Boo Ann. Naval Expeditions , Scc, of the English, Book Ct

I 7°5-

The Honourand Manour©/■■Wood-stock, C2?r.granted tohis Graceand Heirs.

Several Pro-motions inthe Navy-

consider of some proper Means to per-petuate the Memory of the great Ser-vices performed by the Duke of Marlbo-rough 5 And, some Days after, upon aMessage from Her Majesty, signifyingHer Royal Desire, they resolved, thata Bill be brought in, to enable Her Ma-jesty, to grant the Honour and Manourof Woodstock, and Hundred of Wootton,to the Duke and his Heirs.

The Beginning of this Year, severalAdvancements happened in the Navy;And it was made publickly known, that,Sir George Rooke being set aside, hisRoyal Highness had appointed SirCloudefly Shovel, Admiral of the WhiteSquadron, of Her Majesty’s Fleet, to beRear-Admiral of England ; And, notmany Days afterwards, to be Admiraland Commander in Chief of Her Maje-sty’s Fleet; Sir John Leake to be Vice-Admiral of the White, Sir George Byng,Vice-Admiral of the Blue, Sir ThomasDilkes, Rear-Admiral of the Red ;William, Whets one, Esq; Rear-Admiralof the White ; And Sir John Jennings,Rear-Admiral of the Blue, in the Roomof Sir James Wijhart , who had laiddown his Commission.

Nothing farther having pafs’d inParliament, during this Sesson, relatingto the Navy, excepting an Address ofthe Lords, of the fifth of February, con-cerning some Abuses, (0) I shall onlyobserve, that the Dispute between thetwo Houses, concerning the Commit-ment of some Men of Ailesbury, for asupposed Breach of Privilege of theMouse of Commons, being come to a greatHeight, the Queen thought fit to pro-rogue the Parliament, the fourteenth ofMarch ; The fifth of April , Her Ma-jesty was pleased to dissolve the Parlia-ment by Proclamation, and, on thetwenty-third, summoned another.

I have mentioned above, that SirCloudefly Shovel was appointed Admiral

and Commander in Chief of the Fleet, 17 °ftofbut it was in Conjunction with the Earl ^of Peterborough and Monmouth, who was put ^named first in the Commission. Sir joint Com-

George By/g was likewise nominatedcommand in the Soundings, and Sir Tho -fy shovel*mas Dilkes off of Dunkirk ■, I shall there-fore give an Account of each of theirProceedings, and the Success which at-tended them, in Order.

Sir George Byng’ j Proceedings and Suc-cess in the Soundings.

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Sir George failed, the latter End of c jJanuary, from Plymouth, with a Squa- Frenchdron of Cruizers, and a great Fleet of Prizes te-rich outward-bound JVTerchant-Ships . kew -As soon as he had seen the latter in Safe-ty, out of the Soundings, he disposed ofhis Squadron as he thought would bemost convenient to annoy the Enemy’sPrivateers, which had very much in-fested the Soundings, and the Mouth ofthe Channel. By this good Disposition,he was so fortunate to take from the E-nemy a Man of War, of four and fortyGuns, called the Thetis, twelve Priva-teers, and seven Merchant-Shi ps, mostof whjch were richly laden from theWeft-Indies. The Number of Men tak-en on Board these Prizes was two Thou-sand and seventy, and of Guns ThreeHundred and four and thirty. (/>)

The Earl of Peterborough’!, and SirCloudesiy Shovel’r Expedition to theMediterranean, with the King ofSpain's- Landing at Barcelona, and thetaking of that City .

Sir Cloudefly Shovel, repairing on

Board the Britannia, at the Nore, gave gleet-Orders, on the seventh of April, (q) toSir John Jennings , to proceed to Spit-

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( 0 ) This Address being too long to find Placehere, I can only take Notice, that it concernedthe extraordinary Expence of the Navy, for thethree foregoing Years, the Navy-Debts, the Fundsappropriated for that Service, and the Sums iffuedfrom the Treasury on that Account; With seve-ral Observations thereupon, as well as upon theNumber of Men allowed by Parliament, and thoseemployed; The unnecessary Encrease of somePensions, and Misapplication of others; TheContinuance of Admiral Graydon in Service, not-withstanding the former Resolutions and Addressof that House; The Number of Flag-Officers em-ployed, of which some had done no Duty; TheNeglect of Convoys, Cs’c, To all which tier Ma-

jesty replied, in general j That the Address con-taining many Observations, She would corf der themparticidar ly, and give such Directions as might bemost for the Advantage of the Publtck Service.

Graydon was j however, discharged before the Ad-dress was delivered.

(P) O? this Succels of Sir George Byng’s , asconsiderable as it is, Mr. Sec. Burchettt , for whatReason I cannot conceive, does not think fit tomention one single Word.

(?) The same Day, a Council of War was t nna ls ofheld, on Board the fame Ship, Sir Cloudefly being „ Ann-.President, to enquire into the Conduct of the Of-fleers of the Falmouth Man of War, which wasfc&Qa ia August before, by lylonf. St. Paul’s Squa-dron $,