Plate:  Silver in the form of dinnerware, silver services, etc.  Anything made of silver was referred to as "plate"

as distinguished from coin or ingots.







THE BATTLE OF VIGO BAY (Vigo, Spain, 1702) extract (1815)



A Biographical Memoir of Sir Cloudesly Shovel



Originally printed in the March, 1815, issue of The Naval Chronicle



On the 8th of March, 1702, King William died ; and on the 4th of May, Queen Anne declared war against France. The first Instance of public service performed by Sir Cloudesley under the Queen (with whom, or her Court, he was not in equal favour), was his presiding at a court martial held on the conduct of Sir John Munden, whose character had been aspersed, as it appeared, unjustly.



The command of the grand fleet was given to Sir George Rooke, Duke of Ormond, with directions to carry into effect an expedition planned previously to the death of the late King, to get possession of Cadiz for the Archduke Charles.



On the 30th of May, the admiral hoisted the union flag on board the Royal Sovereign, the Dutch fleet joined, and on the 10th of June the armament sailed from St. Helen`s, consisting of thirty English and twenty Dutch ships of the line, with 13,800 troops. On the 12th of August they anchored before the harbour of Cadiz. The governor was, the next day, summoned by the Duke of Ormond to surrender. The governor, consistently with his loyalty, refused; and on the 15th the Duke of Ormond landed with the troops, and in a short time got possession of the forts of St. Katherine and St. Mary; but here their progress was stopped, and the troops were re-embarked to return home.



In the meanwhile Captain Hardy, in the Pembroke, having been sent to Lagos bay to water, received intelligence from Mr. Methuen, at Lisbon, that the galleons from the West Indies had put into Vigo, under convoy of a French squadron. Captain Hardy (knighted for this service) lost no time in communicating this intelligence to the admiral, and Sir George Rooke called a council of war, in which it was determined to attack the enemy in the port of Vigo. On the 11th of October they reached the part, the condition of which presented many difficulties. The passage into the harbour was extremely narrow - both sides well defended by batteries - a strong boom, composed of ship`s yards and top-masts, fastened together with 3-inch rope, and underneath with hawsers and cables, laid across the entrance, at each end of which was moored, with chains, a seventy-four gun ship, and within it five ships from seventy to sixty guns, with their broadsides to the sea. The depth of water not admitting the ships of first and second rates, Sir George and the other admirals shifted their flags into smaller ones. Fifteen sail of English, and ten Dutch ships of war with all the frigates, bomb-vessels, and fire-ships, were ordered in readiness to force the passage into the harbour, as soon as the troops landed under the Duke of Ormond and Lord Shannon should be in possession of the batteries, which was effected much sooner than the means of the enemy to prevent it gave them any reason to expect; for Lord Shannon having, at the head of five hundred men, possessed himself of a platform of 40 pieces of cannon, the French governor, Mon. Sozel, ordered the gates to be thrown open for the purpose of forcing his way through the English troops, and the English grenadiers entered and made the whole garrison prisoners of war.



No sooner was the English flag seen flying, than the ships advanced, and Vice-admiral Hopson, in the Torbay, crowding all the sail he could, broke the boom, and the Kent and the rest of the squadron entered the harbour. The enemy fought bravely. One of their fire-ships laid the Torbay on board, and would have destroyed her, but for a quantity of snuff which she had on board, and which extinguished the flames when she came to blow up. The fore-top-mast was shot by the board, most of the sails scorched or burnt, the fore-yard consumed to a coal, the larboard shrouds fore and aft burnt at the dead eyes, several ports blown off the hinges, her larboard side entirely scorched, and one hundred and fifteen men killed and wounded. The vice-admiral shifted his flag to the Monmouth. The result of the enterprise will appear in the following statement



French Ships taken, burnt and run ashore  

Ships burnt /No. of guns 

Le Fort  76; L'Enflame 64; Le Prudent 62; Le Solide 56; La Dauphine 46; L'Entreprenant 22; La Chuquante 8; Le Favori, a fire-ship. Eight advice boats. 

Taken by the English, and brought home. 

Le Prompt 76;   Le Firme 72; L`Esperance 70; L`Assure 66   ----   284 

Taken by the Dutch. 

Le Bourbon  68;   Le Superbe 70;  La Sirenne 60;  Le Modere 56;  Le Volontaire 46;  Le Triton 42   ----   342 



Total, Ships, 21. guns, 960.

 

Of the galleons, the English took six, and the Dutch five, who likewise sunk six. They had on board when they arrived, twenty millions of pieces of eight, and merchandise estimated of equal value, the greater part of which had been landed previous to the arrival of our force. Four millions of plate were destroyed, with ten millions of merchandise; about two millions in silver, and five in goods were brought away. The capture of these galleons had been contemplated by the cabinet some time before, and a squadron was fitted out, the command of which was assigned to Sir Cloudesley Shovel, though it would certainly have been of insufficient force to effect its object, With this squadron, Sir Cloudesley arrived at Vigo on the 16th of October, and was left by Sir George Rooke to bring away what he could, and to burn the rest. In the course of a week, he put the French men of war into the best condition possible, brought off sixty guns from the forts and batteries, took out fifty brass guns from the French ships that had been run on shore; and on the 24th of October set fire to the ships that could not be brought away, and left Vigo to return home, having anchored in the channel between that port and Bayonne, where he sent in some prisoners, with a flag of truce, in exchange for some English. 



In his passage thence to England, the weather was so boisterous, that one of the galleons struck on a rock and foundered. The Nassau took a rich prize coming from Morlaix, which also foundered, and ultimately every ship of the squadron was separated, though all in a shattered condition afterwards reached home. The Court were so satisfied with the conduct of Sir Cloudesley, that it was determined to employ him henceforth in affairs of the greatest consequence. Whether this determination was formed in the spirit of friendship toward that gentleman or not, it is sufficiently evident, that in the first instance of their good will, they left him ample room to evince his skill and capacity.

