Chap. If.

747

during the Reign of §Ltteen Ann.

CHAP. II.

Sip. George Rooke’i Expedition, with the Fleet, to Cadiz, and the TransaSlions ofa Bt^fy of Land-Forces, under the Command of the Duke of Ormond, with a, particular Account of the Ruining the French Fleet, and Spanish Gallions, atj v ^go*

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HE War against France andSpain being declared, as I haveabove observed, the greatestDiligence was used in fitting outthe Main Fleet (the Transactions ofwhich shall be the Subject of this Chap-ter) as well as* sundry Squadrons, forparticular Services (of which I lhall treatin the ensuing Chapter.) It was wellknown, that the French were makingPreparations for Acts of Hostility, and,therefore, more than ordinary Painswere taken in equipping a very consi-derable Squadron of Ships, for an Ex-pedition to Cadiz, in Conjunction withthe Dutch. ( a ) The Design of thisExpedition was kept so secret, that itwas uncertain whether it threatnedFrance, Spain or Portugal, and so keptthem all three in constant Alarm.

This Expedition was to have beencommanded by the Earl of Pembroke,(as High Admiral) in Person, had potHis Royal Highness, Prince George ofDenmark, been appointed to that Of-fice, as I observed in the foregoingChapter, (b)

The Conduct of phis Expedition wasnow committed to Sir George Rooke, (c)who, besides the Command of theFleet, was appointed Vice-Admiral,and Lieutenant of the Admiralty ofEngland, and Lieutenant of the Fleetsand Seas of this Kingdom; And the

1702.

Duke of Ormond, as I have said before,

General of the Land Forces, which con-sisted, according to some, of sevenThousand Englijh and five ThousandDutch, all very well appointed. (Tho*some Accounts make them but ten ‘Thou-sand in all.')

But, by a particular List, which•the Reader will find in the Appendix tothe frjl Volume of the Annals of sue enAnn, it appears, that the EngHjh were,including Officers, nine Thousand, sixHundred, and sixty-three ; And theDutch, three Thousand, nine Hundred,and four and twenty, .exclusive of Offi-cers ; And therefore together, ThirteenThousand, five Hundred, and eighty-seven, without the Dutch Officers.

The thirtieth of May, the Admiral, Arriveson Board the Royal Sovereign, having with thethe Union Flag, on the Main-topmast Gre f tHead,' came to Spithead, together with at pit ead ’Sir C loudejly S hovel, on Board the Spue en,and the great Ships that lay at the Nore.

At the fame Time, Rear AdmiralFairbom arrived there from Ireland,with a Squadron of Men of War, hav-ing on Board, four Regiments of Foot,being Part of the Land Forces abovementioned.

The first of June, the Duke of Or- The Fleetmond, with Admiral Churchil, and Sir proceeds toHenry Bellafs, arrived at Portsmouth ; Sea '

(^) Where His Royal Highness the

9 D . Prince

^’’et. ( a ) The Fleet, fays Bishop Burnet , put to Sea .

much later than we hoped for ; The Dutch Fleetcame over about a Month before ours was ready.The whole consisted of fifty Ships of the Line.

§

c f>ett. ffrj There were (fays Mr. Secretary Bur-chett) some Doubts whether his Lordship shouldhave born, at the Main-top-mast Head, the RoyalStandard of England , or the .Union, or, moreproperly speaking, in the maritime Phrase, thesick-FIag, commonly worn by those who have,under the Lord High Admiral, been appointedAdmirals of the Fleet. Most of those who pre-tended to judge best of this Affair, inclined to thelatter, but I luckily (continues Mr. Burchett)having then m my Poffeflion an Original Journal,kept by the Secretary to the Duke ot Buckingham,in his Expedition to the I fe of Rhe , it plainlyappeared thereby, that he bore the Standard, asseveral High Admirals had done before, by parti-cular Warrants, as it is presumed, from theCrown, empowering them so to do.et - (c) Bishop Burnet, who seems to have been no

very great Friend of Sir George’s, fays. He spokeso coldly of the Design he went upon, before hesailed,that those who conversed with him were aptto infer, that he intended to do the Enemy as lit-tle Harm as possible. To divert the Design (faysthe Bishop) Sir George himself was to go upon, hewrote up, from St. Helen’s , that the Dutch Fleetwas victual’d only to the Middle of SeptemberSo they being then in July, no great Design couldbe . undertaken, when so’large a Part of the Fleetwas so ill provided. When the Dutch Admiralheard of this, he sent to their Ambassador, tocomplain to the Queen, of this Misinformation ;

For he was victual’d 'till the Middle of Decem-ber.

(f) The fame Day the Queen, out of a tenderRegard to the Laws of Nations, ordered, by Her . r-

Royal Pjoclaimation, all Ships, which were st 0 p’dbefore the Declaration of War, to be discharged; Ann.And, at the fame Time, caused another Procla-mation to be published, for the Encouragement ofHer Ships of War and Privateers.