Cochrane waited. He was not authorised to take the small ships in alone, indeed his only command was of the attacking vessels of the night before. Even the Imperieuse had been captained by John Spurling during the action. He had no authority whatever over the other captains of the fleet, every one of whom seemed to be his senior. Impatiently, he awaited Gambier's instructions. Hearing nothing by 6.40 a.m., he signalled the Caledonia again. "Eleven on shore." To his own companions he pointed out the pride of the French fleet, "lying on their bilge, with their bottoms completely exposed to shot, and therefore beyond the possibility of resistance". At length an answering signal was run up the mainmast of the Caledonia, "Very good."26
Cochrane's agitation began to grow. There was a crucial moment for making the attack. As soon as the tide began to flow into the anchorage, the British ships must go in and rake the stranded French with their broadsides. They would have the flood tide and a favourable wind to take them in, and having destroyed the enemy, the ebb tide would be in their favour for withdrawal. But Gambier and his ships rode peacefully at anchor on the horizon, nine miles out from the Aix-Boyart channel. The tide had fallen almost as far as it would and the best moment for launching the attack was already passing. Cochrane surveyed the anchorage again and saw that, with the exception of two battleships, the Foudroyant and Cassard, 80 and 74 guns respectively, the entire French fleet was stranded on the mud flats and shoals in attitudes of most unmartial indignity. At 7.40, when the tide was already turning, he signalled Gambier, "Only two afloat." Surely a man did not have to be a born hero to find that temptation irresistible. The Caledonia replied with the familiar pennant. "Very good."
However little he admired Gambier, Cochrane was unable to believe that any man who had at his disposal eleven battleships, including the 120-gun Caledonia, seven frigates, and an assortment of sloops, brigs, and bomb vessels was afraid to take on two enemy battleships. There were guns on the Ile d'Aix, but to judge by their performance on the previous evening they were not likely to decide the issue of a battle. In terms of fire-power, the two French ships still afloat carried 154 guns. Gambier's force boasted 1270 guns, as well as the mortars in the two bomb-ketches. When the news of the Basque Roads affair reached England there was bewilderment that the men who had fought under Hood, or Nelson, or St Vincent, had been obliged to wait placidly while their commander replied to every signal with his predictable "Very good", and the tide was allowed to turn, literally, in favour of the French.
Realising that Gambier was not prepared to seize the advantage himself, Cochrane decided to ask for permission to attack alone. He signalled insistently to Caledonia, "The frigates alone can destroy the enemy." The signal was not even acknowledged, apparently because it was considered "impertinent". Cochrane's orders were to remain where he was until instructed to do otherwise. Worst of all, he had not the least idea of what was happening on the battleships or what Gambier intended. It was perfectly possible that the commander-in-chief was engaged in a muster of the crews to see whether they had imbibed the contents of the last bundle of evangelical tracts handed out to them. It was at nine twenty-five, with the tide filling the anchorage of Aix Roads that Cochrane signalled despairingly, "Enemy preparing to haul off." And in reply came the imperturbable "Very good."27
Cochrane, who watched the French heaving guns and stores overboard and even trying to haul their ships through the mud to meet the rising tide, swore that "the Commander-in-Chief would not permit such a catastrophe". Accordingly, the Imperieuse nosed in and anchored by the Boyart Shoal, ready to dash down the channel as soon as the order was given and lead the attack. The main French shore-batteries on the Ile d'Oleron were firing at them now but the splashes of the shells were far short of the frigate. The flash of cannon and the drifting smoke along the wooded shore of 016ron were three miles or so distant from the anchorage. Cochrane, surveying the batteries through his glass, saw that the French commanders were using mortars, which they loaded perilously to the muzzle in order to reach their distant target. The gun-crews were obliged to fire them by lighting fuses and then running for cover. Yet, as Cochrane remarked, "not a shell, even thus fired, reached our position".28
It was not only Cochrane who saw how easily the stranded enemy might be destroyed. On H.M.S. Caesar, Gunner Richardson heard from a French pilot that the Ile d'Aix had "as many guns as days in the year", trained on the two-mile passage between the island and the Boyart Shoal. It was a remarkably short year. When at length the Caesar was permitted to enter the channel, said Richardson, "we could not find above thirteen guns that could be directed against us in passing; and these we thought so little of that we did not return their fire." The truth, as the French accounts admitted, was that these guns were manned by conscripts with no experience of battle. For all that, thirteen guns on Aix and 154 on the two remaining French ships afloat deterred Lord Gambier with his 1270 cannon. It was hardly a shining example of the Nelson Touch.29
The French sailors were carrying stream anchors across the mud to the deeper water, with six cables running back to each ship. By winding in the cables, it was proposed to haul the ships across the mud to the point where they could float off. But before this happened, the officers on the Ocean were dismayed, at 11 a.m., to see their remaining ships afloat, the Cassard and the Foudroyant, drift inshore with the tide and run aground on the shoal of Founts, the northern tip of the Charente estuary.
Cochrane could hardly have asked for more. Then, at last, he saw that Gambier's fleet was coming in. They had left it late, very late, but something might still be done. On the quarterdeck of the Imperieuse, he waited in a state of growing agitation. And then the unthinkable happened. Three and a half miles short of their target, at a point where the opposing fleets were still just out of range of one another, Gambier's ships dropped anchor. "It was now evident," said Cochrane, "that no attack was intended." Gambier, as he later learnt, was of the opinion that the object of the attack had been achieved and "there was no occasion to risk any part of the fleet".30
By noon, the French flagship Ocean, a splendid three-decker, was afloat. Four more ships on the mud near her soon followed. At this point, Gambier made his gesture of defiance, sending in the bomb-ketch Etna with her 13-inch mortar. Because of her range, she was able to shell the French anchorage without coming under fire herself. But as the French ships floated, Cochrane saw them "making sail for the Charente", where they would find sanctuary in the mouth of the river beyond even the range of the mortar. The bomb-ketch was hardly more than a floating mortar battery, a squat unattractive little vessel with no foremast but a large triangular sail. Cochrane hailed her captain.
"What attack is going to be made on the enemy by the fleet?"
"I know nothing further than that I am ordered to bombard the ships ashore," replied Captain Godfrey stolidly.31
It was clear that there was to be no attack, but Cochrane was not done with Gambier yet. "I made up my mind, if possible, to force him into action by attacking the enemy with the Imperieuse" This was not so easy to do, since he had to contend with two opponents, the French and Gambier. If the Imperieuse was seen to be making sail for the anchorage, she would be ordered back at once by the Caledonia. The ruse which Cochrane adopted was entirely Nelsonian, though rather more perilous than putting a telescope to a blind eye. Without making sail, he ordered the anchor of the Imperieuse to be weighed and the frigate began to drift, slowly, almost unobtrusively into the Aix-Boyart channel, stern-foremost. Cochrane later defended himself on the grounds that if he had not done this, Gambier would have let the entire French fleet escape.32
"Better to risk the frigate, or even my commission," he said grimly, "than to suffer such a disgraceful termination."33
For half an hour, the frigate drifted past the guns of the Ile d'Aix, which opened up on her without effect. It was one-thirty, when she was past the point of recall, that Cochrane gave his order. The sails billowed out, and he bore down to engage the enemy. At the same time he made a sig
nal to the Caledonia, inviting Gambier to show his courage. "Enemy superior to chasing ship, but inferior to fleet." Five minutes later he signalled more irritably, "In want of assistance." Unfortunately the signalling code also used the same flag for the message "In distress", and it was this news which the signal officer of the Caledonia conveyed to Gambier.34
Gambier looked towards Aix Roads, where the flashes of gunfire and the drifting smoke signalled more clearly than any pennant the action which had begun. The Imperieuse was among the French fleet but seemed singularly undistressed. The French battleship Calcutta originally an East Indiaman converted to take supplies, was exchanging broadsides with Imperieuse, much to the advantage of the latter. With his stern and bow guns Cochrane was simultaneously pouring shot into two more stranded battleships, the Aquilon and the Ville de Varsovie.
While Cochrane turned a blaze of fire on to the three great ships,
Gambier hesitated a moment longer. The ambiguous signal had its uses for Cochrane. The commander-in-chief would not come well out of any subsequent inquiry if he refused aid to a frigate in distress. On the other hand, if he complained that Cochrane had pretended to be in distress without cause, Cochrane could always claim that he had merely requested assistance in destroying the French fleet.
By now the Imperieuse was incurring casualties. Marryat saw the captain of the forecastle killed, his head taken off by a cannon shot, and reported Cochrane as saying:
"Poor fellow! Throw him overboard; there is no time for a coroner's inquest now."
Another casualty in the forecastle was a young seaman whose body was blown in two by a shot in the midriff, except for the connection of the spinal cord. Marryat and another midshipman, half blinded by the scattered flesh, were then confronted by an extraordinary phenomenon. The severed body sprang suddenly to its feet, "stared us horridly in the face, and fell down dead". The spine was still carrying the brain's messages to the lower limbs.35
By this time the boats of the Imperieuse were closing on the Calcutta, whose commander, Captain Lafon, led the evacuation by clambering ignominiously out of his stern cabin window and taking flight across the mud. For this, he was later court martialled and shot. At three twenty, the Calcutta surrendered and the crew of the Imperieuse cheered heartily as "assistance" arrived in the shape of five British frigates and the battleships Valiant and Revenge, each carrying seventy-four guns. Not realising what had happened, the Revenge opened fire on the Calcutta, now in the possession of Cochrane's men and had to be warned off. Gambier subsequently overlooked this and noted that the French ship had not been taken by Cochrane but by those who came to assist him.
The Aquilon and the Ville de Varsovie, also engaged by the Imperieuse, struck their colours at five-thirty. Half an hour later, the crew of the Tonnerre set fire to their ship and took to the boats. At 7 p.m. the Tonnerre blew up, and two hours later the burning hulk of the Calcutta exploded. Most of the French ships had taken-refuge in the estuary of the Charente, in whose narrower channel under the batteries of Fort Fouras they were reasonably safe from attack.
The great chance had been missed but Cochrane's determination to force Gambier into action had, at least, achieved something. Indeed, the general opinion on the French flagship was that the day had been one of unmitigated defeat. 'This day of the 12th was a very disastrous one: four of our ships were destroyed, many brave people lost their lives, and by the disgraceful means the enemy made use of to destroy our lines of defence." Plans for the expedition to Martinique, which Gambier would have done nothing to prevent, were in chaos as a result of the attack launched by the Imperieuse. The troops on the French ships had been put ashore and the operation abandoned.36
At 4 a.m. on the morning of 13 April, Cochrane saw that three lights had been hoisted by Gambier's squadron offshore. It was the signal for all those ships which had been sent to Cochrane's assistance to return to the fleet. Before they left, the crews set fire to the two captured battleships, Aquilon and Ville de Varsovie. Cochrane was greatly angered by this, since he had proposed to tow the two fine ships away and claim them as prizes.
As a last hope, he hailed the captain of the frigate Indefatigable, asking him if he would join the Imperieuse in a final attack to sink the French flagship, Ocean. She was still within reach and could be destroyed, Cochrane suggested, by a frigate on either side of her.
"I will not," replied Captain Rodd piously, "we are going out to join the fleet."37
Unaccompanied by any vessels other than brigs and bomb-ketches, Cochrane expected that he too would be ordered to leave the Boyart Shoal and rejoin the fleet. He anticipated this by signalling Gambier on the Caledonia, "If permitted to remain can destroy the enemy." Some time after this he sighted a small boat from the fleet making for the Imperieuse. Gambier's written instructions to him were brought aboard.38
My dear Lord,
You have done your part so admirably that I will not suffer you to tarnish it by attempting impossibilities, which I think, as well as those captains who have come from you, any further effort to destroy those ships would be. You must, therefore, join as soon as you can, with the bombs, etc, as I wish for some information, which you allude to, before I close my despatches.
Yours, my dear Lord, most sincerely,
GAMBIER.
PS. I have ordered three brigs and two rocket vessels to join you, with which, and the bomb, you may make an attempt on the ship that is aground on the Palles, or towards He Madame, but I do not think you will succeed; and I am anxious that you should come to me, as I wish to send you to England as soon as possible. You must, therefore, come as soon as the tide turns.
The letter was carefully and indecisively phrased. Of Cochrane's support vessels, the bomb-ketch was about to split her mortar and the brigs would hardly be of much use in attacking battleships. The Imperieuse was the only ship which was likely to be of real effect in such an attack, and only then because her comparatively light armament was compensated for by the audacity and versatility with which she was commanded. It was the only hope and Cochrane accordingly replied to Gambier.
My Lord,
I have just had the honour to receive your Lordship's letter. We can destroy the ships that are on shore, which I hope your Lordship will approve of.
I have the honour, &c.
COCHRANE.
The response to this was a recall signal hoisted in the shrouds of the Caledonia and, first thing on 14 April, a final message.
My dear Lord,
It is necessary I should have some communication with you before I close my despatches to the Admiralty. I have, therefore, ordered Captain Wolfe to relieve you in the services you are engaged in. I wish you to join me as soon as possible, that you may convey Sir Harry Neale to England, who will be charged with my despatches, or you may return to carry on the service where you are. I expect two bombs to arrive every moment, they will be useful in it.
Yours, my dear Lord, most sincerely,
GAMBIER39
It was evident that Cochrane's command was at an end. He must either return to England or else resume his duties at Aix Roads under the command of a senior captain, Captain Wolfe, loyal to Gambier.
In the first place, however, he had to report to Gambier in the commander-in-chief's cabin on the flagship Caledonia. There was, he later admitted, "no evading Lord Gambier's letter this time without positive disobedience to orders". But when the two men confronted each other, it was Cochrane who assumed the offensive, charging Gambier with "the extraordinary hesitation which had been displayed in attacking ships helplessly on shore". His record of the interview vividly contrasts the character and disposition of the two men.
I begged his lordship, by way of preventing the ill-feeling of the fleet from becoming detrimental to the honour of the service, to set me aside altogether and send in Admiral Stopford, with the frigates or other vessels, as with regard to him there could be no ill-feeling: further declaring my confidence that from Admiral Stopford's zeal for the service, h
e would, being backed by his officers, accomplish results more creditable than anything that had yet been done. I apologised for the freedom I used, stating that I took the liberty as a friend, for it would be impossible, as matters stood, to prevent a noise being made in England.
The flaw in this piece of reasoning was that Stopford had shown no great enthusiasm for going in. It was also an error of judgement for Cochrane to begin, at this stage, pretending to "friendship" for Gambier.
"My lord," he added, "you have before desired me to speak candidly to you, and I have now used that freedom."
So far as Gambier was concerned, the action at the Basque Roads was over, and Cochrane, like the others, would have to rest on his laurels. Indeed, the admiral's last words on the matter were ominous enough: "If you throw blame upon what has been done, it will appear like arrogantly claiming all the merit to yourself."
Since it was clear that Gambier proposed to remove him from the vicinity of the battle, Cochrane lodged a last but futile protest: "I have no wish to carry the despatches, or to go to London with Sir Harry Neale on the occasion. My object is alone that which has been entrusted to me by the Admiralty - to destroy the vessels of the enemy!"
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