[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Blankly implacable, Gambier reminded him that the Board of Admiralty had chosen Cochrane."I do not care," Harvey announced."If I am passed by, and Lord Cochrane or any other junior officer is appointed in preference, I will immediately strike my flag, and resign my commission.""I should be very sorry to see you resort to such an extremity," Gambier replied, though his sorrow was generally doubted by those who knew him.Even Cochrane himself was astonished by the outburst from Harvey which followed this."I never saw a man so unfit for the command of the fleet," he began, and then went on to accuse Gambier of wasting time with roll calls or musters instead of getting on with the attack."If Lord Nelson had been here, he would not have anchored in Basque Roads at all, but would have dashed at the enemy at once."Having delivered this final barb, Harvey stormed out.Cochrane found him in Sir Henry Neale's day cabin a little while later, still denouncing Gambier to anyone who would listen.However, he assured Cochrane that he had no personal quarrel with him.It was Gambier and his air of self-important piety which were Harvey's aversion.The feelings of all concerned had now been heated to an intensity which was to cause the court-martialling of two British admirals in the next few months.Harvey threw aside all restraint and according to Cochrane's evidence, said to the assembled witnesses in the day cabin:This is not the first time I have been lightly treated and that my services have not been attended to in the way they deserved, because I am no canting Methodist, no hypocrite, no psalm-singer, and do not cheat old women out of their estates by hypocrisy and canting.After this outburst, Harvey went up to the quarterdeck of the flagship and, in front of the flag-captain, William Bedford, listed the insults he had received from Gambier, which were a proof of the commander-in-chief's "methodistical, Jesuitical conduct, and of his vindictive disposition".Bedford prudently kept clear of the dispute but he was already qualified to be a witness at the subsequent court-martial.For good measure, Harvey added:Lord Gambier's conduct, since he took command of the fleet is deserving of reprobation.His employing officers in mustering the ships' companies instead of in gaining information about the soundings, shows him to be unequal to the command of the fleet.You know you are of the same opinion.But Bedford, once again, refused to be drawn into the argument.The next news of Sir Eliab Harvey was that he was on his way back to England to face a court-martial "for grossly insubordinate language on board the Caledonia, in consequence of not having been appointed to command the fire-ships".For his outbursts against Gambier he was sentenced to be dismissed the service.However, there were misgivings before long.He was, after all, the same Sir Eliab Harvey who had commanded the Temeraire at Trafalgar.In the following year, in recognition of his "long and meritorious services", he was reinstated in his rank and seniority.But it was only an act of grace, since the Admiralty never employed him again.10Returning to the Imperieuse, Cochrane was alarmed to discover that Gambier ordered the frequent musters of ships' companies principally in order to examine them as to whether they had learnt the contents of the tracts distributed to them.He read through several of these, the work of Wilberforce, Hannah More and their associates.He found the contents "silly and injudicious".More disturbingly, the fleet was now divided into two irreconcilable factions.First there were the supporters of the tracts, "officers appointed by Tory influence or favour of the Admiral".Then there were those whohated Gambier and his ostentatious piety.But because he was determinedly carrying out Admiralty instructions and allowing Cochrane to command the attack, this second group also disliked Cochrane himself quite as much as the first.11While this diverting squabble was occupying the attention and energies of the Royal Navy, the French expeditionary force might well have made its escape.Fortunately for England, the French were busy with an unpleasant little dispute of their own.One of their captains, Jacques Bergeret, complained to the Minister of Marine that Willaumez had taken two days longer than was necessary to reach the Basque Roads.The Minister paid heed and replaced Willaumez by Vice-Admiral Allemand on 17 March.Allemand anchored his fleet in two lines within the comparative safety of Aix Roads.The approach to the anchorage from the sea lay along the channel between the Ile d'Aix and the Boyart Shoal, a passage which was some two miles wide.Beyond it lay the mainland, the two arms of the Charente estuary.At low tide, some three miles of the Boyart Shoal were uncovered, as well as mud flats round the islands and the arms of the estuary.Allemand's ships were anchored inshore of the Aix-Boyart channel, just clear of the Palles Flat which was the extreme southern arm of the Charente estuary.Even at low tide, the approach channel was still two miles wide and Cochrane knew that it was the inevitable route for an attacking force.There were soldiers and shore-batteries on the He d'Aix and, at a greater distance, on the Ile d'Oleron to the south and on the mainland.None of these would interfere with his plan.He first sent back Lord Gambier's tracts, refusing to distribute them to his men.He included a few of them in a letter to his friend William Cobbett, merely in order that the world should see the deplorable "state of the fleet" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]