by Roy Adkins
Some lemon juice was preserved by mixing it with several gallons of brandy, but Surgeon Cairncross found that, as a medicine, it was not so effective. In his opinion, fresh lemons and oranges were much better in dealing with scurvy ‘or when they could not be procured, the preserved juice in such quantities, from one, to four ounces per diem, as the patient could bear. Whilst the lemons were sound, from one to three were administered each day as circumstances directed. The juice given to those in the most malignant state, was sometimes diluted with sugar, wine or spirits; but the convalescents took it without dilution.’16
The month of October 1780 also brought a dramatic change in the operations of the besieging forces. For the first time, they began to extend their siegeworks forward into the isthmus. Over the past year, they had extensively remodelled and strengthened the forts and batteries along the Lines, as well as new positions all round the bay as far as Algeciras and Cabrita Point, protecting the rivers, landing stages and the camps. They had built artillery parks, magazines and camps, brought in vast amounts of artillery and ammunition, constructed bridges of boats over the Palmones and Guadaranque rivers and expended vast amounts of material and manpower into creating numerous trenches linking strategic points that acted as defensive positions and covered lines of communication. And yet virtually nothing had been done with all the menacing armament, making the garrison rather complacent about their preparations. As Drinkwater said, ‘The Enemy’s operations on the land side had been for many months so unimportant, as scarcely to merit our attention.’17
Now new plans were afoot, beginning in the early hours of 1 October, when the Spaniards set fire to the huts in the market gardens, as well as the wheel used to raise water from one of the wells. They also tried burning the wooden palisades of the barriers at Bayside and Lower Forbes by fixing strange combustible devices to the gates and fencing. The guards, Ancell explained, ‘did not observe them, owing to the darkness of the night, and the roaring of the sea and wind’, and Spilsbury said that it did not help that they were able to advance ‘under cover of heaps of dung, rubbish, &c., that have been let to remain outside those outposts’.18 The same darkness and noise concealed the activity of the Spanish working parties, and at daybreak it was a shock to discover that all their batteries on the Lines were manned and the guns were elevated, ready to fire. Overnight they had also constructed a substantial breastwork, or epaulement, forming a long mound about 700 yards in advance of their Lines, which Drinkwater described as ‘about 30 yards in extent, of a simple construction, composed of chandeliers [wooden frames], fascines, and a few sand-bags ... erected near the windmill or tower on the neutral ground, distant about 1100 yards from our grand battery’.19
The next day, the Comte d’Estaing, a French general and admiral, was shown around the refurbished Lines by the Spanish general Don Alvarez, and, according to Drinkwater, ‘They remained three quarters of an hour at Fort St. Barbara, viewing the rock with glasses.’20 One deserter reported that several French regiments were expected to reinforce the Spanish army in the spring, ‘though they flattered themselves at St. Roque that the garrison would be in their hands much sooner’. A few days later, Captain Burke, the town major, went out under a flag of truce into the neutral zone, heading towards the old tower which was the normal place for parleys, but the Spanish guards tried to stop him. In the end, they relented, and an officer came to receive his letter, ‘but looked very sullen, not pleased with having their works examined’.21 Burke reconnoitred as much as possible, but General Alvarez sent Eliott a message that in future all communication was to take place at sea. The neutral zone was no longer neutral, but an active war zone.
Over the next few months, between the Lines and Gibraltar, the Spanish work on the sand dunes of the isthmus was unrelenting, particularly at night and irrespective of the weather. Trenches were pushed across the neutral ground and gun batteries built, most notably a huge battery right by the old Mill Tower, which the garrison initially referred to as the Mill Battery or sometimes the Tower Battery, before finding out that the Spaniards had named it St Carlos battery.
From their new St Carlos fortifications, the Spanish soldiers kept firing on the Genoese gardeners, making it difficult for them to work in the market gardens. Until now, they had managed to keep up some cultivation. At the same time, the Spaniards kept raiding the gardens for cabbages and other greens, and Ancell complained that ‘they have plundered the gardens every night of late, but now, in the most audacious manner, they come forward in the day time to gather vegetables’.22 On one occasion, Horsbrugh saw that ‘25 men came out from the Mill Battery into the gardens and began to pull up and carry away the cabbages till dispersed by some grape [shot]’, and soon after ‘about a dozen men ... came forward to the middle garden and very coolly took away what greens they thought proper, and did not seem in the least intimidated at the fire of our marksmen from the Lines or the shells thrown at them from above’.23 The Spanish troops were obviously too hungry to care about the risk.
Eliott eventually allowed the gardeners to use part of the Governor’s Meadow, just beyond the inundation and much closer to the safety of the barriers at Landport. More effort was also made to create gardens on the Rock. ‘Our barren rock yields but little,’ Ancell said, ‘but ... many have begun to convert the solid parts of the rock into kitchen gardens, which some have effected by raising walls one height above another, and filling the enclosed with earth. It will appear a scene of enchantment to Admiral Barcelo, when he beholds the face of the dry and barren Rock in a state of vegetation.’ Drinkwater agreed, saying that their attempts at cultivating the Rock were ‘crowned with tolerable success, especially during the winter months, at which time the produce was increased to be almost equal to the consumption. The supplies from the [market] gardens had indeed begun to fail for some time before; and we soon had little reason to regret their loss.’24 Drinkwater may have been too optimistic, because by early November most regiments were again suffering from scurvy.
For well over a year the garrison had bombarded the Spanish Lines, attempting to stop their working parties from improving the fortifications. Now that the advance siegeworks were coming closer, they began a determined bombardment every single night, when most of the working parties operated. At times, damage to the fortifications could be seen the next day, though the number of casualties was uncertain, as they were generally removed before daybreak. Some men were definitely hit, Mrs Green explained: ‘We know that some of our shot and shells have taken effect, as our people upon the high batteries frequently hear the groans of the enemy and likewise we have seen them, this very morning [2 November] carry away several wounded men upon hand barrows.’ Her townhouse was near one of the gun batteries, and she found the constant firing intolerable: ‘It now is become exceedingly uncomfortable, for as soon as it is dark, the enemy begins to work, and of course we begin to fire. Our house is just in the line of fire, and we are shook by every shot, particularly from the Montague [battery]. It absolutely shakes my bed with violence. I believe I may add with truth that there are hundreds [who] keep awake beside those on duty, and this is the case every night.’25
There was still no retaliatory fire from the Spaniards, apart from the hostile attacks of the gunboats. On many occasions, especially at night, the gunboats fired at the fishing boats, preventing them from going right out into the bay. This was especially hard on the inhabitants who depended on their catches, not being eligible for rations of salt provisions like the troops. The gunboats were particularly active in maintaining the blockade, and they also attempted to destroy the shipping at the New Mole, now and again firing into the town as well, which generated much fear. The garrison found it very difficult to deal with them, and one soldier was frustrated:
I wish we had eighteen or twenty gun-boats, carrying a twenty-four-pounder each, with thirty or forty men; two of these are equal to a frigate in calm weather. If we had a few of these, under an enterprising naval
commander, we might have brought in abundance of supplies by seizing neutral vessels and saving many of our own that were taken. I am persuaded too, that with such boats we might cannonade the enemy’s camp and enfilade their lines and chandelier, in calm nights, without any risk.26
On the morning of 12 November, a small boat was spotted close to the Barbary shore, but when three gunboats set out from Cabrita Point to intercept the vessel, she kept going until the batteries at Europa Point were reached, even though two xebecs fired broadsides. To Captain Price, the episode was heroic:
Captain McLorg ... in a polacca from London fought his way to Europa Point, though a whole swarm of the Enemy’s gunboats and other wasps ranged in a chain to intercept him. The Enemy’s round and grape shot from a very short distance galled him so severely that, encouraged by appearances, they prepared to board him, but he gave the boats so warm a reception with grape shot and small arms that he obliged them to desist, and the polacca soon after anchored off the new Mole, where the captain soon after was almost suffocated by a croud of admirers who flocked on board to congratulate and guzzle porter.27
Ancell said that ‘she proves to be the Young Sabine, Captain McLorg, from London, in 18 days, with flour and other necessary articles, burthen 200 tons, and ten men. She was greatly damaged, and her sails almost torn to pieces, having received 29 shot which struck her in different parts during the action. She had only one man slightly wounded.’28 Mrs Green noted that he could not even use all his guns, because he had only nine hands, including boys: ‘We had the good fortune to get her safe into the New Mole. Great is the pleasure it affords us all ... Captain McLorg ... has brought a most welcome supply from England, consisting of salt beef and pork, flour, potatoes, sugar, butter, porter, bacon and hams &c, all for the merchants ... what makes this vessel more welcome is ... that it is the first we have had from England since the Hyaena frigate.’29 The Hyaena had arrived in April, and then only with dispatches. The Young Sabine’s cargo was soon sold, and Ancell listed some of the prices the goods fetched, including barrels of flour, Cork butter, Gloucester cheese, hams, bacon, herrings, porter, rum, coals and candles. He complained that ‘the buyers who retail them again make almost cent. per cent. You may therefore judge how those are situated who are obliged to purchase from the retailers.’30 What gave them all great hope was the news brought by McLorg that a Grand Convoy was being prepared ‘with all expedition’, including fifteen thousand troops.
In mid-November, the gunboats came in close and attacked the New Mole area in an attempt to distract the garrison from a great deal of work being done that night on the advance siegeworks. They repeated the same tactic two nights later, but the Enterprise spotted the gunboats and made a signal, so that the navy ships fired first. Horsbrugh said that the gunboats responded:
which, as well as we could judge from the flash of their guns and sound, kept nearly at the distance of two miles and directed their shot principally against the shipping, none of which they struck ... Orders were sent to cease firing from our batteries, unless the boats came nearer, so as they could have a distinct view of them, but before these orders reached the batteries, we had the misfortune to hear that one artilleryman was killed, four others and a soldier of the 12th regiment wounded, by the bursting of one of the Carron guns, a 32-pounder on the King’s Bastion.31
The artilleryman’s head was blown off and several pieces of the gun flew into the centre of the town, but did no further harm. The artillery guards were ordered to remain in readiness, watching for the gunboats, ‘till the moon appeared over the Hill and enlightened the Bay’.32
Because of the gunboats, Eliott introduced a black-out: ‘No lights to appear towards the Bay, in any house, barrack, guardhouse, or other building, after seven o’clock at night.’33 Over the next two nights, the gunboats tried firing again, but their shot fell short, and everyone agreed that they misjudged the distance because no lights were showing. On their next attempt, Horsbrugh thought the gunboats again seemed at a loss: ‘Three of the enemy’s gun boats paid us a visit at one in the morning, fired all ten shots in different directions, but without seeming to have any determined object, and as none of their shot reached us, neither the garrison nor shipping returned a single shot.’ Instead, the upper batteries and Montague’s fired their guns all through the night at the isthmus, though that did not prevent another substantial stage of construction: ‘at day break we found that they had not been idle, for we then discovered that they had in the night begun a line of communication or approach from the west flank of the Well Battery across the glacis of the Lines, constructed on the surface with fascines, chandeliers, and sand bags, about 8 feet high and ten in breadth, covered in the front with sand’.34
It became increasingly difficult to stop the Spanish advance works, because greater protection was constructed for their working parties. ‘The enemy have been so very busily employed for sometime past,’ Horsbrugh commented, ‘that it is said there have been reckoned to the amount of 700 mules employed on different services at the same time.’ Mrs Green noted that ‘It is now the full moon and we can discover all their motions. We know for a certainty that we have killed a great many of their mules, as we see them lay dead in the neutral ground, and it is not to be doubted but we have also killed men.’35
Several more soldiers and seamen tried to desert from Gibraltar to the Spanish side, perhaps because they appeared to have the upper hand, but some fell to their death down the sheer rock face on the eastern and northern sides of the promontory, as Ancell recorded: ‘Last night, a soldier attempting to desert to the enemy from Middle-Hill Guard fell from the heights, and was smashed to pieces at the foot of the Rock. One would imagine it to be madness in a person to endeavour to escape that way, as the precipices of the rock are so steep that the very idea to a rational man would deter him from such a proceeding.36
It was not always known what happened to the deserters, though corpses and skeletons were at times found, which Horsbrugh described: ‘The body of the soldier of the 12th Regiment who deserted in the night of the 2nd inst was cast on shore opposite the Bomb house and suffered to lie exposed for the rest of the day in terrorem. The skeleton of a soldier supposed a deserter was found at the foot of the rock near to Boyd’s quarry, so much broke to pieces and disfigured that there only remained the number on the buttons from which we could distinguish he belonged to the 72nd Regiment.’ Mrs Green elaborated:
This morning a coat was first discovered, behind the Rock, belonging to the 72nd, with the remains of some very hard bread and cheese in his pockets; the coat torn all to rags. In the forenoon upon making a close search, the body of a man dreadfully broke to pieces was discovered. He had belonged to the 72nd and was dashed to pieces, it is now seen, in attempting to get away, with 2 others, near a year ago. It was always believed the three had got away safe, but the way this body was found makes it clear he had not been of the lucky ones in escaping.37
The days dragged on with no news about the promised convoy to raise the spirits of the people, and December 1780 was marked by appalling weather. There were violent storms at the outset and heavy rain throughout, and on the evening of the 2nd, Mrs Green wrote that
it began to rain very hard and directly came on the most violent storm of hail, rain and thunder that I ever remember, which continued about half an hour, and happy for this garrison it was, that it lasted no longer. As it was, it has done a great deal of harm. Several old houses thrown down and a vast quantity of rubbish came from the mountain. The whole garrison was full of bustle and hurry. The Colonel was at the Convent when it began, and could not get away till near 9 o’clock, for though the violence of the storm was only of a short duration, yet it continued to pour with rain till near 11.38
The next morning, there was another torrential downpour, and similar storms occurred intermittently throughout December, leaving the Spanish fortifications and camps waterlogged and destroying the bridge of boats over th
e Palmones river. Strong easterly winds in mid-December also caused masses of sand to drift across the isthmus, smothering the siegeworks.
In spite of the weather, the Spanish guns in the forward batteries looked as if they would soon be ready to hit targets much further south than previously envisaged, and so even more street surfaces were removed in early December. ‘The Governor has ordered the pavement of the streets to be dug up as far as Southport,’ Ancell wrote,
[and] one hundred and ten inhabitants (besides the soldiery) are employed in this work, viz. sixty Roman Catholics, thirty Jews, and twenty British; the stones are thrown over the line wall. The intention of this is to prevent the havoc that would ensue from the explosion of the enemy’s shells whenever they open from their batteries, as the weight with which they fall buries them under the surface of the ground, and when they burst, they scatter whatever is near them for seventy or eighty yards around.39
Much more effort was being made to counter the effects of an enemy attack, and artillery experiments were also happening all the time. Howitzers had been set up on the Old Mole, and on 9 December they were tried out, which Mrs Green described:
In the forenoon, an experiment was tried from Old Mole to throw shells from howitzers to the enemy’s new battery. It answered very well for the most part. One shell fell finally into the front of their work and threw down some fascines, which they instantly repaired. The officer who appeared to command their party behaved remarkably well, with much seeming coolness and conduct and stood upon the front emplacement the whole time and seemed to encourage the men. Our captain upon the batteries was expected to have fired upon the enemy during their working, but did not! The Governor seemed to express a surprise at his not firing. However, it was amply made up by the constant fire to keep up all the evening and night, which it is not to be doubted, did greatly hinder their working.40