from a dozen accounts by british, american, and french writers i have selected the following, as giving as varied a view as possible of this phase of the war prison system.
the first account is by the baron de bonnefoux, who was captured with the belle poule in the west indies by the ramillies, captain pickmore in 1806, was allowed on parole at thame and at odiham, whence he broke parole, was captured, and taken to the bahama at chatham.
when bonnefoux was at chatham, there were five prison ships moored under the lee of sheppey between chatham and sheerness. he describes the interior arrangements of a hulk, but it resembles exactly that of the painter garneray whose fuller account i give next.
writing in 1835, the baron says:
‘it is difficult to imagine a more severe punishment; it is cruel to maintain it for an indefinite period, and to submit to it prisoners of war who deserve much consideration, and who incontestably are the innocent victims of the fortune of war. the british prison ships have left profound impressions on the minds of the frenchmen who have experienced them; an ardent longing for revenge has for long moved their hearts, and even to-day when a long duration of peace has created so much sympathy between the two nations, erstwhile enemies, i fear that, should this harmony between them be disturbed, the remembrance of these horrible places would be reawakened.’
very bitterly does the baron complain of the bad and insufficient food, and of the ill-fitting, coarse, and rarely renewed clothing, and he is one of those who branded the commanders of the prison ships as the ‘rebuts’—the ‘cast-offs’ of the british navy.
the prisoners on the bahama consisted largely of privateer captains, the most restless and desperate of all the prisoners of war, men who were socially above the common herd, yet who 55had not the cachet of the regular officers of the navy, who regarded themselves as independent of such laws and regulations as bound the latter, and who were also independent in the sense of being sometimes well-to-do and even rich men. at first there was an inclination among some of these to take bonnefoux down as an ‘aristo’; they ‘tutoyer’d’ him, and tried to make him do the fagging and coolie work which, on prison ships as in schools, fell to the lot of the new-comer.
but the baron from the first took up firmly the position of an officer and a gentleman, and showed the rough sea-dogs of the channel ports that he meant it, with the result that they let him alone.
attempted escapes were frequent. although under constant fear of the lash, which was mercilessly used in the british army at this time, the soldiers of the guard were ready enough to sell to the prisoners provisions, maps, and instruments for effecting escape. one day in 1807 five of the prisoners attempted to get off in the empty water casks which the chatham contractor took off to fill up. they got safely enough into the water boat, unknown of course to its occupants (so it seems, at any rate, in this case, although there was hardly a man who had dealings with the hulks who would not help the prisoners to escape for money), but at nightfall the boat anchored in mid-stream; one of the prisoners got stuck in his water-cask and called for aid; this was heard by the cabin-boy, who gave the alarm, the result being that the prisoners were hauled out of their hiding places, taken on board, and got ten days black hole. the black hole was a prison six feet square at the bottom of the hold, to which air only came through round holes not big enough for the passage of a mouse. once and once only in the twenty-four hours was this cachot visited for the purpose of bringing food and taking away the latrine box. small wonder that men often went mad and sometimes died during a lengthened confinement, and that those who came out looked like corpses.
the above-mentioned men were condemned to pay the cost of their capture, and, as they had no money, were put on half rations!
the time came round for the usual sending of aged and 56infirm prisoners to shore prisons. one poor chap sold his right to go to bonnefoux, and he and his friend rousseau resolved to escape en route. bonnefoux, however, was prevented from going, as his trunk had arrived from odiham and he was required to be present to verify its contents.
in december 1807, three boulogne men cut a hole just above the water near the forward sentry box on the guard gallery which ran round the outside of the ship, and escaped. others attempted to follow, but one of them cried out from the extreme cold, was fired at and hauled on board. three managed to get off to dover and calais, one stuck in the mud and was drowned, and the baron says that the captain of the bahama allowed him to remain there until he rotted away, as a deterrent to would-be imitators.
milne, captain of the bahama, the baron says, was a drunken brute who held orgies on board at which all sorts of loose and debased characters from the shore attended. upon one occasion a fire was caused by these revels, and the captain, who was drunk, gave orders that the prisoners should be shot at should the fire approach them, rather than that they should escape.
a rough code of justice existed between the prisoners for the settlement of differences among themselves. one mathieu, a privateersman, kept a small tobacco stall. a soldier, who already had a long bill running with him, wanted tobacco on credit. mathieu refused; the soldier snatched some tobacco off the stall, mathieu struck him with a knife and wounded him badly. mathieu was a very popular character, but justice had to be done, even to a captive. luckily the soldier recovered, and mathieu got off with indemnification.
during the very bad weather of march 1808, the sentries ordinarily on the outer gallery were taken on board. to this gallery a boat was always made fast, and the baron, rousseau, and another resolved to escape by it. so they cut the painter and got off, using planks for oars, with holes in them for handhold. they reached land safely, and hid all day in a field, feeding on provisions they had brought from the bahama. at nightfall they started, and, meeting a countryman, asked the way to chatham. ‘don’t go there,’ he replied, ‘the bridge 57is guarded, and you will be arrested.’ one of the prisoners, not knowing english, only caught the last word, and, thinking it was ‘arrêtez’, drew a piece of fencing foil, with which each was armed, and threatened the man. the others saved him, and in recognition he directed them to a village whence they could cross the medway. they walked for a long time until they were tired, and reaching a cottage, knocked for admission. a big man came to the door. they asked hospitality, and threatened him in case of refusal. ‘my name is cole,’ said the man, ‘i serve god, i love my neighbour, i can help you. depend on me.’ they entered and were well entertained by cole’s wife and daughter, and enjoyed the luxury of a night’s rest in a decent bed. next morning, cole showed them how to reach the dover road across the river, and with much difficulty was persuaded to accept a guinea for his services.
such instances of pity and kindness of our country people for escaped prisoners are happily not rare, and go far to counterbalance the sordid and brutal treatment which in other cases they received.
that evening the fugitives reached canterbury, and, after buying provisions, proceeded towards dover, and slept in a barn. freedom seemed at hand when from dover they had a glimpse of the french coast, but fortune still mocked them, for they sought in vain along the beach for a boat to carry them over. boats indeed were there, but all oars, sails, and tackle had been removed from them in accordance with government advice circulated in consequence of the frequent escapes of french officers on parole by stealing long-shore boats.
so they went on to deal, and then to folkestone. here they were recognized as escaping prisoners and were pursued, but they ran and got safely away. they held a consultation and decided to go to odiham in hampshire, where all of them had friends among the officers on parole there, who would help them with money. the writer here describes the great sufferings they underwent by reason of the continuous bad weather, their poor clothing, their footsoreness, and their poverty. by day they sheltered in ditches, woods, and under hedges, and journeyed by night, hungry, wet to the skin, and in constant dread of being recognized and arrested. for some unknown 58reason, instead of pushing westward for their destination they went back to canterbury, thence to london, then via hounslow heath to odiham, where they arrived more dead than alive, shoeless, their clothing in rags, and penniless. at odiham they went to one of the little houses on the outskirts of the town, built especially for french prisoners. this house belonged to a mr. r——, and here the three men remained hidden for eight days. suddenly the house was surrounded by armed men, the baron and his companions were arrested and put into the lock-up. céré, a friend of the baron’s, believed that r—— had betrayed them, and challenged him. a duel was fought in which r—— was badly wounded, and when he recovered he found that feeling among the frenchmen in odiham was so strong, that the agent sent him away to scotland under a false name. at odiham lock-up, sarah cooper, an old friend of the baron’s when he was on parole there, who had helped him to get away, came to see him and left him a note in which she said she would help him to escape, and would not leave him until she had taken him to france. the escape was planned, sarah contrived to get him a rope ladder and had a conveyance ready to take him away, but just as his foot was on the ladder the police got the alarm, he was arrested, chained, and shut up in the cachot.
for three days the baron remained in irons, and then was marched to chatham, so closely watched by the guards that every night the prisoner’s clothes and boots were removed, and were not returned until the morning. they went to chatham by way of london where they were confined in the savoy prison, then used for british deserters. these men were friendly to the frenchmen. all of them had been flogged, one had received 1,100 lashes, and was to receive 300 more.
on may 1, 1808, the unfortunate men found themselves once more on the bahama, with a sentence of ten days in the black hole.
captain milne of the bahama was exasperated at these escapes, and attempts to escape, and was brutal in his endeavours to get hold of the tools with which the prisoners had worked. he tried the effect of starvation, but this only fanned the spirit of revolt in the ship, the state of life in which became 59very bad, threats, disputes, quarrels and duels being of everyday occurrence. the climax came when bad weather prevented the delivery of bread, and the prisoners were put on biscuit. they assembled in the parc, the open space between the two batteries, forty feet square, and declared they would not disperse until other provisions were served out. milne was mad with anger and drink, and ordered the soldiers to fire upon the prisoners, but the young officer in command would not respect the order, and, instead, counselled a more moderate action. bonnefoux managed to calm the prisoners, and determined personally to interview milne, and represented to him that to compel eight hundred desperate, hungry men to descend from the parc would mean bloodshed. the captain yielded, and peace was temporarily assured.
however, more hole-boring was discovered; rousseau, the baron’s friend, slipped overboard and swam away, but was captured just as he was landing; the result being that the watch kept was stricter than ever.
the baron here dilates upon the frightful immorality of the life on the bahama. he says:
‘il n’existait ni crainte, ni retenue, ni amour-propre dans la classe qui n’avait pas été dotée des bienfaits de quelque éducation. on y voyait donc régner insolemment l’immoralité la plus perverse, les outrages les plus honteux à la pudeur et les actes les plus dégo?tants, le cynisme le plus effronté, et dans ce lieu de misère générale une misère plus grande encore que tout ce qu’on peut imaginer.’
there were three classes of prisoners.
(1) les raffalés. (2) les messieurs ou bourgeois. (3) les officiers.
the raffalés were the lowest, and lowest of the raffalés were the ‘manteaux impériaux.’ these had nothing in the world but one covering, which swarmed with lice, hence the facetious allusion in their name to the bees of the imperial mantle. these poor wretches eat nothing during the day, for their gambling left them nothing to eat, but at night they crept about picking up and devouring the refuse of the food. they slept packed closely side by side on the deck. at midnight the officer of the evening gave the word, ‘par le flanc droit!’ and 60all turned on to their right sides. at 3 a.m. the word rang out ‘pare à virer!’[3] and all turned on to their left sides.
they gambled with dice for their rations, hammocks, clothes, anything, and the winners sold for two sous what often was worth a franc. they had a chief who was fantastically garbed, and a drummer with a wooden gamelle. sometimes they were a terror to the other prisoners, but could always be appeased with something to gamble with.
bonnefoux’s companions worked in wood and straw. the bahama had been captured from the spaniards and was built of cedar, and the wood extracted by the prisoners in making escape holes they worked into razor-boxes and toilette articles. bonnefoux himself gave lessons in french, drawing, mathematics, and english, and published an english grammar, a copy of which is at paris, in the bibliothèque nationale.
gradually the spread of the taste for education had a refining and civilizing effect on board the bahama, and when bonnefoux finally obtained parole leave, the condition of affairs was very much improved.
in june 1809 the baron left the bahama for lichfield, and with him was allowed to go one dubreuil, a rough typical privateer captain, who never had any money, but had a constant craving for tobacco. he had been kind to colonel and mrs. campbell, whom he had taken prisoners, and who had promised to befriend him should luck turn against him. bonnefoux had helped him pecuniarily, and in return dubreuil promised to teach him how to smoke through his eyes!
the next relation is that of louis garneray, a marine painter of some note, specimens of whose work during his nine years’ captivity in england may still be found in portsmouth and its neighbourhood, and one at least of whose later pictures is in the marine gallery of the paris louvre.
what follows is an analysis in brief of his book mes pontons (which is, so far as i am aware, the most complete picture of life on a prison ship yet published), and, being but a brief analysis, is incomplete as to numberless most interesting details, so that i would recommend any reader who wishes to be minutely informed upon the subject to read the original volume 61of 320 pages. it is caustically, even savagely written, but nine years cut out of a young man’s life cannot serve to sweeten his disposition.
in may 1806 garneray, who had been captured in the west indies, was taken on board the hulk prothée at portsmouth, stripped, plunged into a cold bath, and clothed in an ill-fitting orange-yellow suit, on the back of which the large letters t. o. proclaimed him as under the care of the transport office. he describes the prothée,—as he is hustled into the mob of ‘dead people come out for a moment from their graves, hollow-eyed, earthy complexioned, round backed, unshaven, their frames barely covered with yellow rags, their bodies frightfully thin,’—as a black, shapeless sarcophagus, of which the only parts open to air was the space between the fo’c’sle and the poop and the fo’c’sle itself, which was unbearable from the smoke of the many chimneys on it. each end of the ship was occupied by the garrison, the officers aft and the soldiers forward. a stout barrier divided the guard from the prisoners, which was so garnished with heavy-headed nails as to seem like iron, and was fitted with loop-holes for inspection, and, if needs be, for firing through. on the lower deck and in the lower battery were packed seven hundred human beings.
only one ladder communicated between the lower deck and the lower battery. in the latter the only daylight came through port-holes, in the former through narrow scuttles, all of which had iron gratings.
all round the ship, just above the water-line, ran a gallery with open-work floor, and along this paced three sentries by day and seven by night. the ship was commanded by a lieutenant and a master, and was garrisoned by forty or fifty soldiers under a marine officer and about twenty sailors. the day guard consisted of three sentries on the gallery, one on the ladder communicating with the battery, one on the fo’c’sle, one on each gangway, and on the poop a dozen armed men ready for instant action. at night there were seven sentries on the gallery, one on the battery ladder; an officer, a sergeant, a corporal, and a dozen sailors were continually moving round, and every quarter of an hour the ‘all’s well’ rang out.
62the ship’s boats were slung ten feet above the water, and one was chained to the gallery aft.
at 6 a.m. in summer and 8 in winter, the port-holes were opened, and the air thus liberated was so foul that the men opening the port-holes invariably jumped back immediately. at 6 p.m. in summer and 2 p.m. in winter, every wall and grating was sounded with iron bars, and one hour later all the prisoners were driven on deck and counted.
garneray drawing an english soldier.
(after louis garneray.)
the only furniture in the ship was a bench along each side and four in the middle, the prisoners squatting on deck at mess time. each prisoner on arrival received a hammock, a thin coverlet, and a hair mattress weighing from two to three pounds. for a long time no distinction was made between 63officers and men, but latterly a special ship was allowed for officers. some idea of the crowding on board may be gained from the facts that each battery, 130 feet long, 40 feet broad, and 6 feet high, held nearly 400 prisoners, and that the hammocks were so closely slung that there was no room to sleep on deck.
the alimentation of the prisoners, humane and ample as it looks on paper, seems to have been a gross sham. not only did the contractors cheat in quality and quantity, but what with forfeitures on account of breaches of discipline, and observance of the law imposed by the prisoners on themselves, that, deductions or no deductions, no man should have a larger ration than another, and contributions to men planning to escape, it was impossible for all to touch full rations.
the prisoners elected their own cooks, and nominally a committee of fifteen prisoners was allowed to attend at the distribution to see that quality and quantity were just, but the guards rarely allowed them to do so. six men formed a mess; no spoons, knives or forks were supplied, merely bowls and pannikins. the fish supplied on ‘maigre’ days—wednesdays and fridays—was usually uneatable, and the prisoners often sold the herrings at a penny each to the purveyors, who kept them for redistribution, so that it was said that some herrings had done duty for ten years! with the money thus made the prisoners bought butter or cheese. the cod they re-cooked; the bread was filthy and hard. complaints were useless, and the result was constant hunger.
all but the raffalés, the scum, occupied themselves with trades or professions. there were tobacco manufacturers, professors of dancing, fencing, and stick-play, who charged one sou for a lesson, which often lasted an hour. mathematics and languages were taught at the same rate. whilst these and many other occupations were busy, up and down the battery passed the ‘merchants’ crying their wares, hungry men who offered their rags for sale, menders of shoes, and the occupants of favourable positions in the battery inviting bids for them, so that despite the rags and the hunger and the general misery, there was plenty of sound and movement, and general evidence of that capability for adapting themselves to 64circumstance which so invariably distinguished the french prisoners in england from the british prisoners in france.
garneray’s chief friend on board was a sturdy breton privateer captain named bertaud. bertaud hated the english fiercely, and, being somewhat of a bruiser, had won the esteem of his companions quite as much by his issue of the following challenge as by his personal qualities.
‘challenge to the english! long live french brittany! the undersigned bertaud, native of saint-brieuc, annoyed at hearing the english boast that they are the best boxers in the world, which is a lie, will fight any two of them, in any style with fists, but not to use legs.
‘he will also, in order to prove his contempt for these boasters, receive from his two adversaries ten blows with the fist before the fight wherever his adversaries choose, and afterwards he will thrash them. simply, he stipulates that as soon as he has received the ten blows and before the fight begins he shall be paid two pounds sterling to compensate him for the teeth which shall have been broken.
‘done on board the prothée where bertaud mopes himself to death!’
garneray calls him a madman, and says that the ten blows alone will do for him. what is his game?
‘i shall pocket two pounds, and that will go into our escape fund,’ replied the breton laughing.
garneray and bertaud had been saving up for some time for the escape they resolved to attempt, and, although bertaud’s challenge was not taken up, they at last owned forty-five shillings, to which garneray’s writing lessons at a shilling each to the little girl of the prothée’s commander chiefly contributed. each made himself a bag of tarred cloth to hold clothes and provisions, they had bored a hole through the ship’s side large enough to slip through, and only waited for a dark quiet night. as it was the month of july this soon came. bertaud got through first, garneray was on the point of following when a challenge rang out, followed by a musket-shot, and peeping through the hole, to his horror he saw poor bertaud suspended over the water by the cord of his bag which had caught in an unnoticed nail in the ship’s side. then was a terrible thing done. the soldiers hammered the helpless frenchman 65with their musket butts, garneray heard the fall of something heavy in the water; there was silence; then as if by magic the whole river was lit up, and boats from all the other vessels put off for the prothée. garneray slipped back to his hammock, but was presently turned out with all the other prisoners to be counted. his anxiety about the fate of his friend made him ask a sailor, who replied brutally, ‘rascal, how should i know? so far as i am concerned i wish every frenchman was at the bottom of the sea!’ for a consideration of a shilling, however, the man promised to find out, and told garneray that the poor breton had received three bayonet thrusts, a sabre-cut on the head, and musket-butt blows elsewhere, but that the dog still breathed! for twenty days the man gave his shilling bulletins, and then announced that the breton was convalescent.
garneray and bertaud made another attempt some months later. garneray had saved money he had earned by drawing designs for the straw-workers among the prisoners, who had hitherto not gone beyond birds and flowers, and who readily paid for his ships in full sail and other marine objects.
it was mid-winter and bitterly cold, so the two adventurers prepared themselves by rubbing themselves with oil saved from the little lamp by which garneray taught his pupils. without attracting notice they slipped overboard, and swam for the muddy shore of an island. this they crossed on patins which bertaud had provided, and reached the river by gosport. only occasional pulls at the rum flask prevented them from perishing with cold, and their second swim nearly cost both of them their lives. each in turn had to support the other, and they were on the point of giving up when they reached an anchored vessel. here a watchdog greeted them, and kept up his barking until he aroused the crew, who hailed them in what they thankfully recognized to be broken english. alas! their joy was short-lived. the skipper of the vessel was a dane, and so far from promising to help them declared he would send them back to the hulk, abusing them violently. this was too much for the fiery breton, who, seizing a knife, sprang upon the dane and bore him to the ground. they tied and gagged him, and, said bertaud, ‘now let us be off!’
66but garneray declared himself too exhausted to attempt another swim, even for liberty, and said he would go back to the hulk. the prospect of this was too horrible for bertaud. ‘better be drowned and be done with it,’ said he, ‘than live to be killed by inches,’ and before garneray could remonstrate, to the amazement of the danish sailors, he sprang overboard.
at four the next morning the danes brought garneray back to the prothée. instantly, although he was wet through and half dead with cold, he was put into the cachot, and but for the fact that the carpenters had been working there and had left a pile of shavings, amongst which he nestled, he could not have lived through the night. next day he was released and sent back to the battery, but no fresh clothes were issued to him, and but for the charity of his fellow prisoners he would have gone naked.
seeing all the prisoners peering excitedly through the grated port-holes, garneray, sick in his hammock, asked the reason: ‘see, the crows!’ was the reply.
he joined the onlookers, and describes his feelings when he saw stretched on the mud of the portchester river the body of bertaud, already an attraction for the crows. on the brutal scene which followed, the dragging of the body to the ship, and the utterly inhuman response made to garneray’s prayer for the decent treatment of his friend’s remains, it is as unnecessary as it is distasteful to dwell.
garneray was now changed from the prothée to the crown—a ship with a bad reputation among the prisoners.
captain r—— of the crown was a brute in every sense of the word, and the prisoners maddened him by winning for the crown the reputation of being the most unmanageable, because the worst managed, hulk in portchester river. bully, sot, and coward as he was, he by no means had his own way. on one occasion five prisoners escaped. although it was mid-winter and snowing, r—— had the muster of half-clad wretches made in the open. the number could never be made right, and count after count was made, during a space of three days. the whole affair was a cleverly concocted device to gain for the escaped men time to get safely away. a master-carpenter among the prisoners had cut a means of communication between 67two of the batteries, through which, unseen by the authorities, men could slip from one to the other, get on deck, and so swell or diminish the muster roll as arranged. the trick was not discovered, but that there was a trick was evident, and r—— was determined to be revenged. he summoned the floating fire-engines in harbour, and, although it was mid-winter, actually pumped icy water into the lower deck and batteries until they were drenched, as well as the prisoners, their hammocks, and their clothes.
the crown hulk, seen from the stern.
(after louis garneray.)
on another occasion when for counting purposes those on the crown were transferred en masse on board the san antonio, they returned to find that during their temporary absence r—— had actually, ‘as a measure of precaution,’ he said, destroyed 68all the tools and implements and books which the prisoners used in their poor little occupations and trades, and among them garneray’s canvases, easels, brushes, and colours. the immediate result was a stupor of impotent rage; this gave way to open insubordination, insult, and such a universal paroxysm of indignation that even r—— was cowed, and actually made a show of leniency, offering terms of mediation which were scornfully rejected.
garneray relates another boxing episode with great gusto. a certain colonel s——, belonging to a well-known english family, came to visit captain r—— accompanied by a colossal negro, gorgeously arrayed, called little white, and a splendid danish hound. his purpose was to match little white against a french boxer for the entertainment of his fashionable friends ashore. at first sight there would seem to be very poor sport in the pitting of a well-fed, well-trained giant against even the fittest champion of a crowd of half-clad, half-starved, wholly untrained prisoners of war. although the real object of the gallant colonel was to show off his black pet, and to charm the beauty and fashion of portsmouth with an exhibition of prowess, to prove that he was simply animated by a love of sport, he had the consent of r—— that the prisoner champion should be prepared in some way for the contest by extra feeding and so forth.
robert lange, a quiet, inoffensive breton with a quenchless hatred of the english, and a reputed athlete, at once accepted the challenge, especially as the (to him) enormous prize of twenty guineas was being offered.
the day appointed for the contest came. great preparations had been made on the poop of the crown for the reception of the fashionable company invited to assist at the spectacle of colonel s——‘s black knocking out in the first round, and probably killing, a frenchman.
colonel s—— arrived, and with him little white and the big dog, and flotillas of boats brought out the company, largely consisting of ladies, ‘parées avec ce luxe éclatant et de mauvais go?t si essentiellement britannique,’ who settled themselves on the stand rigged up for the occasion, in laughing and chattering anticipation of something funny.
69robert lange was playing cards below when he was told that the entertainment was only wanting him. very coolly he sent word back that he would come as soon as he had finished his hand, and nothing would induce him to hurry. captain r—— wanted to put lange into the cachot at once for this impertinence, but colonel s—— calmed him by assuring him that it was the custom in england to grant any indulgence to a man condemned to die.
meanwhile little white divested himself of his gorgeous flunkey dress, and the appearance of his magnificent physique caused a chorus of admiration for him, and of pity for the presumptuous frenchman, to burst from the company.
in due course robert lange slouched up, his hands in his pockets, a pipe in his mouth, and his cotton cap on the back of his head. his appearance brought out a murmur of disappointment from the visitors, who considered they were being made the victims of one of colonel s——‘s famous hoaxes. the murmurs turned to smiles when robert confessed ignorance about seconds, and asked what a watch was wanted for. however, these things being explained to him, he chose garneray and a fellow breton as seconds, told garneray to pocket the magnificent watch which the colonel offered him, said he was ready for the dance to begin, and placed himself in a fighting position which occasioned roars of laughter from the polite crowd.
‘i’m beginning to lose my temper at the mockery of these fools,’ said lange to garneray; ‘what are they waiting for?’
‘colonel,’ said garneray, ‘my man is ready. may we begin?’
‘there is just one formality customary on these occasions,’ replied the colonel. ‘the combatants ought to shake hands to show there is no ill-feeling between them.’
the big black thrust forward his hand saying, ‘shake my hand with respect. it has bowled over many a frenchman.’
at this gratuitous insult, which the english applauded, a thrill of indignation agitated the crowd of french prisoners.
‘what does this chap say?’ asked lange of garneray.
garneray told him. instantly there sprang into his face and into his eyes a light of anger very unusual to him, and what 70garneray feared was that the furious breton would violate the laws of combat and spring upon the negro before the latter had taken up his fighting position. but it was not so. let me translate garneray’s description of what followed: ‘at length robert lange seized the negro’s hand. their hands entwined, their gaze fixed, their inflamed faces close together, the two combatants motionless, resembled a marble group. by degrees, it seemed to me that on the face of little white there was a look of pain. i was not wrong. suddenly with a cry of pain which he had been suppressing the negro bit his lip with passion, half closed his eyes, threw his head back as he raised his shoulder convulsively, and seemed to lose consciousness. all this time the breton was as calm and motionless as a statue. what was going on was something so unforeseen, so extraordinary that we did not know what to think of it. robert lange solved the riddle.
‘“wretch!” he cried with a resounding voice. “this hand which has done for so many bretons shall not henceforth frighten a child!”
‘in fact, the hand of the breton had gripped the negro’s with such force that the blood sprang from its fingers.
‘“stop! stop!” cried the black in his agony. but robert was pitiless, and did not loosen his grasp until the giant was on his knees before him.’
an enthusiastic burst of cheering rose from the french prisoner spectators, and, to cut the story short, the colonel handed robert lange the twenty guineas, and was obliged to apologize to the gay company assembled to see the triumph of the negro, for the unexpected and brief character of the entertainment.
then he called his big danish hound and prepared to embark. but the dog did not appear and could not be found. somebody said he had last been seen going into the battery. captain r—— started, and his face reddened deeply. ‘then—then,’ he stammered. ‘if your dog has got into the battery, you will never see him again!’
‘never see him again! what do you mean?’ roared the colonel.
‘i mean that by this time he represents two legs of mutton, 71several dishes of “ratatouille”, and any number of beeftaks! in other words, the prisoners have eaten him!’
it was even so. the vision of a large plump dog had been too much for the raffalés, and as the irate colonel was rowed shorewards from the ship, he saw the skin of his pet nailed on to the outer side of it.
captain r—— revenged himself for the double fiasco by a series of brutal persecutions and punishments which culminated in open rebellion, severe fighting, much bloodshed, and at last in a proclamation by the captain that unless the ringleaders were delivered up to him, imploring pardon for what had happened, he would have every man shot.
in the meanwhile the long duration and intensity of captain r——‘s persecution had reached the ears of the authorities, and just at the expiration of the hour which he had given the prisoners for decision, the great folk of the admiralty arrived, and the result of a court of inquiry which lasted the whole day, and which even garneray admits was conducted with impartiality, was that he was removed.
a few weeks later garneray observed two of the worst of the raffalés seated on a bench playing ecarté very seriously, and surrounded by a silent and equally serious crowd. suspecting that this was no ordinary gambling bout, he inquired, and was told that by a drawing of lots these two men had been left to decide who should kill the ship’s master, one linch, the worst type of hulk tyrant. in vain garneray exerted himself to prevent the committal of so terrible a crime. the game was played out, and five minutes later the master was stabbed to the heart as he stood on the upper deck.
towards the end of 1811 the vengeance, to which hulk garneray had been shifted from the crown, received her quota of the unfortunate frenchmen who, after the capitulation of baylen in 1808, had been imprisoned by the spaniards on the island of cabrera, where they had been submitted to the most terrible sufferings and hardships, and had died like flies. garneray describes the appearance of thirty of these poor creatures who had been apportioned to the vengeance, as they came alongside.
‘the poor wretches, lying at the bottom of the boat, cried aloud in their agony and tossed in the delirium of fever; thin 72as skeletons, pale as corpses, scarcely covered, although the cold was intense, by their miserable rags.... of these thirty only about ten had strength enough to get on board.’
the doctor of the vengeance refused to receive them on board, saying that by their infection they would in a fortnight’s time turn the ship into one great tomb, and they were ordered to be put on board the pegasus hospital ship. while the arrangements for their reception were being made, the unfortunates were kept in their agony in the boat alongside, for the captain of the vengeance said it was not worth while to disarrange his ship for such men, for so short a time.
exterior view of a hulk.
(after louis garneray.)
more brutality followed. the captain of the pegasus sent word that the poor wretches should be bathed before being sent to him, saying that his hospital was so full that he had no accommodation of this sort. and this was actually done; they 73were plunged into icy cold water, and then packed off to the pegasus, the result being that many of them were hauled on board dying.
as the doctor of the vengeance predicted, the infection brought by the survivors of cabrera spread through the ship with terrible severity, and garneray himself was seized with fever, and was sent on board the pegasus. he tells how by the intervention of a fellow-countryman who was a hospital assistant, he contrived to avoid the horrors of the compulsory cold bath on entrance, and proceeds to relate a circumstance which, horrible as it is, i give for what it is worth.
a neighbour invalid had a diamond ring on his finger. he was a soldier of spain, and the ring no doubt had been obtained, as garneray says, ‘by the luck of war’. he was very far gone; indeed his death could only be a matter of a few hours. garneray, rapidly becoming convalescent, heard two english attendants conspire to take the dying man away at once to the mortuary and there to relieve him of his ring. they carried him away; garneray called for his french friend, and bid him go at once and prevent the brutal deed. he did so, and the man actually recovered, but he told garneray that it was quite the rule in this crowded hospital ship for patients to be hurried away before they were dead into the mortuary in order to make room for others!
garneray says:
‘it is difficult to give the reader an idea of the barbarous manner in which the french were treated on this hospital ship. i will only give one more instance, for my aim is not to horrify, and there were acts of cruelty which the pen hesitates to describe. one day the english doctor was asked to authorize wine to be given to a young officer, grievously ill, in order to strengthen him. “are you mad?” replied the doctor. “to dare to ask me to give strength to an enemy? get out! you must be a fool!”’
when garneray returned to the vengeance he had news of the baron de bonnefoux—extracts from whose life upon the chatham hulks have already been given,—and speaks of him as bent upon escaping, and fears he would be shot one of these days.
74garneray later is allowed to go on parole to bishop’s waltham, about his sojourn at which place something will be said when the story of the prisoners on parole comes to be told. suffice it therefore to say that garneray got away from bishop’s waltham to portsmouth, and well across the channel on a smuggling vessel, when he was recaptured by a british cruiser, and once again found himself a prisoner on the vengeance. after more sufferings, brutal treatment, and illness, garneray was at length made free by the treaty of paris in 1814.
the vengeance.
(after louis garneray.)
