Every Man Will Do His Duty by Dean King Page A

good service under Sir John Jervis; and this gave Pat Macguire an opportunity of giving his opinion on the state of parties. One of the sailors having asked who it was that caused such orders to be given, Pat replied, “Sure, it was the Parliament.”
    “Then,” said one of the topmen, “the Parliament never sailed under Admiral Jervis, nor fought as we have done.” Whereupon Pat Macguire, with a look of the most signal contempt, exclaimed—
    “’Sblood, man, d’ye take the Parliament for a man or a woman? The Parliament, I’d have you to know, is a great many people mustered together, and they settle the affairs of the nation by talking to each other.”
    “Talking to each other!” echoed the topman.
    “Yes,” continued Pat; “they talk till they talk the breath out of each other, and then it’s put to the vote as to who spoke the longest and loudest, and that’s the one as gains the day.”
    “And is that all they do?” inquired the topman.
    “Yes, honey,” replied Pat; “they talk and we execute.”
    Pat’s logic was too learned to allow the topman to argue any further; and the Boatswain having piped to quarters put an end to the debate.
    We had now worked without intermission till sunset on the 19th, and must have saved about two hundred thousand pounds’ worth of stores, and other effects belonging to the emigrants.
    The French had landed their troops at Cape Corse on the 18th, and on the following day they sent to the municipality to know if they intended toreceive them as friends, because, if so, they required that the English should be prevented from embarking. Time would not allow us to save anything more, and, therefore, after having spiked all the guns, we quitted the citadel at midnight; but, from the wind blowing a gale, it was dawn of day before we all got on board. All the time these transactions were going on, we were observed by a mob of Corsicans, who lined the shore, and who had the mortification to witness every soul embark who chose to leave the island, without their daring to offer the least molestation.
    Captain Nelson and General de Burgh were the last who left the spot; and as Nelson stepped into the boat, he coolly turned to the mob and said, “Now, John Corse, follow the natural bent of your detestable character—plunder and revenge!” We were soon on board, and in less than half an hour we showed our sterns to the island of Corsica.
    Toward the end of 1796 and in early 1797, France intended to land a force in Ireland. A first attempt, under Vice-Admiral Morard de Galles and General Hoche, in December of 1796, went awry due primarily to severe weather and confusion among the French Brest fleet, some seventeen ships of the line, thirteen frigates, and twenty transports. In 1797 a second plan called for fleets from Batavia and Spain to join the Brest fleet. In the following passage, it is Admiral Don José de Cordova’s Spanish fleet of twenty-seven ships of the line, en route from Cartagena to Brest to join the invasion force, that Commodore Nelson—carrying Sir Gilbert Elliot, the former viceroy of Corsica now bound for England—encounters off the Straits of Gibraltar.
    1 Spain declared war on October 8,1796.
    2 Sir Gilbert Elliot (1751–1814) was viceroy of Corsica from 1794 to 1796.
    3 John, Duke of Marlborough, was the victor of the battles of Blenheim (1704), Ramilles (1706), Oudenarde, (1708) and Malplaquet (1709) during the War of the Spanish succession.
    4 Smuggled goods.

John Drinkwater Bethune
The Battle of Cape St. Vincent
1797
    A S A PASSENGER ON board first the frigate Minerve , 40, then the Lively , 32, Colonel John Drinkwater Bethune witnesses and describes not only the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, February 14,1797, but also the battle’s preamble and aftermath. An aide to Sir Gilbert Elliot in Corsica, Drinkwater’s self-importance stands in clear contrast to matter-of-fact seamen’s accounts, but there is no greater enthusiast of Nelson, whom he has