- Author
- Lancaster, John
- Subjects
- History - general
- Tags
-
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- September 1997 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
One of the more astonishing notes in the citation index of the Medal is the following 200th anniversary which records the last foreign invasion of British soil – 731 years later than when we thought!:-
NYMPHE & SAN FIORENZO 8 MARCH 1797
A month after the battle of Cape St Vincent HM Ships SAN FIORENZO (Captain Sir Harry Neale) and NYMPHE (Captain John Cooke) intercepted and captured two of four French frigates, RESISTANCE and CONSTANCE, which were returning to France after landing an expeditionary force of 1400 scallywags (!!) on the coast of Wales. A large part of the force was the dregs of the French Army known as the Legion Noir.
The aim of the French had been to destroy the towns of Bristol and Liverpool as a diversion prior to an invasion of Ireland by much larger force. Neither Bristol or Liverpool were attacked but instead the force was landed at Fishguard and an invasion of Ireland did not eventuate.
The Pembrokeshire Yeomanry supported by 600 townspeople, including the womenfolk, repulsed the attack and in three days defeated the French. The interest also lies in the fact that the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry received the battle honour; ‘Fishguard 1797′ the only one awarded to the British army, up until that time, for home service.
Finally, but by no means last, the clasp `Crescent’. This was awarded for an action between His Majesty’s frigate CRESCENT (Captain Sir James Saumarez), 36 guns, 250 men, and a French Frigate `La REUNION’, 36 guns 320 men together with a 14 gun Cutter, in October 1793 off Cherbourg. The action lasted two hours and twenty minutes and not a man in CRESCENT was killed, wounded or even hurt by the enemy but the French lost 120 men killed or wounded and La REUNION became a total wreck in hull, sails and rigging. Notable is the label to an engraving depicting this action and published in 1794 which states; “Their (French) national colours were shot away early in the action and their temporary one was also shot down three times; in a token of submission the French brought the remnants of their colour to the gangway, held them up and bowed over them to the British Commander”. Such gallantry! No doubt, in the end, a jar of rum was sent over to the survivors before the Brits went to `Quarters clean guns’.
The last clasp to the General Service Medal (1793 – 1840) for ship, as apart from boat actions, was `Syria’ (1840) when more than 7,000 clasps were issued to the officers and men of over 35 ships employed in assisting the Turks in ridding Syria of the occupying Egyptians. 72 of these bars were to soldiers serving in RN ships.
The issue of the Naval General Service Medal for purely boat actions continued until 1814 when the medal was awarded for the last and up until that time, the largest boat action undertaken by the Royal Navy. This was the battle for New Orleans when, under the command of Captain Lockyer, over a thousand men in boats from 22 ships of Admiral Cochran’s fleet, searched Breton Sound. They overwhelmed, boarded and destroyed five enemy gunboats guarding Lake Borgne and the approaches to New Orleans, allowing the landing force to reach the town unopposed. However the assault upon the town was not successful and the soldiery had to be withdrawn. “Operation successful: patient dead” as they say in the sick bay.
To use Major Gordon’s words; `When reading the full account of all the actions mentioned, one is amazed at the hardships which the sailors of those days had to endure. One reads not once, but scores of times, of men with the most terrible wounds undergoing amputations without any anaesthetic, and of being on deck when their ship has received broadsides at pistol or even half pistol range. They cleared away broken masts and rigging when still within a few yards of the enemy’.
There is no finer example of the close range at which these actions took place than the fate of the greatest Admiral in British history who was struck down by a musket ball when within a biscuit’s toss of the enemy during the most important naval action in the country’s history.