Frigate Commander (8 page)

Moore also followed political debates closely, although he was not particularly interested in party politics;

I am accused by my nearest and dearest friends of being an Aristocrate, because their arguments have not convinced me that the destruction of Nobility is an event to be wished in our own country. The fact is that I am neither an Aristocrate nor a Democrate, but a man who has no great opinion of human foresight and who detesting demagogues and not feeling any humiliation at seeing a Duke strut past him or (what he thinks worse) a Nabob; fears changes, and the dominion of the many headed monster. I think there is that in the British Constitution which enables it to correct evils and abuses when they come to press and I care not for the names of things if their essences are good. I do not care a fig for the absurdity that may exist in the abstract idea of an hereditary Judge, so long as I find that justice is well administered.

Moore was able to exercise his romanticism much more when he and his father travelled to Wales, paying a visit to Golden Grove, the seat of a Mr Vaughan, near Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire. Golden Grove sits on the opposite side of the Vale of Towey to Newton House
²⁵
with its mediaeval castle and spectacular landscape. They dined there with Lady Dinefwr and took an evening walk through the Capability Brown landscape to the romantic hilltop ruins of Dinefwr Castle. Moore found it quite beautiful:

The prospect continually varying as you traverse this favourite hill presents beauties of different kinds; at one time you catch a glimpse of the rivers glistening through the oak branches, then you see the bare mountains contrasted with hills covered with verdure and wood and cultivated to the very summits, presently descending a slope you are arrested by the awful towers of a Gothic castle the walls of which, time has covered with ivy, and the interior part, with trees and wild shrubbery. I entered this venerable fortress, which is older than any records of the country, and from its only entire tower looked along the vale of Towy to the west which was reddened by the sun having just dipped below the mountains.

Unfortunately, his romantic trance was rudely interrupted by what he described as his ‘mundane’ companions:

The rest of the company lamented the lateness of the evening having obscured the prospect, but in the frame of mind I was in what then presented itself was more grateful to my soul than what day’s garish eye could look upon ... I was looking for one of Fuseli’s terrible warriors on the battlements, but I saw what Ossian calls little men, the sons of the feeble.’
²⁶

Moore was fascinated by the Gothic ruins that abounded in the area and visited a number of castles, including the dramatic Carrick Cennon which he described as
‘a very beautiful ruin’
; and another near Kidwelly which, almost complete, was ‘
more perfect’
. Clearly reflecting work that he had read on the ‘
Sublime
’, he noted in his journal that a clear sky was unsuitable for appreciating the picturesque. There must be clouds and wind to create ‘
irregularity’
. Walking on his own, he climbed to the castle on Dryslwyn Hill in the middle of the Vale of Towey, stopping frequently to admire the different prospects that the climb presented to him but, disappointingly,
‘the sublime was kept back until mounting the ruined wall my prospect was terminated by the black mountains’
.

In October, Moore arrived back in London, with a yearning to be back at sea. He had received envious news from his friend William Hope, who was still on the Nova Scotia station. Linzee, the Captain of the frigate
Penelope
, had resigned his command following accusations of tyranny and oppression against the ship’s surgeon. By a stroke of good fortune, Hope had been next in line for promotion and was now the Captain of the
Penelope
in Linzee’s place. Moore wished Hope well, but could not help realizing that the promotion should have been his.

By January 1792, after eight months without employment, Moore was again debating whether to request an interview at the Admiralty, but could not choose which station would be the most advantageous and decided it would be best to
‘lie upon my oars for a while’.
It was as well he did, for his romantic interests took a turn for the better. Attending a ball in Dorking, Moore’s attention was caught by two pretty young women who turned out to be the daughters of a rich London merchant, Joseph Dennison. A short while later, he and his friend Charles Locke (who he described warmly as
‘exceedingly eccentric’
) paid a visit to Denbies, the Dennison’s country estate, which lay only a few miles from Locke’s. There, in the grounds, the two young men became involved in a flirtatious game of hide-and-seek, with Maria and Elizabeth Dennison apparently attempting to avoid them, but somehow contriving to bump into them at every turn. Eventually, Locke decided they should present themselves at the house and ask after their tormentors. On announcing themselves at the front door of the house, Moore and Locke were aware of feet running on the stairs in excitement, but, when the two young ladies obeyed the summons to present themselves, they teasingly pretended never to have seen the two young men before. The elder of the two was twenty years of age and to Moore
‘the most exquisite creature I have ever seen’
; the younger sister was eighteen.

Another of Moore’s close acquaintances at this time was Captain Edward Riou, a naval officer who had achieved great acclaim by bringing his severely damaged frigate, the
Guardian
, back to Cape Town after it had run into an iceberg en route to Australia loaded with convicts. Riou had remained on board the ship with the convicts and a small number of the crew and, after an extremely arduous voyage, brought everyone to safety. It was Riou who was later credited with establishing the principle that it was the Captain’s responsibility to either remain with the ship – or be the last to leave. Riou was at times a serious and melancholic character, and it is easy to understand how Moore would have been drawn to him. Together they went to see

Lawrence the excellent Portrait Painter, he was so struck with Riou’s manly countenance that he earnestly requested him to allow him to make a Portrait of him. Riou thanked him but politely excused himself. This is a man of whose acquaintance I am proud, I always thought him a superior man even before he distinguished himself in the
Guardian
. He is certainly very different from the common rout.
²⁷

Then, at the end of January, Moore was unexpectedly summoned to the Admiralty for an interview with the First Lord. Chatham explained that Captain Harry Burrard
²⁸
of the
Orestes
, who was also a Member of Parliament, was urgently required in the House (where the government needed his vote). Moore could, therefore, have temporary command of his ship on smuggling patrol until a better position became available. Moore leapt at the chance and hurried down to Portsmouth to join his new command. The
Orestes
was an unusual looking brig-sloop with a high sweeping stern. She had been built by the Dutch as a privateer and had been captured by the Royal Navy in 1781. She carried 18 nine-pounder guns and a crew of 120 men. Moore recorded his immediate impression:

She is the finest vessel of the kind I ever saw mount eighteen nine pounders and is pierced for 24. Sir Harry Burrard thinks that the nines strain her too much, and has applied for sixes. I shall sail as soon as my things arrive from London.

Moore’s baggage arrived on board on 4 February and he sailed immediately into a foggy English Channel to patrol along the Dorset coast where smuggling was rife. Almost immediately they gave chase to a suspicious vessel, and although they lost her in the fog, Moore was pleased with the performance of both ship and crew:
‘I find the brig works exceedingly well, and the People seem orderly and willing’.
His assessment was confirmed shortly after when they were caught by a hard gale whilst criss-crossing the Channel:

Having set the trysail, main staysail, and reefed fore sail, we stood over to the English coast; and the wind being at NE b E with a very high sea, the brig went as close as she could lay, under that low sail six knots and a half, and seven knots, sending the sea from her bows over the taffrail, she went right through the sea, in a manner I never saw any vessel do before.

His contentedness was soon tested by a storm that raged for days, driving them further and further to the west. From the Channel Islands they attempted to make Torbay or Portland where Moore wanted to give his crew time to rest. He was well aware that they were badly in need of sleep and warm food, and was grateful that they had faced the storm cheerfully in spite of being continually very cold and drenched by the sea;

When it was hard enough to walk the deck, they were repeatedly furling, loosing or reefing the sails, and supported themselves as well as men could do.

Finally, the ship dropped anchor in Weymouth Bay and the crew were given time to recuperate. Moore took a break too, wandering along the seafront of the town. Observing a crowd gathered near the shore, he hastened towards them, thinking that he might have the chance to observe a boxing match, a sport he enjoyed. However, he was disgusted to find a crowd of local men amusing themselves
by ‘throwing at Cocks’
(i.e. throwing cudgels at a tethered cockerel). He found more of interest in exploring the quarries on the Island of Portland before putting to sea again. However, in spite of chasing more smugglers, including one that threw its cargo overboard in order to escape, they caught none. At the end of February, Moore took the
Orestes
back to Spithead for a much needed refit. There he learned that he had been placed under the orders of Captain Samuel Hood of the frigate
Juno
. While waiting for Hood to return from leave, Moore dined with some of the other captains present in the port. One night, a discussion on

the slave trade was started, and they, one and all, attacked Wilberforce as a visionary enthusiast who was bringing most serious calamities on his country by his perseverance in an absurd and impracticable scheme. The old, beastly, confined assertion was made of the slaves being better off than the labourers in England, which if true could only be meant with respect to victuals and lodging, and in these articles a horse I fancy does not yield to either. These men are high in their profession, and certainly by no means destitute of worth or talents.

Nevertheless, Moore left them, despairing at their narrow-mindedness. Despite his earlier misgivings, Moore found he was

... happy to meet the Captains on these occasions as they are all very respectable characters and some of them of high reputation in the service.

Though it is clear that he was still not over-impressed by some of the officers he had met

... I have had occasion to observe since I took the Command of the
Orestes
, that people seem to value themselves, in the Navy, and are more looked up to for qualities, or the appearance of them, which have nothing to do with their profession. For instance, a pretension to fashion, a smattering of knowledge of the Poets sufficient for pedantic quotation. With these pitiful attainments, they have the impertinence to assume an air of superiority over the plain, assiduous and intelligent sea officer, whose attention has been turned to what is substantial and useful. I have also remarked that these skipping fellows when ashore, and amongst a different set of mortals, assume the Sailor, and in general pass themselves for that which they seemed to despise in the place where such manners are consistent. The reason of this juggle, I think, is that these lads wish for fame at the least possible expense. Among seamen they could not pass for such, so they make themselves conspicuous for what a seaman is in general unacquainted with; and ashore, where they could not shine as
Petit Maitres
, or witlings, they become
Rarae Aves
as Seamen.

Nevertheless, he was anxious to record in his journal that his comments described officers who were by no means very common
‘... in the Corps ...’
which was generally
‘... a most meritorious body of men’.
He was certainly keen to defend the type of officer who was a seaman above all and hated those who took advantage by drawing

an illiterate person into blunders in order to turn him into ridicule ... When I see it employed against men of simple and modest manners, who have gained the offices they hold, by their hard service, and skill in the useful, though not brilliant, duties of the profession: I say, to see such men made the sport of such reptiles, as are most apt to make them feel their deficiencies, fills me with indignation.

Another subject of conversation in naval circles related to the conflict in India, where British forces were engaged against those of Tippoo Sahib
²⁹
. Tippoo’s forces had fought stubbornly against the British under Cornwallis, and there were deep suspicions that the French were secretly assisting them. This suspicion seemed to be confirmed by astonishing news which arrived at Spithead with the frigate
Thames
.

The
Thames
brings the very extraordinary intelligence of Sir Richard Strachan in the
Phoenix
having engaged and taken a French frigate which had endeavoured to prevent him from examining two French merchant ships under her convoy.

Strachan had stopped the French convoy upon suspicion that they were attempting to land arms and supplies for Tippoo Sultan. Moore was particularly interested for two reasons: firstly, he had already met Strachan and had been greatly impressed by him; and secondly, the incident could only heighten the tension that was already growing between England and France.