COLBURN'S UNITED SERVICE MAGAZINE. Sept. 1870 NAVAL HEROES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. BY ROBERT MAIN. 1. SIR WILLIAM HOSTE, BART., K.C.B. That one half of the world does not know how the other half lives" is an admitted axiom of modern life. True as this is, I may go still further, and say, that one half of any profession is sublimely ignorant of the doings of the other half; for it may well be doubted whether half the members of the Army or Navy are acquainted with half the heroic deeds which have made the services famous. Heroism is the one great virtue, the one virtue, par excellence, in warfare, either on shore or at sea; for the lives of real heroes furnish its connected history and establish the traditions which not only mark the progress and prowess of our arms, but keep alive their power. How many a hero has been formed out of the study of the lives of Nelson or Wellesley; and, indeed, how often, for years and centuries past, have not deeds of valour recreated themselves in the lives of a posterity which has looked upon them with veneration! The Navy and the Army, without the cultivation of the spirit of heroism, would lose half their power. Tradition is as forcible in its way as powder and shot; and the records of brave deeds, impressed with vigour on congenial minds, will strengthen them when keenness is wanted; and will give a force to arms which they would not otherwise have known. So important is it, in the Navy especially, that these traditions should be preserved, and that every naval officer, from the day he enters the service, should feel himself one of a long line of great men, that one wonders naval biography has been so much overlooked. There is such a mine of wealth in the lives of celebrated and heroic naval men, from the Admiral to the able seaman, that it is surprising so rich a prize has escaped the attention of literary men. Possibly the uninteresting way in which naval biography has been told may have frightened the reader, while the author would certainly shrink from a task against which he would have, at the outset, to contend with prejudice. It is, indeed, a thousand pities, that so many great lives have been overlooked, or have received so little justice. True, you take up a book of naval history or biography, U. S. MAG. No. 502, SEPT., 1870. B and you are saturated, usque ad nauseam, with the dry details of battles, petty engagements, and hand to hand encounters, which leave behind them only a confused notion, in the mind, of noise, smoke and blood, which is by no means agreeable. The fact is, that in our school days, we had quite enough of military detail, in which individual excellence was lost, in Xenophon and Cæsar. The sickening weariness which accompanied our daily wandering, in early life, with Xerxes amongst paradises and parasangs, was not relieved but aggravated by the statistical nastiness of Cæsar's Commentaries. The furtive glances which we used to give to Lemprière between lessons, and the eagerness with which we turned to that intensely classical dictionary, proved that there was a zest in biography, still, when told in readable language and divested of tiresome allusions to stadia and parasangs. But why should the unfortunate dryness which marks the writings of Cæsar and Xenophon, be considered worthy of imitation now, and form the model for the modern naval historian? There are, certainly, two or three good naval lives, which are more than admirable. One of them, the ever attractive Life of Nelson, by Southey, has done more than can be well conceived to foster the love of duty and danger in the lives of the naval men of late years. But there is the danger, in always giving young sailors Nelson's life to read, that they will look upon it as an exception; that they will fall into the natural error of thinking that his was so exceptional a life as to form no guide; and that, after all, he was high in the service and unusually fortunate, and had, therefore, special advantages. This is so fatal a mistake that it ought to be, at once, corrected. Heroism in the Navy, during the course of this century, has been anything rather than uncommon. Heroes have been found and have existed in every grade of the service; but, the old idea that a man must be holding a high position, to make his life worth writing about, has prevailed so strongly that men who have distinguished themselves in the lower ranks have been almost neglected. In the following pages I propose, therefore, to draw attention to the acts and lives of men in all ranks in the Navy, who have distinguished themselves, and who are not well known, or, at least, are not sufficiently known. Let young naval officers know that their service teems with the names of glorious men in all ranks; let us make them familiar with the lives of such men, and induce them to love reading about them. This will be advancing the education of the Navy in as important a direction as can well be conceived. It is with this view that I will select a few lives of officers of all ranks, whose names will be more or less familiar, but whose history and whose real merits are not known as they should be. We will commence with Sir William Hoste, who has great claims on the sympathies and interest of the present generation of sailors. This gallant officer entered the Navy under the patronage of Lord Nelson, at the commencement of the French revolutionary war, and served with that great commander in the 'Agamemnon' and other ships, till after the expedition against Teneriffe; then Lord Nelson, having lost an arm, transferred Hoste to the care of Captain R. W. Miller, commanding the 'Theseus' of 74 guns. The commencement of his career was not brilliant; but Nelson was able, when Hoste was quite a boy, to write to his father, the Reverend Dixon Hoste, that “ your son is everything which his dearest friends can wish him to be, and is a strong proof that the greatest gallantry may lie under the most gentle behaviour;" "the little brushes we have had lately with the enemy only serve to convince me of the truth of what I have already said of him; and in his navigation you will find him equally forward." "Hoste is, indeed, a most exceeding good boy, and will shine in our service." war. Young Hoste, when he first entered the Navy can hardly, we should think, have had anything in his education very stimulating or warlike to attract him to the Navy. But he had traditions, in his own family, which were very unpleasantly connected with He had an ancestor who, whether he liked it or not, was mixed up with war even if he took no active part in it. Jacques Hoste, Sir William's ancestor, was unlucky enough to live in bad times; when religious despotism felt its power dwindling, and sought to recover its influence by the free use of fire and sword. The terrible trials of the Netherlands, during the reign. of Philip of Spain, and under the fiery spirit of the Duke of Alva, sent many emigrants to this country. Among them was Jacques Hoste, the son of the Governor of Bruges, who came to England in the year 1569. But our hero's father was a clergyman, the Rev. Dixon Hoste, who had a living at Godwich, in Norfolk. Enjoying the quiet rural life of a country rectory, educated at home, and penetrated with home influences, it appears surprising that a lad should care to enter a military service, and expose himself to perils which were not known. But when young Hoste was a lad, society was full of war, and of rumours of wars. Most families of any position had, at least, one or more members engaged in the Army or the Navy. Nelson's name was not then in everybody's mouth, as it would soon be; but the prospect of war inspired the grown up world with a certain military ardour, and our youth with enthusiasm and zeal for the naval service. In the case of Hoste, no doubt, the intimacy between his family and the Nelsons, who lived in the same county, had a great deal to do with his entering the Navy. Captain Nelson, full of life and the love of adventure, and fresh from scenes in which daring, and personal valour formed the foreground, would have been capable of rousing a naval ardour throughout the whole of the county in which he lived, let alone amongst his personal friends. But even, when absent, we can imagine the families of the two clergymen reading with the most absorbing interest, the gallant Captain's letters; while Mr. Hoste, stimulated by Mr. Nelson's pardonable enthusiasm at his son's successes, was by no means disinclined to encourage his boy to go to sea. Captain Nelson happened to be at home before Hoste made his entry into the service, and offered to take the youth under his protection. At the very outset of his career, he had thus a fair opportunity of rising. He had the best inducement to get on in the personal example of his Commander; and it is not too much to say that the efforts of this example animated the young officer's life, from the day of his entry into the service to the day of his retirement. Depend upon it, those few words of Nelson were not forgotten at the Admiralty, and we may be certain they were never forgotten by Hoste-" He is a most exceeding good boy, and will shine in our service." So, at the outset of his career, he was fortunate in securing the good opinion of his noble commander, and was encouraged to shine in the service. And he did shine. In August, 1798, Mr. Hoste succeeded the Hon. T. B. Capel in the command of La Mutine,' the only small vessel attached to Nelson's squadron in the battle of the Nile. His post commission bears date January 7, 1802. He subsequently commanded the Eurydice' of 24 guns, and 'Amphion' frigate. Shortly afterwards, at the commencement of 1809, Captain Hoste was employed as senior officer in the Adriatic, where he cruised with unremitting vigilance amongst the enemy's vessels, carrying supplies and re-inforcements to the garrisons of Ancona, Corfu, and the Ionian Islands. The Amphion' played a leading part in several dashing actions; amongst others, driving the French garrison out of Pesaro, destroying the castle at the entrance of that port, and capturing thirteen merchant vessels, deeply laden with oil, hides, hemp, almonds, and other valuable stores. 6 Of the attack on the forts and vessels at Cortelazzo, between Venice and Trieste, Lord Collingwood wrote, "I have on many occasions had to represent the zeal, the bravery, and the nice concert of measures that are necessary to success, which have distinguished the services of Captain Hoste; and this late attack of the enemy is not inferior to those many instances which have before obtained for him praise and admiration. . . . . ; but the 'Amphion's' officers and men, following the example of their captain, could not well be otherwise than they are.... Within a month two divisions of the enemy's gun-boats have been taken, consisting of six each." This was one of many dashing exploits; for several gallant boat actions ensued, one of which ended in the capture of Grao, a town in the Gulf of Trieste, and a convoy laden with naval stores for the arsenal at Venice. But the most important naval event which had for some time occurred on the Mediterranean station, was the brilliant victory |