Hell Upon Water (eBook)

CHAPTER 1

Marching Into Captivity

The eighteenth century was period of frequent conflict as the European powers jostled for continental supremacy, at the same time expanding their overseas empires, while attempting to limit the imperial ambitions of their rivals. The century saw France, Spain and Holland arrayed as frequent enemies of Great Britain. The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), the Seven Years War (1756–1763) and the American Revolutionary War on the side of the American colonists were all clashes in which these nations fought against Britain. Each war was characterized by conflict on land and sea across the globe, and resulted in many prisoners of war arriving in Britain. As the century progressed, armies and navies became larger, and consequently the numbers of prisoners taken became greater.

The extent of the conflict during the American Revolution prompted an attempt at regulating the business of repatriating prisoners of war. Exchange of prisoners had always been erratic, but in 1780 a treaty was agreed between Britain and France stating that vigorous attempts would be made to exchange all prisoners of war as speedily as possible after capture, man for man, rank for rank. If there were no prisoners of equal rank to exchange, then the numbers would be made up of a proportion of lesser ranks, or a cash equivalent could be substituted.1

This treaty was regarded as the gentlemanly way to conduct prisoner of war affairs, but it only worked when there were gentlemen on both sides who could reach an agreement. However, 1789 saw events in France that changed the situation. The French Revolution removed French gentlemen from the scene, either by guillotining them or forcing them to flee for their lives. While these momentous events were changing the social and political climate in that country, they were also to change the conduct of war.

Prior to 1789, European conflict was conducted in a ‘civilized’ manner between monarchs who, while pitting their relatively small but professional armies against each other, respected their mutual positions as heads of state. The French Revolution, under the banner liberté, égalité, fraternité, overturned the idea of royal and aristocratic privilege. This had two immediate effects. First, the French were infused with a national fervour to export their revolutionary principles to the rest of Europe. Second, this forced the nations of Europe to co-operate against a common foe. War was about to be waged on a scale never seen before.2

The Revolutionary War began in 1792 with the French demonstrating the effectiveness of a levée en masse by fighting off an Austro-Prussian alliance, at the same time as the abolition of the monarchy by the National Convention in Paris. 1793 began dramatically with the execution of Louis XVI in January; the following month resulting in France declaring war upon Britain, Spain and the United Provinces (Holland). While countries such as Spain and Holland later found themselves allied to France, Great Britain remained an implacable foe until the short-lived peace resulting from the Treaty of Amiens in 1801.

War between Britain and a France now under the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte (he became Emperor in 1804) erupted in 1803. Again Britain found herself at war, actively or otherwise, against most European nations as alliances were made and broken. This war lasted until the defeat of the Emperor in 1814. After a short-lived exile to Elba he returned to claim the French throne, only to be finally defeated in the Waterloo campaign of 1815.

To understand how the war prison system developed in Britain, it is important to look at the events and activities that generated the reason for its existence: prisoners of war. During the period 1792–1815, over 200,000 prisoners of war arrived in Britain. Of this total, 122,440 were taken during the Napoleonic Wars 1803–15. The highest prisoner population in any one year was 72,000 in 1814.3

During the Revolutionary War the British Army fought an abortive campaign in the Low Countries during 1793–94. This generated prisoners, some of whom were sent to Britain while others remained in Holland (on board some prison hulks in the Scheldt) and in Germany awaiting exchange. Aside from this conflict and an Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799, the British Army was not to campaign again on the continent of Europe until the Peninsula War in 1808.

Nineteenth century historians viewed the British Army as a projectile fired by the Royal Navy, and in the 1790s many such firings took place as colonies belonging to France and her allies were attacked. Islands in the West Indies, Malta, French settlements in India and the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope all fell to combined operations mounted by the British.4 While the politicians gained valuable bargaining counters at future peace negotiations and British merchants gained new markets to be exploited, the Admiralty acquired thousands of prisoners of war, men, women and children, soldiers, sailors and civilians. Although many of these were held locally until exchanged, the majority were transported to Britain to fill the land prisons and hulks.

The West Indies was a rich source of captives. One prison ship was stationed at Martinique but found to be insufficient for the numbers being taken, but as the authorities there regarded their prisoners as being ‘troublesome brigands and Negros taken in arms’, they were only too glad to transfer responsibility to the naval authorities in Britain. Sir Ralph Abercrombie sent 4,000 such prisoners to Britain from this theatre in 1796.5

When the Dutch enclave at the Cape fell in 1796 many soldiers and civilians were taken prisoner. The Governor, Abraham Sluysken, was sent to England to reside on parole at Hambledon, Hampshire, together with his staff and servants.6 Occasionally a campaign produced captives who did not spend time in Britain, such as when a British army ended Napoleon’s dreams of oriental conquest in Egypt in 1801. The French troops involved were fortunate in that they were allowed to return to France and no doubt the Admiralty shared their relief, as by this time the war prison establishment had expanded dramatically.

While the army captured enemy nationals in large batches as French, Dutch and Spanish territory fell, the Royal Navy was generating a constant flow of inmates for the prison depots as soon as hostilities began. Upon war being declared between Holland and Britain in 1796, the Admiralty immediately detained enemy ships sitting in British ports. This resulted in a large haul, for there were seven Dutch warships berthed in these ports at the time, one in Ireland, one at Leith, and five at Plymouth. This was a typical occurrence. Throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars many merchant vessels and some warships were ‘detained by the Admiralty’ when they were in Britain’s harbours on the assumption of hostilities.7

The Royal Navy attacked enemy warships and merchant vessels whenever and wherever they could be found. During the blockade of the French and Dutch coastline many small vessels were captured such as whalers and local civilian craft. There was a restriction on attacking coastal fishing vessels as these were part of the local community. War was waged against nations, not local inhabitants who often supplied the Royal Navy with intelligence and fresh produce, although this limitation was ignored if the fishing vessel was found to have an armed soldier on board. This prohibition did not apply to the fishing and whaling fleets that operated in the North Sea and around Greenland; these were national fleets supplying the nation at war and so were legitimate targets. Coastal vessels supporting the commerce of France were often escorted into Portsmouth and Plymouth with the naval officers concerned receiving prize money and the captured French men and boys a berth in the hulks (many youths were taken to sea to learn the profession).8

The Admiralty had an ambivalent attitude towards individuals of neutral countries onboard enemy ships, and enemy nationals’ onboard neutral vessels. In May 1796 their Lordships were inundated with requests from the Danish, Prussian and Swedish Consuls to release their nationals who were taken prisoner on board Dutch vessels. Earlier that year Mr Dobree, the Agent for prisoners of war on Guernsey, informed the authorities in London that he had detained some American vessels that had arrived partly navigated by Frenchmen. He wished to know if they should be regarded as captives or set free. The reply was:

Taking captives from neutral vessels was hardly an approach that would win friends abroad.

There was a further reason for closely examining the crews of all vessels, both enemy and neutral. Nobody loves a traitor to their country, least of all the British during the war with Revolutionary France. Revenue cutters often captured French privateers in the Channel such as the Rose Revenue Cutter that boarded one such vessel and found that the Master and most of the crew were actually British. The ship was taken to Plymouth where it was ordered that a strict examination be made of the crew, and any found to ‘be subjects of His Majesty’ should be properly secured and not regarded as simple prisoners of war. The French Corvette La Revanche was captured while under the command of a sailor named Cooper, and a detailed investigation performed to ascertain...