C43 B97 1869 I OJarneU Untotsitg Htbtatjj 3tt|ata, Nem ^ork BERNARD ALBERT SINN COLLECTION NAVAL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY THE GIFT OF BERNARD A. SINN. 97 1919 DATE DUE Cornell University Library DA 88.1.C43B97 1869 3 1924 027 921 547 Cornell University Library The original of tinis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027921547 •''C-^si- ^/t" MEMOIR ADMIRAL Sill HENEY DUCIE CHADS, G.C.B AN OLD FOLLOWER. POETSBA: GRIFFIN AND Co., 2, THE HARD. 1869. ■4 ' mf A'^sUs^o PREFACE. The brief account given ia the following pages of the career of a very distinguished officer seemed to be more in Ijeeping with the simplicity of his character than a more elaborate volume stuffed with anecdotes and public documents which few would care to read. Having been already printed in the United ServlcR Magazine, it was originally intended that only a few copies of the Article should be struck off for private circulation. It has been, however, thought that some Waval Officers at least, if not the general public, might be glad to have. an opportunity of possessing in a se2Jarate form the Memoir of a man to whom the Naval Service owes so much. One who had the honour of serving under him both in boyhood and manhood, and thus of daily learning from and observing him in every possible way for nine years, unable to resist the feeling that an obligation lay upon IV PEEFACE. some one to undertake the responsibility of a biographer, has cheerfully obeyed the call. That others might have been found vrho would have performed the task much better, he is the first to admit ; but no one could be more sensible than himself of the impossibility of doing even the faintest justice to the subject without the assistance which he has received from his old comrade and friend, the eldest son of the departed chief. M. B. MEMOIR ADMIRAL SIR HENRY DUCIE CHADS, G.C.B. The public are naturally and properly suspicious of biographies. There is a fatal fecundity of sketches and memoirs in the present day which puts people on their guard. They demand, and they have a right to demand, that there shall be some very good reason for bring- ing a particular person prominently forward for admira- tion ; and since the great heroes of the great war have passed away from us, they feel this especially in the case of Naval and Military men. It is very easy to put together the events of the career of a good officer who has seen service, but is there anything much beyond commonplace in it ? Have not scores of other men as much to say ? Might not the naval histories and such official documents be held to contain quite sufficient information on the subject ? No doubt the onus probandi rests with the memoir- writer. We hope to be able to prove not only that Sir Henry Chads was a man of whom there should be at least a memoir, if not a life ; but that it would be culpable if some attempt were not made to write one. We hope to shew that he combined two cardinal features in a 6 EAEL1 TEAINING. naval officer's career to a greater degree than perhaps any other of his contemporaries, viz -. distinguished service in war, and surpassing influence upon the pro- fession to which he devoted his life. Of course we shall avoid personal comparisons, merely leaving the facts to tell their own tale ; and, when we speak of such comparisons, it must be understood that we are speaking only of those who^ began their career with the present century. Nor should we care to give such a sketch merely to prove the above point. If Sii^Henry Chads had not exhibited throughout his long career one unbroken moral and practical lesson of the highest value, not only to " future Nelsons," but to his countrymen at large, it might still be a question how far a memoir might be justified. In the case of all really distinguished persons a knowledge of their domestic and early history is always found to throw light upon their subsequent career. We have not space here for the anecdotes of that period which family affection has preserved ; but it may be briefly said that the future hero owed much of his early devotion to the Navy to the high character of his father, a Naval Captain, and no little of his conspicuous self- reliance to the fact that both his parents died before he went to sea himself; that he evinced both at a private school near Chichester, where his father lived, and at what was then called the Eoyal Naval Academy (afterwards " College ") at Portsmouth (which he joined in 1800), many traits of the indomitable courage and independence which characterized him through life ; and that at this "Academy" especially, where boys then spent three years, from twelve to fifteen, he received an excellent educa- EOYAL NAVAL ACADEMY. tion in all departments useful for the Naval Service, to whicli he always attributed much of his subsequent success. At the same time this very " Academite " education, not being the necessary training for all (as it is happily now), was with him, as in so many cases down almost to our own day, a cause of jealous and unsavoury comparisons with the non-Academites. Those who had come straight to sea, without this preliminary training, were no doubt excellent seamenj but were seldom able to gain what the others had learnt ; while the very sharpening of the wits of the " Academite " taught him to pick up rapidly what his less-trained com- panions had learnt slowly. The gallant Captain Lambert, of whom we shall have more to say, was prone to running down " Academites." One day a brother-captain said in the presence of his first-lieutenant, the subject of this Memoir, " I wonder you find such fault with them when your first-lieutenant here is one." " Is that true ?" said Lambert. " Tes," said Cliads^ who was Lambert's especial friend and companion-in-arms. " Why then did you never tell me?" "Because I knew your preju- dices." " I will never then say one word against them in future," said Lambert ; and he kept his word. Next to the advantage of a good education, we must place the fortunate circumstance that young Chads served his midshipman's career under the command of the two greatest men produced by the war. Nelson and CoUing- wood. Under such admirals, and under a good captain, Sotherou, of the Excellent, his boyish mind could not fail to be filled with every lesson that a noble career re- quired. He used to tell a story of Nelson, who, cruising in the Victory when the Excellent was under his orders. AJTECDOTE OF KELSON. was grievously annoyed at the insult offered him by two French frigates, which continued to fire at him at a long range while he could not get at them. The quarter- master conning the ship, no doubt an old follower of the hero, had his own ideas on his own subject, and was not to be moved by the irl-itability of the Adiciral. " Luff, I say," said Nelson. " Thice," said the quarter-master; (shore-going readers will understand that this word, a corruption of " Thus," and sometimes still further corrup- ted to " Dice," means that the ship was already as near the wind as possible). " Luff, I say, she's off the wind." " No she's not, my Lord, ' Thice.' " " I suppose I lie, then ?" " Tes, my Lord ; thice, boy, thice.-" On the same day young Chads commanded the boat sent to bring his Captain back to his ship after dining with the Admiral. Nelson who had not yet recovered his equanimity, hailed him as he came alongside : " Young gentleman, have you got a compass iu your boat ?" (It was foggy weather.) " Tes, my Lord." " If you hadn't, 1 should have sent you back again," cried the Admiral. Though this characteristic incident fastened itself on the youthful memory of the midshipman, no one retained a livelier recollection of the extraordinary popularity of the greatest naval commander the world has ever seen, and of the just grounds on which that popularity was based. Prom him no doubt he copied, though it fell in with his own character, that peculiar method of dealing with seamen which the Nelson school inherited and passed down. Lord St. Vincent was the representative of the opposite school, of which, great as its merits were, the characteristic might be said to be fear rather than love. This latter school had done great service before St. AD-VICE OF COLLINGWOOD. i) Vincent's time, as it has since. Discipline and perfection of routine have been its chief aim, but it has had a ten- dency to develop martinets and disgust seamen. The school of Nelson, on the contrary, paid more attention to the personal feelings of seamen, and somewhat disregarded minutise. It might sometimes, in inferior hands, de- generate into slovenliness, but its best ofiicers, like their chief, were adored by their subordinates, and have left the largest body of distinguished names on the roll of fame. To Lord Collingwood, another of that school, young Chads early became favourably tnown in consequence of his promptness and accuracy in copying charts on an important occasion. At another time, while serving under his command as lieutenant, goaded beyond bear- ing by a tyrannical captain, he applied to be removed to another ship. He never forgot Lord Collingwood's method of treating the matter. For some time the Admiral took no notice of the application, but made inquiry of his captain about him. No doubt that in- quiry had a beneficial effect on his treatment ; but no answer arrived till just as the ship was ordered home, when the young lieutenant received a long and most valuable letter from the Admiral, telling him that he would have been removed had not the ship been going home ; but that a rolling stone gathered no moss, and that it was best to bear the trial he was undergoing rather than try and escape from it. This and many other valuable letters and papers were lost when Sir Henry was taken prisoner. Twice during his service as lieutenant at this time, he jumped overboard, at the imminent risk of his life, and saved men from drowning. On one of the two occasions the ship was going eight knots ; he was much exhausted 10 STOEMING OF ISLE DE TjA PASSE. •when picked up, and nnable to keep his watch. Though reported as unfit by the surgeon, the only thanks he got for his most gallant act was a reprimand from his captain for not being able to appear at his post ! The hardships of that period no doubt contributed their quota to the formation of a character the fiery nature of which required discipline, while, at the same time, he imbibed a hatred of tyranny which never left him. This short notice of his service in the Mediter- ranean may be concluded by remarking that, during the earlier portion of it, he was employed in the defence of Gaeta and capture of Capri, under one who was inferior to few in such services, Sir Sydney Smith. He was unfortunate enough to miss being present at Trafalgar by his ship, the Excellent, having been sent off on an important service to Naples just before the battle. He was now to practice the lessons he had learnt. In 1808 he joined the Iphigenia frigate, under an ofiicer of a kindred spirit, the gallant Captain Lambert, the very soul of chivalry. For a detail of the exploits of this frigate, we must refer our readers to the pages of Marshall (Naval Biography, Vol. III.), James (Naval History, Vol. V.), and Tonge (History of the British Navy, Vol. II.) Though unfortunate for a time in the attempt to deprive the French of their stronghold for annoying our East India trade, the peculiar nature of the service in which our frigate squadron was engaged at the Isles of France and Eourbon, and the brilliant leading of men like Willoughby and Lambert, aiforded an experience in warfare such as our naval records have very rarely exhibited. In the storming of the Isle de la Passe, Lieutenant Chads had the main ACTION AT GRAND POET. 11 share in the honour of the exploit, as the commanding officer was killed at landing, and the command devolved upon him. The cotnplete success of the attack drew down on him the highest encomiums. In the subse- quent battle at Grand Port, which resulted in the capture of the British force, he bore a full part, his captain, as well as Willoughby and Curtis (the late Admiral of the Fleet) fighting their ships to the last. Here he experienced what it was to be prisoner of war to the French ; the officers captured in the frigates being very ill-treated for several months. They were at last released through the reduction of the island by a larger British force, and Chads had the honour of being re-appointed as first-lieutenant to his old ship, the Iphigenia, at the urgent request of Captain Lambert. A court-martial had already honourably acquitted all the officers con- cerned. Lambert now gave him a certificate containing these words : — " He is a most zealous, gallant, good officer, and invariably a volunteer on all services." It is notice- able that in this service, as well as in a short interval in the Semiramis between leaving the Iphigenia and rejoining Captain Lambert in the Java, he was either first-lieutenant, or, through the sickness of the proper first-lieutenant, almost always doing the duty of that officer. By those who know the Navy the importance of such a position to a young man in stirring times will he understood. But it was not till the famous action between the Java and the Constitution that the merits of the young officer became known to the country at large. Lambert, having been selected to command the former vessel, a 46-gun 12 FITTING OUT OF H.M.S. " JAVA." frigate, immediately asked Chads to become his first - lieutenant, who at once accepted. The miserable way in which this ship was sent to sea by the Admiralty, in spite of the most urgent remonstrances, has been freely noticed in all the histories ; for the triumph thus afforded to the Americans, who, with great sagacity, had concen- trated all their efforts on the construction and armament of a few frigates of a hitherto unknown size, has natur- ally led writers to dwell on this point. But the sagacious policy of our enemy would probably have had no effect against Lambert and Chads, in however inferior a vessel, had they only had fair play. As it is just possible that the lesson may not be thrown away even in modern times, we may give a few details on this matter. The Java was fitted out at Portsmouth by harbour- service men, and by them taken out to Spithead. Her very motley crew was then by degrees jjut on board. Just before sailing they could only muster twenty-seven men who had ever been in a man-of-war before, when ten men, principally under the promise of ratings, were allowed to volunteer from the Rodney ; they were almost the only good men on board. Afterwards, how- ever, they had fifty of the worst characters of the Coquette drafted into the ship, men who had been in almost open mutiny in their former vessel, and who had treacherously cut the lanyards of the lower rigging when they were chasing an American squadron. Even after the Java got to sea, water was frequently found to have been poured down the vents of the guns during the night. Whilst at Spithead Captain Lambert remon- strated with the Admiralty on the inefficiency of his crew, " JAVA " AND " CONSTITUTION." 13 and on the inapossibility of liis being able to engage any frigate of equal force. The only reply he received ■was, " that a voyage to India would make a good crew of them." He left a letter behind hini to the same efi'ect. But it was not in Lambert's nature to avoid an en- gagement. The Java, in addition to her other disquali- fications, had not only on board the staff of General Sir Thomas Hislop, whom she was carrying to India, but was lumbered with stores ; yet no sooner did a hostile frigate come in his way than Lambert chased and fought her. His enemy, the Constitution, was already too well known to the British navy by her late capture of the Guerriere, a British ship which, like the Java, was only two-thirds her own size. The American carried, indeed, only nine more guns than the latter frigate, but her weight of metal, like her tonnage, was half as great again as that of her enemy. Her sides were also so thick that the British shot had little power of penetration into them, and her crew numbered 485 to the Java's 377. No wonder, then, that with such a disparity of force, in addition to the character and rawness of the crew, the British frigate was taken ; — though not till she had fought an action which for courage and endurance has had few parallels even in the brilliant annals of the British Navy. The men, at first dispirited, soon, under the example of the officers and the few old hands (especially a ship's cook who had served in the Iphigenia), evinced the spirit of their race, and, torn to pieces as they were, rushed to the rigging and taunted the Constitution, when she parted for a time to repair damages, with hauling off. Two hours before the Java struck, the heroic Lambert had been mortally wounded. The ship was then fought 14 " Java" and " constittjtion." by liis first-lieutenant, who had himself been severely wounded ; nor did Chads strike his flag till his ship lay a helpless wreck, her masts shot away, one-third of her crew killed or wounded, and the comparatively unhurt Constitution placed so that resistance was absolutely hopeless. When the Americans found out the condi- tion of their prize, they set her on fire. Chads was now again to experience the fate of a prisoner of war, and was robbed once more of all that he had. Even his sword was stolen ; but on Commodore Baiubridge (of the Constitution) insisting that it should be found, in order to return it to him formally on the quarter-deck, it was forthcoming. On his way home with the Java's crew. Chads distinguished himself by the splendid energy with which he put down a mutiny on board the Cartel, commanded by the Second-Lieutenant. At the Court-martial which took place at Portsmouth, each wit- ness vied with the other in eulogy of Chads' conduct, The officers and crew were honourably acquitted with every expression of hearty approval. Perhaps the words of the President, Sir Graham Moore, on returning Lieu- tenant Chads his sword, may be quoted here. " I have much pleasure in returning you your sword. Had you been an officer who had served in comparative obscurity all your life, and never before been heard of, your conduct on the present occasion has been sufiicient to establish your character as a brave, skilful and attentive officer." Gratifying words these to a yotlng officer of twent3'- four ! A more substantial reward was immediatelv ariven him in his promotion to the rank of Commander and appointment to a ship, the Columbia, which he joined on the North American station. Here he was employed, CAFTDEE OF GUADALOtTPE. 15 amongst other services, in the capture of Guadaloupe from the French, and again received the highest com- mendations from his superior oflScer. Here, also, he ]aid the foundation of that fame as a gunnery -officer, by which he was chiefly linown in his later days. Broke and Pechell had already begun to form a science of naval gunnery, and Chads was but little behind them. There was much to be done. Every Captain had to learn and teach for himself, but the Columbia was soon a model for others. On paying off this vessel, at the peace in 1815, her commander experienced the fate of so many officers at that time, especially if they had no overpowering interest. As at all times in the British Navy, there were then two intensely difficult problems to settle — how to deal with the officers who were no longer wanted when a peace came, and how to satisfy the political exigencies which required advancement for men of family and wealth, without too far disgusting those who had no claims but their distinguished services : — a miserable alternative which we may hope is less forced on the authorities now-a-days than it was. Though solemnly promised promo- tion to post-rank. Commander Chads was now kept for no less than twelve years without it ; at the same time apply- ing every quarter for a ship, and using every possible means of bringing himself forward. He was eight years on half- pay. It must be admitted that he probably owed some of this trying delay to his own impetuosity, inasmuch as he never ceased to remind the Private Secretary of the First Lord of the Admiralty of his unjust treatment, and no doubt made an enemy of that influential personage. This leads us to remark that the extremely active cha- 16 PEESO.VAL CHARACTEE. racter of the service he had seen, and his education in the old school of officers, added to his transparent frank- ness and straightforwardness, had given him a vehemence and ahsoluteness of manner which stuck to him more or less through life, and which was often misunderstood. No one had a tenderer heart ; no one combined in a greater degree the gentleness of a Christian man's con- duct, with the style and habits of a restless, dashing, and chivalrous officer. The softer side of his character ■was now to receive a permanent development, not only by his marriage with one who was in every way worthy of him, but by his coming under the influence of an earnest religion for which the dangers and escapes of his past career had well prepared him. At the same time no one bad a greater horror of display. While some of his compeers, with all sincerity, embraced a very demon- strative form of piety, his would never have been known except by his actions, his abstinence from all questionable indulgences, and his attention to his Christian duties. Connected with this period one interesting point may be noticed, his devotion to the sport of shooting, and the hardships to which he accustomed himself in the pur- suit of it, no doubt not without reference to the future services for which he ardently longed. Pew sportsmen ever went through so great an amount of fatigue, or so resolutely disregarded the weather. He became entirely inured to being wet through, and afterwards attributed his immunity from sickness in the Burmese war, when others v.rere struck down all around, to this hardening process. No doubt, however, his temperate habits no little contributed to the result. Curiously enough, when he at last obtained a ship, he was indebted, not to any " AEACHNe" in BURMESE WAR. 17 sense of his claims entertained at the Admiralty, but to the interest of one whom the Government of the day wished to oblige, the before-mentioned Sir Thomas Hisloj), who, by witnessing his conduct in the Java, had become his devoted friend. This new ship, the Arachne, introduces us to a portion of our hero's career with which the public are too well acquainted to require any lengthened account, the Bur- mese war of 1824-26. The chastisement of the Burmese had become a necessity, for those people were persistently using very great wealth and a very complete organization (for a barbarous State) against the Eastern frontier of our Indian territory. With all the pride of a flourish- ing Oriental Empire these people could not believe what English power meant till they bought their experience in this war. The chief interest of the camjjaign lay in its being the first instance of a naval force being used for such a great distance (nearly 700 miles) up a river, and in the use of the first steamer, the Diana, ever employed in naval warfare. Captain Marryat, the novelist, who gallantly commanded the naval forces before Chads' arrival, must have the full credit for this idea. Though, since this war, our naval forces have acted up rivers in China and South America, it may be ques- tioned wht-'ther that peculiar kmd of warfare was ever more admirably conducted, or more uniformly successful. The enemy was barbarous, it is true, but his force was better equipped by land and sea than that of any such Power with whom the English have been engaged. He made a most gallant and even ferocious resistance ; part of the time under a general, Bandoolah, whose abilities would have done no discredit to a Euroj^ean c 18 FLOTILLA.' ON THE IBEAWADDT. service. Still further, the climate was deadly ;— our troops lost eighty per cent, of their number, and our flotilla suffered most severely. But nothing could stop the career of such a general as Sir Archibald Campbell, or naval commander as Chads. Twice over the latter officer was superseded by seniors. Captain Alexander and Sir James Brisbane, the former of whom died, and the latter of whom was obliged to leave from illness. The command was each time resumed, and the work mostly done by the man whose iron constitution resisted every assault of climate, and whose fiery energy was felt to be contagious in both Services. At the close of the war, he was, as senior naval ofBcer, one of the Commissioners for dictating the peace. It would be tedious to detail the various forms in which the thanks of his superiors in the Army and Navy, of the Grovernor-General of India, and of the House of Commons, were conveyed to him. He was not indeed mentioned by name in the latter document, as etiquette required that the Commodore of the East India station should alone be named ; but to Chads belonged the thanks. He was admirably supported by the officers under his command, and invariably kept on cordial terms with the Army, — a virtue not always to be traced in the joint proceedings of the two Services. Living in boats for months, continually under severe fire, and exposed to every hardship to which such services are liable, there never seems to have been a murmur, or a single moment's flagging of zeal. The practice of the chief was to lie down (generally on a hen-coop) early in the evening, and thus to secure some hours' rest. At one o'clock he was on the alert, and always made a practice of pulling PEOMOTION TO POST RANK. 19 round the flotilla to see that everything was correct. The first to explore, plan, and lead, never caring how he exposed his person, this was the man to ensure success. He was gratified by the reward of promotion to post- rank and the C.B,, and his name now became famous. Yet after paying off the Alligator (into which he was posted), he was once more kept several years on shore, fretting at his enforced inactivity, and using every eifort to obtain employment in vain. Id later times he was able to look with more equanimity on these delays : " We never know whether we are sailing too fast or too slow," he used to say. Though a long while working his way up to the list of admirals, he mounted to the head of that list very rapidly, and considered that he was within one or two of the place where he would have been had he obtained his earlier promotions as quickly as the men of interest. To Sir James Graham he owed his next advance- ment. On coming to the Admiralty Sir James heard his story, and acknovvledging his ill-treatment, asked him if he would like to be knighted. " No," said Chads, " I only want a ship." Soon afterwards, Sir James employed him as Commissioner to inquire into the circumstances of the loss of the Amphitrite, a female convict-ship, wrecked on the coast of France. Our Consul had been bitterly accused by tlie French press of neglect and barbarity, but it turned out that the charges were ill-founded. This delicate mission was performed with so much tact and ability that Sir James gave him the highest praise,* and soon after- * His letter contains these words : " Tour recent conduct under trj'- ing circumstances at Boulogne was judicious, disinterested, and in every respect worthy of your high reputation.'.' Nothing could induce Captain C 2 20 ACTION WITH BOGIJE FOKTS. warJs appointed him to the Andromache, a 28-gun frigate, about to proceed with Lord Napier as Commis- sioner to China. A notice of forty-eight hours was all that was given him for a three years' Commission, after waiting so long, and most of this (for there was no rail in 1834) was taken up with posting from Portsmouth to Plymouth ; but to few men would such an emergency make less difference. It turned out after all that the ship was delayed. In the Andromache, Captain Chads' chief services were the affair of the Bogue forts in Canton River, and the suppression of piracy in the Straits of Malacca. In both cases it Avas the commencement of a long series of petty wars which have gradually made the English ac- fjuamted with these people. At the time, it was novel and strange enough. In China, the East India Company had pursued a policy suited to suppliants for liberty to trade. That trade was thrown open in 1833, and Lord Napier's mission was to place it on a footing which at least might not be derogatory to a great nation like England. The Chinese, in their ignorance, little under- stood the new aspect of affairs. With them it appeared a matter of life or death to keep the British trade on its former degraded and servile footing ; and this is the only excuse which could be made for the insults they heaped on the new Commissioner. The Imogeue, with a senior officer, had joined the Andromache before both parties came to blows, and the two small frigates speedily showed the Chinese their rashness in provoking Chads lo take any i-efmineratio:! for this service. He was glad to he employed, and would like a ship, hut his service was due to his couulry, and hs would not receive money. SUPPKESSION OF MALAY PIRACY. 21 a combat. The passage of the principal batteries, the Bogue forts, was exceedingly well managed, and very small loss was sustained on our side compared with that of the enemy Mr. Tonge, in his very good account of these transactions (History of the British Navy, Vol. II., p. 674), says that Captain Chads was wounded in this engagement, which was not the case. The decided measures now taken by Lord Napier and his gallant Captains established matters on a satisfac- tory footing for some time to come. The Malay pirates furnished Captain Chads with another opportunity for shewing his energy and ability. These people, who had been taught by long immunity to regard themselves as employed iu a perfectly legi- timate calling, were, in fact, by no means unlike the old Norsemen. They spent their whole lives on the sea, and banding down the traditions of their ancestors' exploits from father to son, used with consummate skill their very fast and formidable prahus, were perfectly acquainted with the vast labyrinths of creeks and islands which abound in their seas, and had long been the terror of European traders, though they preyed more syste- matically, because more easily, on the Cochin Chinese and other less warlike races of their own blood. In 1836 Captain Chads was appointed joint Commissioner with Mr. (afterwards Sir George) Bon ham, Governor of Sing- apore, for their suppression. His measures were taken with their usual promptitude, and met with their usual success. At the Arroas, at Gallang, at Point Eomania, and at Siak, his boats (generally under his first-lieu- tenant, Archibald Eeed, a good officer, who had served under him in Burmah) completely destroyed every piratical 22 BOAT ACTIONS IN STKAITS OF MALACCA. squadron they came across, besides one important nest of these people ; and struck such terror into the whole population on eitlier side of the Malay peninsula, that he was able to make treaties with numerous Malay Rajahs who had encouraged the system. For some time there was a cessation of piracy. How difficult it has been found in later times really to eradicate it ; how much we have owed to Eajah Brooke in the matter, and to many gallant naval officers who have followed in Chads' foot- steps, is well known. So skilfully were all Captain Chads' mea.sures combined, that his boats suffered but little loss at the hands of these sanguinary warriors, who neither gave nor took quarter. At Siak, indeed, com- manded by some unusually brave chiefs, they made a stout resistance which cost our force the loss of seventeen men killed and wounded, one prahu being deliberately blown up by its wounded chief rather than surrender ; but this was an exception. No innate courage, or even rudimentary discipline, could make spears, krisses and jingalls a match for six-pounders, muskets and cutlasses in the hands of British sailors.* * The service done in the straits of Malacca called fcrth the strongest encomiums from all qnarters. It was at this period that he gained the friendship of Lord Auckland, the Governor-General of India, which lasted warm and fresh till his Lordship's death. There were few better public servants than Lord Auckland, and he soon discovered a kindred spirit in Captain Chads. His words to the Admiral on the station, Sir Bladen Capel, were as follows : " His Lordship in Council feels it impossible to avoid expressing to your Excellency his extreme satisfaction with Captain Chads' conduct in every particular, and gladly avails himself of this opportunity of recording the high estimation in which he holds that officer's professional character and talents for command." The East India Company presented him with a gold svsord, and the merchants of each of the three Presidencies with costly gifts, each with a suitable inscription. GUNNERS OF H.MS. " ANDEOMACHB." 23 How well can those who had the privilege of sharing in these engagements remember the contagious spirit of zeal and emulation which their Captain infused into all under his. command! Himself penetrated through and through with public spirit, the officers and men caught the contagion, and had but one feeling of honourable rivalry as to who should see most service and gain most distinction. To earn his praise was distinction enough for any one. It was in this ship that he matured so many of the ideas which had occupied his mind during earlier days, and through long years of enforced retire- ment. The gunnery of the Andromache was the surprise and astonishment of the East India station, and yet it was taught and practised in such a way as never to be irksome to the crew. Instead of the more modern system of using one day in the week, on which everything was to be sacrificed to a long and laborious drill, a short and stir- ring exercise, cleverly varied, was assigned to almost every evening. This was assimilated as much as possible to actual service, so that the men took a pride and pleasure in it. They knew what they could do, and they saw why they did it. They fully believed the old " An- drew Mac," as they called her, could beat half-a-dozen of her own size combined. One of the most distin- guished of the old war officers. Sir Robert Otway, in- spected the ship on paying off. His delight in her effi- ciency was expressed in the following words : " What a pity it is. Captain Chads, that we are not at war, that your ship might have an opportunity of distinguishing herself !" With the seamen he was one of the first officers to commence that system of indulgence in the matter of leave to goon shore when in port, which has since become 24 KINDNESS TO OFFICERS AND MEN. an organization. The men appreciated it, and always came off to their leave. It seems strange now that we should have been so long even in our own day in finding out that our seamen are human beings who require to be treated as such ; but it is still more strain ,Gfe to look back at the shameful way in which they were trccited before the great mutinies of the old war, and to reflect on the absence of the plainest common sense and humanity which charac- terized the ideas of that age. The progress has been slow but sure, and not the least active amon;;-st the agents in bringing it about was the subject of this memoir. With all this warlike zeal, careful discipline, and consideration for the seamen was combined that other element which we have seen was part of the Captain's character, a determination to respect and encourage religion. In days when a Sunday Service was too generally neglected in ships which did not carry a chaplain, and very far from regular when they did, Captain Chads never failed, whatever the weather might be, lo perform the regular Church Service himself with rever- ence and devotion, and to read a short sermon. Still further, for the midshipmen and boys^ though no one else was obliged to attend, he had, as regularly, an afternoon Service in his own cabin. Nobody was ashamed of being religious under such auspices, and though it is not to be supposed that either officers or men arrived at perfection, yet at least swearing, when carrying on duty, was unknown, and flogging a most rare and exceptional event.* To the midshipmen he was a father, taking them on shore with him wherever he went, and billeting them * The significance of these facts -will be understood by those who knew the naval service from thirty to thirty-five years ago. BELIEF OP FAMINE IN IRELAND. 25 amongst his friends at such places as Calcutta, Bouiliay and Madras ; to the lieutenants and mates an elder brother, counselling them in difficulties, and instructing them from the wide range of his own experience. No wonder, then, that his ship was a real home to its in- mates, a family of which every member had an interest in one another, a green spot to which in after years many an officer and seaman looked back with fond recol- lections and thankful hearts. After paying off the Andromache in 1837, Captain Chads was again for some time on half-pay. During this period, however, he was once employed on a very important Commission, viz : to inquire into and relieve the distress caused by the famine in the West of Ireland. It was no slight distinction to be selected for such a difficult and invidious task from amongst all the officers, Civil and Military, at the disposal of Government. We have had experience of a still more severe Irish famine since that time, but we have no record of a more judicious applica- tion of public money than was made by this sea-officer, a stranger to Ireland, suddenly called upon to act on his own resources in au entirely new sphere, and under novel circumstances. At the close of three months of arduous work, he was rewarded with a letter from the Treasury announcing that " my Lords are fully satisfied with the zeal and correctness with which you have applied yourself to the performance of the very diffi- cult and important duties upon which you have been employed.^' He was offered the remuneration of dSi a day for this service (surely a somewhat niggard reward), but once more, as in the case of the Amphitrite Com- mission, he positively declined it. 26 SEKVICB IN "CAMBRIAN. In 1841 he was again sent to India in the Cambrian, a fine 36-gun frigate,* in which he conveyed Lord Ellen- borough, the new Governor-General, and thus had the op- portunity of mating a lasting friendship with another man of kindred spirit. In this CommiBsion, as the ship arrived too late to share in the triumpbs of Sir William Parker's brilliant campaign in Northern China, and was princi- pally employed in a somewhat wearisome service on the Chinese coasts after the war was over, the principal points to be noticed are . the extraordinary perfection to which her captain again brought his gunnery, and the development of a system of exercise in shifting masts, yards, and sails, which has, we believe, never been sur- passed. He was led to turn his special attention to this matter in consequence of the depression caused amongst the seamen by the sickliness of the climate ; and it had an excellent effect. Sir William Parker spent the greater part of a day on board witnessing the per- formance of the crew. On his return to his flag-ship he wrote a letter to the Admiralty, and made the signal for the captain of the Cambrian. When he arrived the Admiral shewed him this letter, in which were the expressions : " Nothing can be more perfect than the Cambrian. I have never seen a real man-of-war before." Parker was no mean judge. On one occasion, while on this station, the troops being struck down with sickness, Captain Chads, with characteristic kindliness, invited the whole of the sick officers to come and live on board his * It was characteristic of Captain Chads that he was offered a much larger ship, which would have given him £100 a year more pay, but he chose the Cambrian as likely to give him the opportunity of a more active Commission. APPOINTMEIST TO " EXCELLKNT." 2? ship, and filled his cabin with them. He was Commodore on the East India station after Sir William Parker left, and returned home in 1845. It was by this time generally acknowledged that the place of our officer on the list of captains by no means represented his relative merits to other officers, and successive Admiralties did themselves credit by offering him every mark of honour and species of employment Lord Haddington, on his paying off the Cambrian, at once gave him the Excellent, guijuery-ship, in succession to his oldest and best friend. Sir Thomas Hastings, who had raised that establishment to so high a pitch of usefulness. Next year he had the Good Service Pen- sion. Eour times, during the nine years of his service in the Excellent, he was offered equally honourable and more lucrative employments than that command, one of them (by Lord Auckland) being a seat at the Admiralty ; but he invariably replied that he thought he could do more good to the Service where he was. He had found his right place, and the Navy felt confidence in his management of a department which required, during the adjustment to modern needs, the experience of a tried war-officer. No officer was ever appointed to a post by any concur- rence of public opinion more nearly approaching to an unanimous vote. It was now that he brought the whole of his past life to bear on the profession of his choice, and he became more and more trusted and consulted upon the welfare of the country in many other depart- ments besides his own. He was on perpetual Com- mittees, engaged in perpetual experiments, involved in a vast mass of correspondence, — yet no one ever saw him flag. It was one long stretch of zealous service, extended, 28 EXPEETMBNTS IN " EXCELLENT." ■with -unsleeping watchfulness, over the whole space of his horizon. It may he well to group together a few of the changes he introduced into the sj'stem of Naval Gunnery after he came to the Excellent, most, if not all, of which held their ground with general approval as long as the artillery for which they were designed held theirs. Some were introduced only after the greatest opposi- tion, and that from officers of the highest reputation ; yet they turned out to be rightly introduced. ■ Amongst these last may be mentioned the principle, for it almost amounted to the dignity of a principle, that cartridge and shot might be entered and rammed home together, and that shell might be entered over shot. The care with which the Navy had been taught that this should never be done had created quite a superstition on the subject. It was now boldly broken through, and no accident, it is believed, ever occurred in consequence. So also in the case of the 8-inch gun, which had become the favourite weapon of our ships, a little practice under his orders soon convinced the most sceptical that the old precautions against double-shot- ting it were unnecessary. Thus the power of existing armaments was at once enormously increased, both in quickness of firing and weight of metal. If a war had suddenly broken out, these changes would have given at that time a great superiority to this country. Shells, again, were in their infancy, a prolonged infancy, for there had been little real improvement during many years ; but our French neighbours had now (1849) in- vented a percussion shell instead of the old method of fuzes. Captain Chads set every likely inventor to work IMPEOVEMENTS IN GUNNEEY. 29 in order to outstrip tlieni ; and it was in no small de- gree owing to his persistent encouragement, that Moor- som was enabled to present the Navy with as good a weapon as the French, perhaps a better. Meanwhile— for it was a slow process, — Captain Chads brought into use the nearest approach possible to what was required, in the shape of a Concussion shell, skilfully adapted from the old materials. The whole system of shell-firing was worked into great perfection by him, shells hung up between decks, supplies placed in the hatchways, shell magazines improved, &c. It would not befit a sketch of this sort to enumerate the various important improve- ments he introduced into the routine of the gunnery drills, or to shew how his experience enabled him to re- move many impediments to a perfect system of firing. Naval officers will recollect the wonderful skill with which he taught them to combine quickness and precision in a peculiar system of most practical gun drills, how he improved the method of supplying powder, of stowing magazines, and of concentrating fire ; how gun-locks and tubes were brought to perfec- tion under him ; how he obtained a much larger allow- ance of shot, and even an allowance of shell, for practice in all ships afloat ; and how he organized those drills for fire-quarters, and for boarding and receiving boarders, of which he had seen the want in early life. While providing for the training of seamen in the use of the carbine and rifle, he set his face against a sys- tem of making soldiers of them, which had previously been too much creeping into the Service. He knew well that the British sailor's soldiering must be performed in his own way, and that to merge the distinction between 30 e;spbkimbnts on screw-ships. the two was simply suicidal. Unceasing were the efforts made to correct to the greatest nicety the ranges of guns, and to supply those of the new ones constantly intro- duced. He was always pressing forward the adoption of heavier and heavier ordnance, foreseeing, long in advance, what naval artillery must come to. With this view he_ ardently promoted experiments on eccentric shot, and urged the rifling of great guns before the idea had been accepted by any but the boldest thinkers. The screw, as a means of propulsion, was first applied to men-of-war during Captain Chads' command of the Excellent, and in 1848 he was selected to report on the Blenheim, the first screw line-of-bnttle ship. Here he had to perform the double service of trying the screw and making a naval demonstration on the Iiish Coast at the time of Smith O'Brien's (" cabbage- garden ") rebellion. It is needless to say that this last office he performed with his usual good sense, though happily there was no occasion for any display of more than ordinary talents. His ex- periments in the Blenheim were entirely conclusive, and his report decided the question at once. Henceforth, it was only a matter of making the transformation of our ships, and building them with this especial view, quickly enough. With him it was a maxim that we must always, and at any cost, keep ahead of other nations. Thus the moment the screw was introduced, he saw that the principle of running down an enemy had been established. He began to teach his officers that they must use their ships as rams, many years before the French built a special vessel for this purpose (which, we believe, he did not altogether advocate), or the Americans put the theory into practice during their Civil POEESIGHT ON QtTESTIONS OF THE DAY. 31 war. The adoption of a system of extremely fast vessels with, a few heavy guns on board, as a part of our naval force, for the purposes formerly answered by our old frigates, was advocated by him from this time forward with the utmost pertinacity. Can we be said to have even yet altogether obtained what we require ? So entirely has the attention of the country been turned of late years to the all-important question of iron-plating ships and forts, and the power of penetration of ordnance into such plating, that it is not easy to remember that, when Captain Chads left the Excellent in January, 1854, on obtaining his flag, the problem had scarcely begun, or at least was only just beginning to present itself. He did, indeed, most urgently press on the experiments upon iron plates, but the real questions of that day were how to destroy ships and arsenals most completely by means of shells ; how to invent guns of sufficiently long range to render such fortifications as those of Cherbourg useless to their possessors ;* and how to make our own coasts defensible under the new conditions which steam, and especially the screw in steamers, had introduced, but which the country was slow to understand. It will ever be to the great honour of Mr. James Fergusson that he (in 1852) at last aroused the nation to a true sense of the danger from foreign invasion, which Sir John Bur- govne and the Duke of Wellington had in vain pointed * The establisliment of an experimental range-ground at Slioeliury- ness was in no small degree due to Captain Chads' exertions. He always tried to carry the Royal Artillery along with him in his improvenaents, and, it may be said, succeeded. The heads of that noble Service fully acknowledged their debt to him, and a close communication was estab- iished between Woolwich and the Excellent which has been of the greatest importance since that time. 32 FOETIFICATIOKS OF PORTSMOTJTH. out some years before, and of Lord Palmerston that he bad the patriotisia to make use of his great popularity for the purpose of persuading the nation to spend suffi- cient sums on its defences. It is quite true that Fergusson's " Perils of Ports- mouth " did not contain suggestions which it was thought fit to adopt in detail, though some of them have been adopted ; but it was chiefly useful in eliciting a lively controversy between the writer and certain distinguished officers of Eoyal Engineers, and thus leaving the matter in such a state that it could not be suffered to sleep again. He proved to demonstration that Portsmouth (and a fortiori other places in England) could not, " as then for- tified, resist a combined attack by land and sea for a single hour," and he ended his remarkable pamphlet with these words: "If a man walks through the streets with a drawn sword in one hand, a loaded pistol in the other, others must arm also if they would protect them- selves from his insolence or attack ; but if he merely adds bars and bolts to his doors, and lines his shutters with iron, none but thieves can complain, for these things hurt nobody. So in the present case, adding to our for- tifications can give no offence to any one, while they would add far more to our security than a very consider- able increase of either our Army or Navy, and would be a permanent instead of an ej^hemeral defence "... (At present we are) " virtually provoking war, by exposing to all eyes the richest booty the world affords, so poorly protected as almost certainly to become the prize of the first bold adventurer who dares strike home to obtain it.*' We were no doubt at this time in a state of extreme BEPOET ON CHBEBOUEG. 33 danger, which the expenditure of some millions, and the establishment of our Volunteer force, have done mujh to remove; but it is our present business to show that our national condition was not at least the fault of one by whom the words of the Great Dute had long been most seriously and mournfully pondered. In Sep- tember, 1850, Capt. Chads was sent with other officers, on the invitation of the future Emperor, then Presi- dent of the Republic, to witness a great naval demon- stration at Cherbourg. His report is so valuable, and was no doubt, so influential in many particulars that we shall make no apology for extracting some portions. It appears to have been again sent to the War Office, as well as to a new First Lord of the Admiralty, in March, 1852. It is marked, " Secret and Confi- dential," but is now no longer so.* This Report is remarkable for the sagacity with which it shows that the alarm which Cherbourg had created in the English mind was somewhat exaggerated, for, as he jToves, we were gradually increasing the range of onr guns so much, that the arsenal would soon be at the mercy of vessels whicli would themselves offer little or no mark to the enemy, especially at night. This has been lit- * Indepenflently of the Eepcrt referred to in tlie text, he sent in an important Eeport on the condition ol the French fleet and slate of their gunnery, fortified hy the reports of many other ctiicers \iho had been trained under himself, and which he abstracted for the Ad- miralty. No one was more keenly alive to the necessity of viatching the minutest changes introduced by our rivals, and though it was generally agreed that we vrere decidedly in advance of the French, numerous petty improvements were the result of this visit to Cher- bourg, He was always saying we could not afford to find these things out when a war came upon us. B 34 DEFENCE OF OUE HOME POETS. erally fulfilled. It is now understood lliat the enor- mous sums which have been spent upon Cherbourg, (far exceeding those hitherto spent on Portsmouth, the position of which enables it to be made impregnable,) have been of very little use, and it no longer holds the place it was fondly intended to hold in the French programme of offence and defence. Next, he remarks on the French system of manning and organizing their fleet as compared with our own, and deduces the humiliating inference that as our neigh- bours were far in advance of ourselves, as they possessed organized reserves while we had none, and could get a fleet to sea while we were talking about it, we must look the fact straight in the face and set our house in order. " What," says he, " are our means of I'esistance before our fleets are manned and organized ? Military men are the best judges as to their means of successful re- sistance on such an emergency, but I fear on this point it will be admitted that we are utterly deficient ; the defences of our Naval Arsenals, we know, are lamen- tably so. I will confine myself to the principal one, Portsmouth, with which I am most conversant, and here I would ask what defences are there to protect a fleet or the arsenal ? Is there a single gun to prevent an enemy who might gain a temporary superiority in the Channel from destroying every vessel at Spithead and lying there harmless f Or, if he carried his views to the destruction of our fleet in the harbour and arsenal, is there a single gun to prevent his landing to the westward of Stokes Bay and marching by a direct road of three miles to Hard way ? Our fleet would then be at his mercy, as the crowded state of the har- THE NEED OF A EESEBTE OP SEAMEN. 35 bour would not admit of its removal, and from this point the arsenal might be destroyed ; and all this might be effected almost without a gun being opposed to them. An enemy would have no occasion to go near the fortifications of Portsmouth or Gosport." (In red ink, dated March 15, 1852, on the margin of these remarks, the following words appear : " Not a single step has yet been taken to remedy this most impor- tant evil. All remains the same as when these notes were made in September, 1850. Our fleet, and the magazine containing all the naval ammunition, remain perfectly exposed to an enterprising enemy. Some batteries are building at Browndown which can be of no avail : too distant to be of any support to the works of Gosport ; and therefore in a position weaken- ing instead of strengthening the defences.") " In fact," he proceeds to say, " England as a nation is depending solely on her naval supremacy, to maintain which it is indispensably necessary that there should be a Reserve of Trained Seamen. To a certain extent this may be obtained by the establishment of a second gunnery ship at Devonport, which should be an efficient ship of the line. But to carry this out fully, greater encouragement must be given to the seamen-gunners. As a proof that such, is necessary, I have only to state that during the eighteen years that this establishment has been in force, only 2150 men have availed them- selves of it. In addition to the foregoing, I would earnestly submit that there ought to be forts for the defence of our harbours. Spithead can only be pro- tected by such being built on the sands. Strong and powerful forts on Warner Shoal or No Man's Land, D 2 3.) ALMOST ALL HI3 PLANS and also at Hurst Castle and the opposite coast would secure both the east and west entrance to Spithead ; and as such construction of forts occupies consider- able time, it ought to be undertaken in peace. If this be neglected, Portsmouth, as our Naval Arsenal, will be almost paralysed when a large fleet shall assem- ble at Cherbourg, unless we have a corresponding one at St. Helen's. As on a late occasion, so on any future one, when we have political differences with France, how shall we feel if she sends a fleet to Cherbourg with Spithead unprotected ?" It is well known that at last every one of these sug- gestions received attention. The Eoyal Commission appointed in 1859 to consider the defences of the United Kingdom, recommended these very forts on a most elaborate scale, and they are at this moment slowly indeed, but surely approaching completion. The Continuous Service men,* the Naval Eeserve,t and the Coast Volunteers have done something to break the shock of a sudden strain upon our resources, and the organization, upon a plan recommended by him, of the Coast Guard, { has relieved us of a portion of * This system which has now taken such root .that it is hardly conceivable how the Service could have gone on without it, was strongly urged on the Admiralty by Captain Chads with much detail in Sept. 1852. We do not know whether there was any movement of im- portance in its favour, previously, but we believe not. t The plan of a Naval Reserve of Merchant seamen, much such as has been adopted of late years, was urged on the Admiralty by Captain Chads in 1?51 and 1852. t There are amongst Sir H. Chads' papers, copies of numerous proposals to the Admiralty on the subject of the Coastguard. His humane feelings were much stirred by the over-work of these men, a rising from the small number of them in proportion to the extent of WERE GEADrALLT ADOPTED. '67 our difficulty, while the Gunnery Establishment has received a considerable extension, though not so great as Captain Chads desired. His wish as to a second ship at Devonport for that department was gratified, and has been a conspicuous success. Greater privileges have also been given, at his request, to seamen-gunners, but he was never able to carry a point very near his heart, viz., that all officers should be obliged to re- ceive the full training of the " Excellent."* It has been already mentioned that he had a keen ex- perience in his youth of the mischief caused by an educa- tion necessary alike for all midshipmen being confined to a certain section. He found the same evil attaching to tlie our coast. His plans fur increasing their number, as well as for organis- ing and employing tliem have been almost exactly followed. To him it is almost entirely due that wherever there is a coastguard station, there is not only a means of local defence, but an organisation of gunnery drill amongst the men after the latest pattern ol the central authority. * Amongst Sir Henry's papers there are few which do more credit to his humanity and sagacity than one headed '' Propositions for placing the supply of officers of ihe Navy on a wholesome basis." This is dated August 1837, and was sent to the Admiralty in that year, as well as on at least two subsequent occasions. He eloquent- ly pleads the cause of the " old mates'' of those days, whose con- dition was the dark blot upon the Service, urges the re-estabbshment of the Naval College for all >oung officers alike, and shows how the sup- ply of the various ranks might be kept on a proper footing without the existing injustice and anomalies. Most of his suggestions slowly won their way to adoption. In this place may be also mentioned the great moral reform he was the means of effecting amongst the younger officers of the Navy, by putting a stop to their free quarters in Portsmouth when waiting to pass their examinations. It is scarcely possible to imagine a raoi-e cruel temptation to these youths just returned from sea, or a more fruitful jiarent of every vice ; yet it took many years to per- suade the Admiralty to allow the Naval College and the Excellent to be applied to one of their most obvious uses — the reception of " passing 38 EXAMTNATIONS OF MIDSHIPMEN. education in gunnery to which a large portion of the abler oiEcers of the service had voluntarily submitted, but which thus became far too much a class acquire- ment. Some remedy has been devised in the larger introduction of gunnery into the studies of midship- men, but he wanted much more than this, and he was probably right. As far as the matter was in his own power he toot care that it should be a reality. Once in his career at least every officer might be caught. He must pass his examination for lieutenant at the Naval College at Portsmouth, and Captain Chads used every effort to make his examination in Gunnery as strict as that in Seamanship and Navigation. The drills involved in the examinations he was content to leave very much to his examining officers, but he insisted on every midshipman coming into his own cabin to be examined and instructed by himself as the concluding portion of the ordeal. Thus every young officer in the Navy found himself face to face once in his life with the Ivindly and enthusiastic veteran, whose patience was never exhausted with the most stupid, nor praise ever withheld from those who showed ability. His practice was to put cases, which easily suggested themselves from the range of his great experience, and to see how the candidates could apply the seamanship and gun- nery they had been taught. Of course a certain amount of cramming could not be excluded even from such a system, however perfect, but there is no doubt officers." The system was fully developed under the able superin- tPiidence of Admiral Key. To Sir Henry Chads' latest efforts is also due the humane provision that candidates for Naval Carietships are no longer debarred from all hope by a first failure at the Naval College, as was for a long period their too severe fate. POWER OP DETECTING IMPOSTORS. 39 that to TTiany a young man the ideas gained in that somewhat awful hour were not only the first which connected theory with practice, but the germs of some fruitful tbouglit or deed in his own person. Nor, while thus providing for every defect lie could discover, was he less useful in dealing with that nu- merous class of persons who are always found ready with advice or invention, and amongst whom it is always ex- tremely difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff'. One story of his sagacity was supposed to be too good to be true ; but it was true. When the in- ventor of a mysterious method of striking an object at a great distance had made all his arrangements in a certain forest. Chads asked him to point out the object he meant to hit, and immediately making for it, placed himself there as the safest spot. While he encouraged the true man with all his heart, he had an instinctive eye for the charlatan. No man ever de- tected the real point of a diflicult question more quickly or unerringly. This sketch of his career while Captain of the Excellent and Lieutenant-Governor of the Naval College has been condensed into the smallest possible space, since the general public will scarcely have patience for details ; but it will be seen at once that the picture presented is that of a real man who contrived to impress himself on every service he undertook, the picture of one guided by an overpowering sense of duty, whether it was to combat an enemy himself, or to organize the forces of his country for future warfare. He who had " Chased brave employments with a naked sword Throughout the world, — " 40 THE BALTIC CAMPAIGN. lived to hand down his lessons to more than one genera- tion, and though, from slow promotion in early life, below others of his standing in great appointments, came to be regarded as in most respects the visible and tangible head of his profession. His services as Admiral will not require any lengthened account. When the Kussian War broke out, he was so low down on the Admiral's List, having only just ob- tained his flag, that he was only fourth in command in the Baltic, under Sir Charles Napier. To him, naturally, fell the organization of those motley crews which we sent to sea, and the scandal arising from whose ineffi- ciency did more to enforce subsequent improvement than all the remonstrances which, as we have seen, our admiral had never failed to ply. A very heavy labour it was, but he was well seconded ; and as much was done as from such a system, or rather no system, of manning a fleet could have been expected. There was not much glory to be acquired in this war. The relations of ships to forts had not as yet materially changed. The Com- mander-in-chief was somewhat unjustly blamed ; but this resulted less from any real errors on his part, than from personal circumstances into which it is unnecessary to enter. It is sufficient to notice here the high-minded con- duct of the Eear-Admiral, who, whether he agreed with his chief or not, never failed to stand by him, and even courted a share in the unpopularity of acts for which he had not a shadow of responsibility. At Bomarsund, the zeal of Admiral Chads in landing his heavy guns and causing them, with the able assistance of his flag-captain and old follower, Hewlett, to be dragged into position for four miles over the worst ground, was the subject of LIFELONG DEVOTION TO THE SEEVICB. 41 favourable comment. Tor his services in this war he obtained the K.C.B., and the promotion of his flag- lieutenant. He hoisted his flag once more, at Cork, from 1856 to the end of 1858, after which he did not serve afloat ; but he was employed as Chairman of a Committee on Coast Defences in 1859. In 1865 he received the honours which mark the culmination of the services of a naval officer, viz., the G.C.B., and the Admiral's Good Service Pension. The latter years of his life he passed at Southsea with his family, still taking the keenest interest in naval affairs, and m constant communication with the Admiralty and his old comrades. He never considered half-pay as re- tirement. He was as much in the Service at one time as another, his whole heart in it at all times. To the last that lolty form, as erect as in youth, reminding readers of Marmion of the Douglas, " Though fallen its muscles' brawny vaunt, Huge-boned and tall and grim and gaunt. His locks and beard in silver grew,* His eyebrows kept their sable hue," was to be seen wherever matters of interest to either Army or Navy were being transacted. To the last, the Admiralty had the benefit of every suggestion for the good of the Service which crossed his mind. If some- times a condemnation of the present in comparison of the past escaped his lips, and it was not often, who could blame the aged chief ? Few, indeed, were less given to boasting of past achievements than Sir Henry Chads. It * Not that the Admiral ever wore a beard, which he would probably have considered a deadly sin, but his eyebrows eonlinued busliy and black to the last, in contrast -niih his full bead of silvery hair. 42 OCCUPATION IN LATTEK TEARS. was very difficult to get him to talk of them, and many- interesting circumstances which had come to the tnow- ledge of his family by the channel of early friends and companions were only verified by persevering inquiry during the latter years of his life. His was not a character or a career of which it was so easy to obtain anecdotes as in the case of many far less distinguished men. There was a straightforward simple earnestness about every action of his life which was the exact opposite of all notion of trifling. People felt the good he did, and the example he set, rather than talked about it. He formed a school unconsciously. No one so little dreamt of setting to work to form one. He had been for many years a County Magistrate, and no one was more regular at the Board, almost up to his death. One of his last acts there was to supply evidence of a fact bearing ou an important local custom, dating from seventy years before. la the earlier days of his shore-going life, he was very active in political affairs, always ou the Tory side ; but though his politics never changed, he became in later years so much engrossed in matters connected with his profession, and so much in the habit of regarding successive Administrations with especial view to their public spirit in dealing with the defence of the country, that he was little conspicuous as a partisan. A firm believer in the merits of the British Constitution, he had a natural abhorrence of Radicalism, yet no one had a deeper or more intelligent sympathy with the wants of the lower class of our population. He never forgot an old friend of whatever rank, still less one in distress ; and so numerous were the calls to which he considered himself bound to attend, that one fifth of an PEESOXAL CHARACTEEISTICS. 43 income, never more than moderately sufficient for his station, was latterly devoted to works of benevolence. The local charities of his neighbourhood lost in him one of their warmest supporters. The Portsmouth Hospital, the Penitentiary, and the Seamen and Marines' Orphan School were the especial objects of his care ; and the last may be said to have owed to him and his family the continuance of its very existence. We mention these more private matters because they go to make up a character which we have seen was brought to bear on the public service in a note-worthy manner. In themselves as much or more might be said of many another good man, but we naturally wish to obtain a comj)]ete view of an officer like Sir Henry Chads. We have spoken elsewhere of his earnest, faithful, unostentatious religion. Without it he could never have been the public servant he was. It shone brighter and brighter as the close approached. The break-up of a magnificent constitution, as so often happens, came some- what suddenly at last, in the eightieth year of his age. A severe attack of bronchitis in January, 1868, left him much prostrated, and he felt his strength was gone. Death had no terrors for such a man, and his lust illness was borne with that cheerful courage and pious resignation which became such a noble life. It had the alleviations of the tender care of a family, whose depth of devotion he had well earned. by a life-long devo- tion to them, and of the religious ministrations of one of his oldest and best loved friends, who, however, re- markably enough, preceded him on the last solemn journey of man by a few weeks. The sermon preached after his death (which took place the following April) contained 44 DEATH AND FUNEEAL. these words, '•' The oldest, the best known, the most distinguished of our congregation has passed from our midst. No one more regular in his attendance than he, no one (I speak it without fear of contradiction) more- fervent in devotion, more evidently impressed with the reality of the presence of the God he came to worship, no one more constant at the monthly Sacrament, no one more charitable, more keenly interested in all good works. He has gone from the feeble and imperfect worship of the Church Militant to join the mighty chorus of the Church Triumphant." Standing by themselves, even glowing words such as these, like the tributes of family affection on a tombstone, might not carry as much weight as they ought ; but taken in connection with such a life as we have feebly attempted to sketch, they have a value which all must acknowledge. In a paper written many years before his death, and never intended for the eye of man — was found a list of the principal mercies which he had received through life ; amongst these that he had been preserved twenty-six times in engagements with enemies. (This does not really represent, however, the number of times he was under fire). He used to say that the only prayer he found time for before the battle with the Constitution, was " God be merciful to me a sinner." It was a most rare but surely not unnatural tribute to the character of the man, that the Port- Admiral, Sir Thomas Pasley, wrote a formal letter, to Admiral Chads, the eldest son of Sir Henry, conveying the wish of the officers and seamen serving at Portsmouth, and especially of those on board the Excellent, to be allowed to attend the funeral ; but the deceased had never forgotten the StTMSIARY OF CHAEACTEB. 45 home of his early domestic happiness, and to be buried at Fareham by the side of the faithful partner he had lost some years before, was the last wish he had expressed. A public funeral was incompatible with this desire, and it had to be gratefully declined, while his wishes were equally consulted in rendering the last solemn ceremony as private as possible. He could never tolerate display in life, and he was not to be inconsistent in death. Let any one who reads this sketch recall to his mind Wordsworth's noble poem, " The Happy Warrior." If he has ever, somewhat mournfully, reflected upon that poem, and, comparing what he finds there with the character of our great English heroes, has discovered, as he has learnt more and more of their Inner life from memoirs, correspondence and contemporary literature, that it is too high a flight of imagination, an almost unapproachable ideal, it may encourage him to know that those who were most intimately acquainted with Sir Henry Chads do not shrink from bearing their humble witness that in every, even the minutest particular, he might well have sat for that picture. THE END. LONDON' : Printed by A. Scbulze, 13, Poland Street.