command of colonel Stewart.

force of

mark,

and

Sweden

Naval The nominal or paper force of the three powers Russia, against which this fleet was destined to act, was Den Russia 82, Denmark 23, and Sweden 18 sail of the line, besides, between them all, about 89 frigates, corvettes, and brigs, and nearly twice the number of armed small-craft. But Russia, even as late as October in the present year, did not possess more than 61 sail of the line; of which number 31 were in commission in the Baltic, and the remainder in the Mediterranean and Black seas. Those 31 ships were divided between Petersburg, Archangel, Cronstadt, and Revel. Perhaps the effective number, or that which might be brought to act as a fleet, did not exceed 20 sail of the line; and these were badly equipped, ill appointed, and worse manned. The Swedes, at one time, had 11 sail of the line at Carlscrona ready for sea, and, by all accounts, in tolerably fighting trim. The danish fleet at Copenhagen consisted, in the middle of March, of 10 sail of the line ready for sea, exclusive of about the same number in an unserviceable state.

This makes 41 russian, swedish, and danish effective ships of the line, instead of 88, the number stated by several writers to have been afloat in this quarter. It must have been a very happy combination of circumstances, that could have assembled in one spot 25 of those 41 sail of the line; and against that 25, made up, as the number would be, of three different nations, all mere novices in naval tactics, 18, or, with a Nelson to command them, 15, british sail of the line were more than a match. Without this explanation, it might seem the height of rashness in the british government. to send to the Baltic so apparently small a force.

In the hope that Denmark, in spite of her hostile demonstrations, would prefer negotiation to war,