Chapter IX

HE ACHIEVED FOR ENGLAND THE TITLE, NEVER SINCE DISPUTED, OF “MISTRESS OF THE SEA.”

To designate some of the naval heroes of early times gallant “sea dogs,” is not disrespectful to these worthies. Dashing courage, indomitable perseverance, and open-handed generosity, were the qualities, by which they were chiefly distinguished. But to apply such an epithet to Robert Blake, “Admiral and General at Sea,” would be altogether unsuitable.

Grave, scholarly, courageous, generous, disinterested, wise in counsel, valiant in war, Admiral Blake occupied a high place among the men of his time. He has been pronounced one of the most perfect characters of his age.

Robert Blake was born at Bridgewater, Somersetshire, in 1598, the year before that in which Oliver Cromwell first saw the light. His father, Humphrey Blake, was possessed of landed property, and was also a merchant adventurer. He belonged to what Fuller, in his _Worthies_, calls the “middle-sized gentry.” The first portion of his education he received at the Bridgewater grammar school. When sixteen years of age he entered St. Alban’s Hall, Oxford, and afterwards shifted to Wadham College. He remained at Oxford for nine years, and had probably a stronger inclination to follow a scholastic life than for the adventurous career he passed through. He felt drawn into the great struggle of his time by his position and his sense of duty; the hurry and distracting influences of the life of after years never took away either the taste, which had made him learned, or the earnestness which had made him a Puritan.

In the year 1625, Robert was recalled home on account of the illness of his father, whose business affairs were in a very unsatisfactory condition. The father died in embarrassed circumstances, and upon Robert devolved the charge of his widowed mother and a large family, with a somewhat straitened income. He discharged his duties as head of the family with fidelity and success, and conducted himself in an exemplary manner in his domestic, social, and business relations. His brothers and sisters made their way in the world, married, and settled respectably.

At the time of Blake’s return to Bridgewater, State affairs and the relations between the sovereign and his subjects were causing much excitement and turmoil. Charles I. was at war with his Parliament, and wringing taxes illegally from his people, which many of them resisted. The king’s Catholic consort, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France, hated the Puritans, and urged Charles to the exercise of absolute power, in resisting their reasonable demands. His first and second Parliaments refused the supplies he demanded. His third Parliament wrung from him assent to the famous “petition of right,”--a second Magna Charta,--which he nominally granted, but in practice resisted. From 1629 to 1640 there had been no meeting of Parliament; in 1640, when the Short Parliament, as it was called, was summoned, Blake was returned as representative for Bridgewater. In 1645 he was elected for Taunton to serve in the Long Parliament.

Oxford was not a likely nursery for Puritans, but Blake was a man of independent mind, and of resolute character. He considered the dissolution of the Short Parliament a declaration of defiance to the people on the part of the king, and took it as a signal for action, and declared for the Parliamentarians. He raised a troop of dragoons, who were among the first of the Parliamentary army that took the field; they were engaged in almost every action of importance in the western counties. Blake, although himself only a raw, untrained volunteer, distinguished himself above all the men about him, in the “marvellous fertility, energy, and comprehensiveness of his military genius”--evidence of native superiority. It has been stated that Prince Rupert alone, in the Royalist force, could be compared to him as a commander and leader. Blake distinguished himself by his gallant defence of Prior’s Hill fort, at the siege of Bristol in 1643, which he would have held, but for the surrender by his chief, Colonel Fiennes. In his next command, Blake had not a pusillanimous commander to overrule him, and showed conclusively the stuff he was made of. He had won the confidence of the Parliament, and was appointed to the Somerset Committee of Ways and Means, and to the lieutenant-colonelcy of Popham’s regiment, a body of stalwart Roundheads, fifteen thousand strong. He made an entry into Bridgewater, with the intention of seizing the castle, but finding that the attempt would be foolhardy, he desisted, and marched with his regiment to Lyme, where he was wanted for the defence of the place. He had a sad memory to carry away from this visit to the familiar scenes of the home of his youth. His younger brother Samuel, who was with his force, strayed from headquarters, and boldly attacked a Royalist recruiting party he fell in with. He was slain in the fray. When the news reached the town, the officers were greatly distressed. Colonel Blake suspected from their grave conferences that there was something wrong, of which they were reluctant to tell him. He demanded information, which was given reluctantly in the communication, “Your brother Sam is killed,” explaining how the thing came to pass. The colonel’s grave response was, “Sam had no business there.” Retiring, however, to the Swan Inn, he shut himself up in a room, and mourned bitterly the loss of his brother.

Colonel Blake’s defence of the “little vile fishing town” of Lyme, as Clarendon contemptuously calls it, was a brilliant service. It was besieged by Prince Maurice after he had failed in an attempt to take Plymouth by storm. It was a small place, with a population of about a thousand inhabitants. The natural defences were very weak. The Cavaliers in descending from the heights behind the town, drove in Blake’s outposts, charged with horse, and a shower of hand grenades. The prince summoned Blake to surrender, but the summons was only answered by a fire that emptied many saddles, threw the attacking force into confusion, and compelled them to retire. Day after day, from week to week, the attack was renewed by siege trains and storming parties, in which many gallant Cavaliers were slain. Charles was at Oxford, where he and his court waited in anxious expectation the defeat of Blake and the fall of Lyme, the successful defence of which seemed a marvel and a mystery. Instead of receiving the welcome news of Blake’s defeat, they had the mortifying intelligence, that his spirited defence was rousing and rallying the dispersed Parliamentary party in those parts. After a protracted siege, Warwick’s fleet arrived, in time to save Colonel Blake and his besieged heroes from being starved out. The siege was raised, after a loss to the Royalists of two thousand men, many of them of noble and gentle blood,--Blake’s fire having been more deadly, and the cause of heavier loss, than all the actions in the West since the commencement of the war.

Blake’s name and fame were now established, and he had proved his capacity sufficiently to be trusted to cut out his own work. All over the western counties the Cavaliers had strong fortresses, and consequently a line of communication. Blake saw that the possession of Taunton by his party would be of vital importance. He made a rapid march upon it, and carried it almost without encountering resistance. This was on the 8th of July 1644, six days after Cromwell and the Scots had defeated Prince Rupert at the battle of Marston Moor. The possession of Taunton was as important to the Cavaliers as it was to the Parliamentarians, and troops poured round the lines that had been formed for the defence of the inland town. Blake, who had been invested with office as Governor of Taunton, was summoned to surrender, but a deaf ear was turned to the summons. Again, the Governor of Bridgewater, Wyndham, sent an earnest entreaty to his old neighbour and fellow-townsman to accept the liberal terms of surrender offered, but Blake was influenced by a sense of public duty with which considerations of friendly ties or his own personal safety and comfort could not be allowed to interfere. Appeals to the patriot were made in vain, and so the siege began.

Governor Wyndham, who had charge of the attack, formed a blockade, barricading the roads with trees. A clever German officer who joined Blake made a dashing attack on Wyndham’s line, and broke it, which gave a short relief; but Goring’s forces came up from Weymouth to join in the attack, their track marked by every horror that can accompany civil war. Many of the inhabitants, to escape slaughter, fled before Goring to the besieged town, as to a sanctuary. Taunton excited the king’s party to fury; numerous councils were held, and various plans proposed, to effect its speedy subjugation. Their whole power was brought to bear upon it. Blake’s defence exhibited a rare combination of civil and military genius. The spectacle was one of the most remarkable ever presented in the history of battles and sieges. An inland town, without walls for defence, or any natural protection, surrounded by strong castles and garrisons, and invested by an enemy numerous, watchful, and well supplied with artillery,--the defenders successfully resisting the attacks persistently made upon it for months. This stubborn resistance paralysed the king’s power, and gave to Cromwell the opportunity, of which he took full advantage, of remodelling his army. The besieged town was surrounded, as by a wall of fire. The suburbs were burned and pillaged, and the outer houses of the town crumbled into rubbish before the continuous shower of cannon balls. The brave defenders suffered the pangs of famine, but Blake’s zeal sustained their drooping courage and continued resistance. One of his answers, during a parley, to a repeated summons to surrender, was that he had four pairs of boots left, and would eat three pairs of them before he would give in. Another time, when threatened that when the town surrendered, unless it surrendered now, all but seven persons found in it would be put to the sword, his reply was, that he wanted the names of the seven, and their bodies would be sent out. He and his brave comrades were almost in the last stage of suffering and peril when Fairfax sent four regiments to his relief, and the siege was raised on the 11th May 1645.

The country around Taunton was terribly devastated, and almost completely depopulated, and the spectacle presented by the town inexpressibly shocking. This remarkable siege, which lasted a year, attracted the attention and admiration of foreign military critics, who did Blake the honour of pronouncing Taunton the modern Saguntum. Goring, the Royalist commander, had sworn fiercely that he would take the town, or leave his body in the trenches. He did neither, but beat a sullen retreat.

Blake’s victory was a great triumph for Parliament, which voted him thanks, and a gift of £500. Although elected to sit in Parliament for Taunton, and now regarded as a distinguished national hero, he did not attend Parliament, or put himself in the way of the popular ovations that many would have courted rather than avoided. It is believed that he had no sympathy with the regicides, and reported, indeed, concerning his feelings on this subject, that he would “as freely venture his life to save the king as he had ventured it to serve the Parliament.” He was a practical and a moderate man, and a gentleman, and had only opposed the king, because the king’s policy and conduct had been, as he considered, unjust, and dangerous to Protestantism and the State. With the king in prison, and his cause defeated, Blake was satisfied.

It was not desirable, Cromwell and his party probably thought, that a man possessing, deservedly, such commanding influence, of such independent mind, and holding opinions so moderate, should be near the centre of affairs or intrigues. Some such considerations may have led to his being appointed to the chief naval command. He possessed in an eminent degree the higher qualities necessary in a naval commander, but their cultivation was commenced at an unprecedentedly late period in life. If he had commenced his nautical training early, and continued it during the whole of his life, he could scarcely have achieved higher fame than he did, though his naval career began at fifty years of age. He vacated his comparatively quiet post of Governor of Taunton--his chief duties connected probably with the rebuilding of the town--to assume office as “General and Admiral at Sea,” a title afterwards changed to “General of the Fleet,” and again to “Admiral of the Fleet.”

Blake’s career and history are unique; among its greatest men, the world has rarely seen an accomplished scholar, a famous general, and still more famous admiral, with such a splendid record, united in one and the same man. The scope of his powers, the strength of his character, his wonderful ability to adapt himself to his position and surroundings, the rapidity with which he acquired knowledge,--in a word, his master mind, were abundantly displayed in the command of a force, that employed a language and conducted operations with which he had been previously entirely unacquainted.

It has been conjectured that the Blakes of Somersetshire came originally from Northumberland, and that the “forbears” of the Northumbrian Blakes, Blackes, or Blaks, a Scandinavian name, hailed from Norway or Denmark.

Blake joined the fleet on the 18th April 1649, eight months after the revolt of a part of the fleet to the Royalists. His first expedition was against his old adversary, Prince Rupert, who had also taken to the sea, and whose exploits were not of a very dignified character, consisting of picking up merchant ships in the Channel, and conveying them to Kinsale harbour, on the south coast of County Cork. Blake blockaded the prince for a long time, but he contrived to escape, with the loss of three ships, and made for Portugal, whither Blake followed, and again blockaded him in the river Tagus. Here Blake seized the Brazil fleet of the King of Portugal, and afterwards pursued and harassed Rupert, hither and thither, in the Mediterranean. Blake destroyed the principal part of the prince’s fleet at Carthagena, and Rupert escaped with three ships to the West Indies. He had been sheltered for a time at Toulon, which Blake avenged by taking several French ships. This first cruise in the Mediterranean by Admiral Blake was the beginning of our maritime influence and ultimate ascendency in those important waters.

The admiral’s maritime operations were watched with lively interest at home, and the result of his first cruises to Ireland, Portugal, and the Mediterranean was to fairly inaugurate his naval fame. It had seasoned him in his new profession, and made him every inch a sailor. He very soon commanded the confidence of the men,--became among them, indeed, an object of almost affectionate adoration. The naval system of the time stood greatly in need of reform, and no man could have been found more capable and willing to effect needed reforms than Blake. His care for the wellbeing of the men, and his progressive reforms, commenced at once with his going on board. It has been said concerning him that “he was from first to last England’s model seaman. Envy, hatred, and jealousy dogged the steps of every other officer of the fleet.” The Council of State conferred upon him almost unlimited powers, which he exercised with masterly success, startling officials and others by his bold and independent action, and contempt for established routine and red-tape, when they stood in the way of what he considered the best means for attaining desired ends. With but slender resources he performed extraordinary exploits. He effectually suppressed Prince Rupert, and put an end to his freebooting performances, and next directed his attention to Sir John Grenville in the Scilly Isles, and Sir George Cartaret in Jersey, who were seizing and plundering homeward-bound traders. It had been an axiom before Blake’s time that ships were not expected to attack, and should not waste power in attacking, castles. He had no respect for the restriction, and brought down the strongholds that the piratical Cavaliers had established in Scilly, Guernsey, and Jersey. The unfortunate Cavaliers whom the civil war had ruined, who had found refuge in these islands, and occupation in plundering at sea, were thus dispersed. For his services Blake was again thanked by Parliament, and voted a thousand pounds. He was also honoured with the appointment of Warden of the Cinque Ports.

In the year 1652, Blake had reached the age of fifty-three, but was still young and inexperienced as commander of a fleet. Able or otherwise, competent or incompetent, he was forced into conflict with the most thoroughly experienced, courageous, and competent naval commander, and the most powerful navy of the time--that of Holland. It had to be settled, whether England or Holland was to be sovereign of the seas. The foes that Blake had hitherto encountered at sea, such as Prince Rupert, Grenville, and Cartaret, were comparatively insignificant; he was now called upon to defeat, or be defeated by, such redoubtable and experienced naval commanders as Van Tromp, De Witt, and De Ruyter. Van Tromp, who of the trio named was Blake’s first antagonist, was the son of a famous sea-captain, and had been afloat since he was ten years old.

Blake’s first encounter with Van Tromp was caused by an act of defiance on the part of the Dutch. During the civil wars in England they had acquired great naval power and commercial prosperity. They wished to combat, therefore, the long maintained supremacy of the English flag in the narrow seas, where foreigners were accustomed to strike their colours on meeting our flag. Van Tromp, with a fleet of forty-five men-of-war, appeared in the Downs, where Blake was lying. Blake had only twenty ships with him, but, on the approach of the Dutch admiral’s ship, he fired three shots across his bows, to require him to show the usual respect to the flag, in seas considered to be under British dominion. Van Tromp answered with a broadside, and hung out the red flag as a signal for an engagement. Blake, in a vehement passion, curling his whiskers, as he used to do when angry, answered in kind, and for some time stood alone in his flag-ship against the whole force of the enemy, when, the rest of the squadron coming up, the battle went on from four P.M. till nine,--the Dutch then retreating, and leaving two of their vessels in his hands.

Blake continued to master the Channel. All pretence of reserve being thrown away, in consequence of the late engagement, he exerted all his power to harass the enemy’s trade, and to fit out such vessels as had fallen into his hand for immediate service against them. His cruisers brought prizes into port almost daily during the latter part of May and June. One day he received intelligence that a Dutch fleet of twenty-six traders, convoyed by three men-of-war, was coming up the Channel. They were all captured, traders and convoy, and the latter immediately manned and fitted for service. In less than a month, to the surprise and ecstasy of the Londoners, he had sent into the river more than forty rich prizes, captured in open sea from their vigilant and powerful enemy. The Dutch merchants were compelled to abandon the Straits. Their argosies from the south of Europe, and from the East and West Indies, had either to run for safety into French ports, and send their cargoes overland at an immense loss, or make the long and dangerous voyage round by the north. This brilliant success vivified the Council of State with new life. Orders were given to strengthen Dover pier. Forty sail were added by a vote to the fleet. At Blake’s suggestion, six additional fire-ships were prepared. The seamen’s wages were raised; and the vice-admirals of all the maritime stations from Norfolk to Hampshire were requested to summon together all mariners between the ages of fifteen and twenty, young, ardent, docile, and engage them in the State’s service. The Council of State, of which Blake was a member, resolved that the entire fleet should be raised to 250 sail and 14 fire-ships. At the end of one month from the fight off Dover, the energetic admiral could count with patriotic pride no less than 105 vessels, carrying 3961 guns under his flag.

_Off Dover, 10th December 1652._]

“The Dutch preparations for the campaign were also made ‘on the grandest scale.’ In a few weeks their renowned admiral, ripe in age, honours, and experience, saw himself at the head of 120 sail of ships--a power more than sufficient, in the opinion of every patriotic Dutchman, to sweep the English navy from the face of the earth.”

Blake proceeded to the North Sea, in the _Resolution_, of sixty-eight guns, accompanied by a squadron of smaller vessels, to disperse the great herring fleet of the Dutch. While in the North Sea on this service, Van Tromp followed him with a large fleet; but a tremendous storm scattered the Dutch forces, shattering on the rocks some of the vessels, and dispersing the others, so that the Dutch admiral had to return home to refit his vessels. Blake had kept his fleet together under shelter of the mainland of the Shetland Islands, and although he had not escaped without serious injury to many ships, he had not suffered nearly so much. He hung in the rear of the disabled Dutch ships, ravaged the coasts of Zealand, and reached Yarmouth with prizes and nine hundred prisoners. Clamorous at a reverse in a fleet from which victory had been expected, a Dutch mob insulted Van Tromp, and, in a fit of disgust, he laid down his commission, and retired into private life.

We may note here Van Tromp’s career. At ten years old, he was present in his father’s ship at the famous battle fought against Spain under the walls of Gibraltar in 1607. Shortly after that memorable event, he was captured by an English cruiser, after a brisk engagement, in which his father lost his life. Two years and a half he was compelled to serve in the menial capacity of cabin-boy on board the captor,--and thus were the seeds of hatred to England and the English sown in his proud and passionate heart. Once planted, this hatred grew with his growth, and strengthened with his strength. For a long time his life was passed on board fishing-boats and merchantmen; but his nautical genius was irresistible, and he fought his way through legions of obstacles to high command. At thirty years old he was confessedly the ablest navigator in Holland. More than twenty years he had now commanded his country’s fleet with success against Spain,--and had done more than any other individual to humble the pride and reduce the power of that extensive empire.

The States-General of Holland associated De Ruyter with De Witt in the supreme command of the Dutch navy; Blake and Ayscue were associated in the command of the force which was to meet the next attack to be delivered by the Dutch against the English in English waters. Meantime Blake, with characteristic judgment and promptitude, delivered a blow in another direction. He overhauled and defeated a French squadron on its way to relieve Dunkirk from the siege of the Archduke Leopold. Blake’s intervention was completely successful, and ensured prevention of the use of Dunkirk by the Dutch against the English, with the connivance of the French Government. This prompt action on Blake’s part was evidence of his genius and of his keen perception as a commander, and of the confidence reposed in him by the Commonwealth.

Much more imposing events in Blake’s career than any hitherto recorded were now pending. It had to be determined whether the English or Dutch were to be “Mistress of the Seas.” On the 28th September 1652, the Dutch fleet were off the North Foreland under De Witt, De Ruyter, and Evertsen. Blake, in the _Resolution_, at about four o’clock in the afternoon, bore down upon them, signalling the ships of his squadron to reserve their fire for close quarters,--and a murderous fire it was at close quarters till nightfall,--when the Dutch drew off, but still fighting. Two of the Dutch ships went down in the action, and two were carried, by boarding. Next morning, De Witt would have continued the fight, but De Ruyter and Evertsen refused to renew the action, and the Dutch fleet, terribly cut up, went home. Blake pursuing, was received with scorn and contempt; but his return was hailed with enthusiasm by his grateful countrymen.

The States, with wonderful energy and rapidity, got together another great fleet to sweep English waters of any power that might dare to oppose it. It was commanded by Van Tromp, De Ruyter, Evertsen, and Floritz. Blake’s commission was renewed as General and Admiral of the Fleet, with General Monk and Colonel Deane as colleagues. Not anticipating a renewed attack in force by the Dutch, Blake had separated his force for a number of duties to different destinations, and had only retained a fleet of thirty-seven ships, including frigates, in the Channel. With this small force he had to meet Van Tromp at the head of a hundred Dutch men-of-war. Notwithstanding the enormous disparity of force, Blake did not flinch, but stood to his guns, and for once, as was not to be wondered at, had the worst of the fight. In evidence that he had swept the sea, Van Tromp cruised along the south coast with a broom at his mast-head. Blake was dissatisfied with the conduct of some of his commanders, and asked to be relieved of his command. His proffered resignation was not accepted; on the contrary, the Council of State thanked him for his conduct in the engagement. Blake’s own brother Benjamin had not conducted himself to the admiral’s satisfaction, and he was sent ashore,--no excuse he could offer availing to avert the disgrace.

In February 1653, Blake was again at sea with a fleet of sixty ships, with Monk and Deane and a force of soldiers on board. With him were Penn as vice-admiral, and Lawson as rear-admiral. On the 18th, Van Tromp was sighted near Cape de la Hogue; he was in charge of a considerable convoy of merchantmen. As if eager for the fray, he left them to windward, and bore down upon the English. The leading ships of the English, in which were the three admirals, were considerably ahead of Monk and the main body of the fleet, for whom, however, they did not wait. Van Tromp in the _Brederode_ passed on the weather-side of the _Triumph_, into which he poured a broadside, which he repeated from under the lee. The rearward ships of the English fleet came up with all speed, and a terrific general action ensued. The incessant roar of the guns was heard with exciting interest on both sides of the Channel, proclaiming the fierce struggle between the sea giants. In the action itself and around it, startling evidence abounded of its destructive character, and the resolute purpose and fierce valour of the combatants on both sides. Here, a ship on fire belching its towers of lurid flame into the cold wintry sky; there, two opposing ships crashing against each other; in another place, the wild shouts of the boarders, making headlong charges, met, repulsed, and renewed with varying fortune. The battle commenced in the forenoon; Monk, with the white division of the English fleet, came up at noon, and the whole of the forces continued engaged during the remainder of the day. The day’s action cost the bold and bellicose Van Tromp eight of his ships by destruction or capture. Sorely crippled and deeply wounded, but not subdued, he retreated, only to look after the merchantmen of his convoy that looked to him for protection. Several of Blake’s fleet had been boarded, but recaptured; one of his ships, the _Sampson_, had the captain and a large number of the men killed; those who remained were transferred to Blake’s own ship, the _Triumph_,--and the _Sampson_ was allowed to drift to leeward. The _Triumph_ and her crew suffered greatly in the action; Ball the captain was killed, the men were mown down at their guns, Blake himself was wounded in the leg, and the decks ran red with blood. The long night was spent in sending away, and otherwise caring for, the wounded, and in preparing for a renewal of the conflict on the morrow.

Enclosing his convoy in such position as he thought would best enable him to protect them, Van Tromp sailed up channel with them in the morning with a light breeze. Blake followed him up, and a running fight was kept up throughout the second day, at the close of which Van Tromp had lost five more of his ships, and he retreated towards Boulogne. It was the Dutch commander’s misfortune to be clogged by subordinates who were unworthy to serve under such a courageous leader. Some of his cowardly captains who advised retreat were indignantly ordered to retire, and did so during the night. On the morning of the third day, Blake renewed the attack upon Van Tromp’s reduced forces,--the gallant Dutchman suffering grave disadvantage from the encumbrance of his convoy, as well as from the demoralisation of a part at least of the officers and men of the fleet. He endeavoured to send off the merchantmen to Calais, but the wind was against them, and the merchantmen and fighting ships got mixed up, hindering his effective action. Blake, of course, made legitimate use of his advantages, and, pressing him hard, drove the defeated Dutch admiral--the broom no longer at his mast-head--to take shelter with the remnant of his fleet on the French coast. In the morning it was found that Van Tromp had departed, carrying the news of his own defeat. So ended this famous battle, in which the English loss was great and grievous, but that of the enemy much more disastrous. The flag-ship _Triumph_ suffered greatly in its encounters with Van Tromp’s ship, the two commanding admirals and their respective ships being much engaged in close encounter with each other. Captain Ball of the _Triumph_ was shot dead; Mr. Sparrow, Blake’s secretary, fell at his feet while taking his orders; a hundred of the crew were killed, and about as many wounded; the _Fairfax_ had a hundred men killed, the _Vanguard_ and other ships also suffering severely. Van Tromp’s ship was disabled, and the greater part of its officers slain. Eight men-of-war and a large number of the Dutch merchantmen fell into the hands of the English. The Dutch loss in the three days’ engagement has been stated at eleven men-of-war, thirty merchantmen, fifteen hundred killed, and as many wounded. The English only lost one ship, the _Sampson_, which, as stated, was allowed to drift and founder, after the crew were taken off. Blake made effective use of the soldiers on board, this being one of the earliest occasions of the many upon which the marines, as they are now called, have highly distinguished themselves in action.

Blake’s great victory caused much jubilation in London; a national thanksgiving was appointed, and a Patriotic Fund was formed for the benefit of the widows and children of the men who had fallen in the conflict. Blake remained for a time at St. Helen’s, refitting and preparing for what might next happen in the way of a Dutch attack. Learning that Van Tromp was again preparing for sea, Blake proceeded to the Texel, where he did not exactly flourish a broom in sight of the enemy, but treated him with like provocation, without effect, however; and he next proceeded with a small squadron, with which he cruised for a time off the east coast of Scotland, where he was on 20th April 1653, when Cromwell came down to the House of Commons, drove out the Rump Parliament, locked the door of the House, and put the key in his pocket. Admiral Blake did not personally figure as a politician in these important State events. As a commander of the State forces, he held that it was not his “business to mind State affairs, but to keep foreigners from fooling us,” and he remained afloat at his post.

In June the Dutch again made a marine parade in the Channel, with a hundred and twenty ships of war, carrying four admirals. Admiral Lawson of the blue squadron first fell in with them, and engaged De Ruyter on the forenoon of the 2nd June. The ships of both fleets came up promptly, and a desperate broadside engagement at close quarters ensued. The fight was continued to the close of the long summer day, and after a few hours’ interval and some manœuvring, was renewed with unabated fury in the morning. Blake, who had joined the Channel fleet with his squadron from the North, had with him his nephew, also a Robert Blake, a young hero who distinguished himself by breaking the Dutch line, amid the roaring cheers of the men of the English fleet. Van Tromp was furious, and his men on board the _Brederode_ performed desperate feats of valour. They boarded Admiral Penn’s ship, the _James_, but were repulsed and followed to the _Brederode_, the sacred quarter-deck of which was reached by the men of the _James_. This was more than Van Tromp could stand, and he threw a firebrand into the magazine, which blew up the decks and effectually dispersed the boarders. The Dutch admiral’s own life was saved as if by miracle, but belief that he was killed brought the crisis of the battle. The Dutch fleet broke into wild disorder, and sheered off, each taking its own course, the English in hot pursuit, sinking one after another of the fugitives. Van Tromp got away, but his defeat was crushing and final. The Dutch had eight men-of-war destroyed, eleven captured, and a very heavy loss in officers and men. The English ships were terribly battered and damaged, but the loss in killed and wounded was much less than that sustained by the enemy.

Hard work, hard living, and high pressure conquered, in their combined attack, on Admiral Blake’s health and strength, and he was reluctantly compelled to go ashore, ill with a complication of disorders, including the sailor’s peculiar distemper, scurvy, fever, and threatened dropsy. While the great commander was thus disabled, and involuntarily off duty, it devolved upon Admirals Penn and Lawson and General Monk to conduct the last grand encounter with the naval power of the Dutch Republic. Van Tromp, De Ruyter, and Evertsen, were again the opposing commanders. Again the battle lasted for three days, and again the English were completely victorious, and achieved for England the title, never since disputed, of being “Mistress of the Seas.” On the last of these three days, the great Van Tromp received a bullet in his heart, which, we feel sure, caused him much less pain, than he would have suffered, had he been spared to cherish the bitter memory of his defeat.

During his temporary retirement from the navy, Admiral Blake attended in his place in Parliament, transacted important business with the Navy Commissioners, dined occasionally with Oliver Cromwell, and gave energetically his personal attention and labours to the important work of reform, not of the navy and its administration,--in these he had already effected great reforms,--but of other important public institutions. He aspired, even, to “purging the churches of England of ignorant, scandalous, and inefficient pastors.” Blake was a man among ten thousand, and was doubtless equal to the efficient discharge of even this delicate and difficult duty. It may be noted that he was a great student of the Bible, and regularly conducted the family devotions in his own house.

The naval supremacy that Admiral Blake had done so much to achieve was not to remain inert or valueless. Proud, priest-ridden Spain, the enemy of truth, righteousness, and freedom of worship, had to be crippled and humbled. A new naval force was created and organised in 1654, and Blake, at the head of a fleet, sailed from England, with sealed orders, towards the end of that year. He first visited Cadiz, whence he sailed in pursuit of the Duke of Guise, who was understood to have gone to Naples with hostile intent. The duke was not there, and Blake next proceeded to Leghorn, where he demanded and obtained from the Grand Duke of Tuscany a large sum of money as compensation to the owners of ships, that had been sold there by the Princes Rupert and Maurice. The admiral’s name and fame had preceded him, and his irresistible power caused consternation among the states bordering on the Mediterranean. Having settled with the Duke of Tuscany, he next sent in his account against the sovereign pontiff, Alexander VII., for ships sold by the same princes, in ports under the sovereignty of His Holiness. The admiral did not object to foreign coin in payment, and accordingly received on board the sixty-gun ship _George_, the sum of twenty thousand pistoles, in whole or part payment of his Roman account. He next sailed southwards, with the desire of bringing the piratical powers of North Africa to a better state of mind and behaviour. The Bey of Tunis resisted Blake’s overtures, and left the admiral the only alternative of battering his forts and burning all the corsair ships he could get at, both of which he did. He visited in succession Tripoli, Venice, Malta, and Versailles, and was received at some places with honour,--at others with fear and constrained hospitality. He may be regarded as the pioneer, the first of the long line of English admirals that entered with pride the noble bay of Valetta, as an English possession. At Algiers he ransomed, for a moderate sum, a number of Englishmen who had fallen into the hands of the Algerine corsairs. A cheery illustration of the good heart of the jolly tars of the time was given while the squadron lay off Algiers. A number of captives, pursued by Moors, swam from the shore to the English ships, and were readily hauled on board, and found to be Dutchmen. The English sailors raised a subscription for them,--many of the men giving a dollar out of their wages,--and the Dutchmen were sent home happy and grateful.

Admiral Blake next touched at Malaga, and reached the Bay of Cadiz in June. By this time his ships were getting much in need of overhauling and repair, and stores were run out, particularly water, renewed supply of which was often obtained with difficulty; and, most distressing of all, the hero’s health and strength were failing greatly, which naturally caused sore depression of spirits. In a touching letter to Cromwell, dated “Aboard the _George_ in Cascaes Road, August 30, 1655,” he writes, after stating some of the difficulties he was encountering: “Our only comfort is that we have a God to lean upon, although we walk in darkness and see no light. I shall not trouble your Highness with any complaints of myself, of the indisposition of my body or the troubles of my mind; my many infirmities will one day, I doubt not, plead for me, or against me, so that I may be free of so great a burden, consoling myself meantime in the Lord, and in the firm purpose of my heart with all faithfulness and sincerity, to discharge the trust while reposed in me.”

Although sick and broken, and having well earned his rest, his great heart quailed not nor failed. Cromwell had lost a number of his principal commanders by death or defection, and Blake honoured the draft upon such powers as remained with him. He superintended the operations in the dockyard and arsenal when ashore. At the end of February 1656, he was again afloat in the _Naseby_. He took on board as his colleague Edward Montague, afterwards Earl of Sandwich. The departing fleet sailed down channel, westward. In the waning light of the bleak brief day, the grave, grand, and heroic patriot took his last look of the hills and vales and rock-bound shores of old England--the country that he had served so well, and that was honoured in having such a son.

His first duty after leaving England was of a diplomatic nature, being to effect, if possible, a satisfactory permanent treaty with Portugal. He left a part of his squadron to watch Cadiz, and came to an anchor with the remainder of the fleet at the mouth of the Tagus. He kept a lookout for the homeward-bound Spanish argosies, and had his patience severely tried. The squadron suffered greatly from a succession of violent gales. Running short of provisions and water, the admiral proceeded northwards to Portugal for supplies, leaving the watching squadron of seven ships under the command of Captain Stayner. They had not long parted company ere the expected fleet was sighted--four splendid Spanish galleons, and two Indian merchant ships, laden amongst them with products rich and rare, in gold and silver, pearls and gems, indigo, cochineal, tobacco, etc. It was on the evening of 8th September that the homeward-bounds caught sight of Stayner’s frigates, which they at first mistook for a protecting guard that was to convoy them into port in safety and glad triumph. They were speedily undeceived by Stayner swooping down upon them. They resisted desperately, and there were six hours of hard fighting, in which heavy loss in life and treasure was sustained. The treasure ships had on board as passengers high dignitaries and members of some of the proudest families of Spain and its possessions; one of the ships plundered first, was afterwards the burning tomb of a viceroy and his family who had sailed in it. Montague took home the prizes. The treasure was forwarded to London in thirty-eight heavily-laden waggons, many of them freighted with gold and silver. Under strong military escort, it passed along the streets to the Tower, amid the ringing cheers of the crowd who turned out to welcome its arrival.

Blake, amid hardships and trials that he was now ill fitted to stand against, kept faithfully his post off Cadiz. In the spring of 1657 he made a run to Tetuan, and gave a salutary word of warning to the Barbary pirates, that had a restraining effect upon these marauders. “From information received,” but from what source is not communicated, Admiral Blake had reason to believe that another bullion fleet had crossed the Atlantic, and had taken shelter somewhere about the Canary Islands: hither he repaired with his squadron. It was even so, the silver fleet had taken shelter in the strongly fortified harbour of Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe. The spacious harbour is of horse-shoe shape, and was dominated by a strong castle above the inner portion of the area, flanked on each side by a series of forts, connected with earthworks, available for musketry. The water was so deep that the ships could lie close under the forts. The castle and forts were well supplied with guns. The galleons also had their broadsides turned to the narrow entrance of the harbour. To an enemy the harbour entrance seemed the veritable jaws of death. The governor believed his position impregnable, and the precious fleet in the harbour unassailable and absolutely secure. The redoubtable admiral was prostrate from illness, but, with indomitable spirit, he rose from his couch to preside at a council of war. The plan of attack decided on was, for the admiral to lead and direct the bombardment of the castle and the forts, and for Captain Richard Stayner to direct his force against the galleons. Blake and Stayner had twenty-five ships between them. For his second’s share in the action Blake chose the innovation, as some authorities considered it, that he had introduced, of attacking strong castles and forts from the floating wooden walls of Old England. The attacking ships were received by a tremendous simultaneous volley from the whole of the guns of the castle, the forts, and the galleys, that could be brought to bear upon them.

It was a battle of gunnery, of weight of metal, of rapidity and precision of delivery. In these particulars the English had the advantage. The forts were knocked about the ears of the gunners that manned them, and silenced one after another. That morning the ships’ companies had prayers before breakfast, and the terrible day’s work commenced immediately after. About noon, Blake had disposed of the land forces so satisfactorily as to be at liberty to assist Stayner in completing the destruction of the galleons, which would have been brought out and carried away as prizes, had this been possible. About two o’clock the work of destruction had been completed. Two of the Spanish ships went down in the course of the attack, and the whole of the others were burned. A favourable change in the wind carried the victors out with flying colours, leaving the costly contents and strong defences of the harbour utterly wrecked. The English only sustained the almost incredibly small loss of about fifty killed, and about three times that number wounded. Of this action the historian Clarendon says: “The whole action was so miraculous that all men who knew the place wondered that any sober man, with what courage soever endowed, would ever undertake it; and they could hardly persuade themselves to believe what they had done, whilst the Spaniards comforted themselves with the belief that they were devils, and not men, who had destroyed them in such a manner.”

This brilliant and daring feat of arms caused the highest degree of admiration and delight at home. Cromwell ordered a day of public thanksgiving for the victory; a ring of the value of five hundred guineas was voted to Blake by Parliament; and a gratuity of one hundred pounds to the captain who had brought the intelligence; thanks were also voted to the officers, sailors, and soldiers who had been concerned in the action.

It was the great admiral’s last battle with mortal foes! He was approaching to close quarters with “the last great enemy.” On his way home he paid a visit to Morocco, where he exercised his influence, in further restraining the Sallee rovers, and in procuring the deliverance of some of their Christian captives. He was completely successful in his negotiations, and at last, suffering much, wearied and worn-out, he turned his prow towards “home.” Cromwell’s letter, the thanks of Parliament, and the jewel of honour met him on the way, but he was past saving by such solace. While crossing the Bay of Biscay, his illness increased rapidly without check. When England was sighted he was dying, and while others were delighting in the vision of the long-looked-for shores, his noble spirit passed away. He died on board his ship, the _St. George_, on the 17th August 1657, when he was just entering his sixtieth year. “The _St. George_,” says Mr. Hepworth Dixon in his _Life of Blake_, “rode with its precious burden into the Sound; and just as it came into full view of the eager thousands crowding the beach, the pier-head, the walls of the citadel, or darting in countless boats over the smooth waters between St. Nicholas and the docks, ready to catch the first glimpse of the hero of Santa Cruz, and salute him with a true English welcome,--he, in his silent cabin, in the midst of his lion-hearted comrades, now sobbing like little children, yielded up his soul to God.”

His body, embalmed, and enclosed in lead, was carried by sea to Greenwich, where it lay in state for several days. Thence the remains were conveyed in a splendid barge to Westminster Abbey for interment. The imposing river procession embraced a large number of mourners of wide variety in rank and condition, including his relations and servants, Cromwell’s Council, the Commissioners of the Navy, admirals and generals, the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London, and a large number of persons of distinction, in their barges and wherries,--the whole marshalled by the heralds at arms. At Westminster, the body had a guard of honour of several regiments of foot, and was landed amid salvoes of artillery. The remains were deposited in a vault in Henry Seventh’s Chapel. A few years later, after the Restoration, Blake’s remains, among those of some others, were rejected from the Abbey, and buried in the Abbey yard, where they have since, it is believed, remained undisturbed. “To their eternal infamy,” says his biographer, “the Stuarts afterwards disturbed the hero’s grave.... Blake had ever been for mild and moderate councils. He had opposed the late king’s trial.... The infamy belonged to Charles himself. Good men looked aghast at such atrocity....” Blake “had laid the foundations of our lasting influence in the Mediterranean, and, in eight years of success, had made England the first maritime power in Europe.”

Blake exhibited a combination of high excellences of character and disposition, and capabilities that are rarely met with in one man. As a leader and commander he was undauntedly brave, fertile in expedients, irresistible in action. Anxious only for the glory and interest of his country, he took no care for personal aggrandisement. “His contempt for money, his impatience with the mere vanities of power, were supreme. Bribery he abhorred in all its shapes. He was frank and open to a fault; his heart was ever in his hand, and his mind ever on his lips. His honesty, modesty, generosity, sincerity, and magnanimity were unimpeached. The care and interest with which he looked to the wellbeing of his humblest followers made him eminently popular in the fleet. He was one of England’s simplest, truest, bravest captains, one of her greatest naval heroes, and he was truly a knight _sans peur et sans reproche_.”

GEORGE MONK, K.G.,

DUKE OF ALBEMARLE.