Who's Who in Scottish Military History - Thomas Cochrane, "The Sea Wolf"

Anyone who has seen the films or read the books of C.S. Forrester’s character Hornblower or Patrick O’Brien’s character Jack Aubrey may not have realised that their exploits were actually based on the life of a real life Scottish sailor. In fact the fictional adventures didn’t even come close to the fantastic life of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, or as his enemies called him – The Sea Wolf.

Born on this day 235 years ago in Annsfield, near Hamilton he grew up in Culross in Fife and joined the Royal Navy in 1793. For the next twenty years he rose through the ranks and served in many parts of the world capturing French and Spanish ships and raiding enemy coasts.

I can’t go into much detail here since his exploits would fill a book but on one occasion he took on and captured the Spanish ship ‘El Gamo’ which had at least six times as many crewmen as his little sloop. On another he captured a fort on the Spanish coast and held it for a month against the French army.

Unfortunately for his career he was a radical and fought against corruption in all walks of life. That put quite a few noses out of joint in the Admiralty and Westminster, before and after he became an MP (in 1807), so when he was caught up in a financial scandal in 1814 he found himself jailed, stripped of his titles and expelled from Parliament and the Navy.

He knew he was innocent and once re-elected as an MP he fought to clear his name. He was unsuccessful. When in 1818 he was invited by Bernardo O’Higgins to go to Chile to lead their navy in their war of independence from Spain he left England for South America. He rebuilt the navy and did what he did best - captured Spanish ships and raided coasts. In 1820 he helped Peru’s independence by capturing the port of Valdivia in an act of courageous daring that is real boys own stuff.

Cochrane wouldn’t have been Cochrane if that had been the end of it. With victory over the Spanish secure he then fell out with his superiors and in 1823 moved on the Brazilian Navy. This time it was the Portuguese who felt his wrath and with them beaten he promptly fell out with Brazil’s new leaders.

South America was now too hot for him so he sailed east to Greece in 1827 to help in their war against the Ottoman Empire. For once Cochrane wasn’t able to recreate his exploits. Some have put it down to idle Greek sailors but it could have been down to Cochrane getting old. By this time he was over fifty and had been sailing and fighting for the best part of thirty years.

He returned to Britain in 1828 and resumed the fight to clear his name. He was finally pardoned in May 1832 and restored to the Navy List with a promotion to rear admiral; although he refused to accept a command until his knighthood was reinstated. He had to wait another fifteen years for that. However when it happened in 1847 he did take up another command as commander in chief of the North American and West Indies station until 1851. That was his last active command but he was still railing against the Admiralty and pushing for more modern fighting ships until he died during an operation on kidney stones on 31st October 1860 at the age of 85.

By then the Royal Navy and the world had changed beyond recognition from the time Cochrane was at his peak, and Scotland had lost one of its greatest adventurers.

National Museum sets sail with the real Scots Master and Commander

An article from The Scotsman today. I have a bit of an interest in Cochrane, and we're planning a blog post about him shortly...

He was the Scottish seafarer whose exploits inspired the creation of the fictional English naval heroes Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey.

Thomas Cochrane, the son of a nobleman and inventor, was forced to join the Royal Navy as a teenager when his family's estate had to be sold off.

Now one of Britain's most successful and controversial naval figures of all time is to be honoured with a major exhibition in his native land, dedicated to his extraordinary life and military career.

Curators at the National Museum of Scotland are putting together the tribute to the man from Lanarkshire, whose heroics matched those of any of his fictional alter-egos.

Jack Aubrey was portrayed on the screen by Russell Crowe in 2003 in the Oscar-winning film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

A spokeswoman for the National Museum, which is staging the exhibition from October 2011-February 2012, said it would bring together for the first time an "extraordinary collection of awards, personal possessions, private papers and dramatic paintings".

Cochrane, born in 1775, joined the navy when he was 17 and went on to become a hugely successful captain during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, earning him the nickname the Wolf of the Seas by the French.

But he also made enemies in the navy and corridors of government with his daring tactics and outspoken criticism.

Famous exploits included capturing one Spanish frigate with twice the firepower of his vessel, and causing havoc in the Mediterranean after taking command of two others.

He pursued a political career, winning election to the Commons after standing on a ticket of parliamentary reform. But he was dismissed by the Royal Navy and expelled from parliament in 1814 following a conviction for Stock Exchange fraud, although Cochrane claimed his trial was politically motivated.

However, he went on to fight in the navies of Chile, Brazil and Greece in their wars for independence and was eventually reinstated to the Royal Navy, at the rank of admiral, in 1832, and later pardoned for the crime over which he always maintained his innocence. He was eventually given the honorary title of Rear-Admiral and was buried in Westminster Abbey after his death at the age of 85.

Many of the items - some borrowed from private collections - will be going on display for the first time. Stuart Allan, exhibition curator, says: 'He is one of the towering figures of naval history, a Scotsman who made a truly global impact.

His extraordinary story will take visitors on a voyage across the world, through the age of sail and the age of steam, and deep into the turmoil of the Age of Revolution where men fought in far-flung places for the cause of liberty, and for their own gain.

"The authentic Cochrane is as incredible as anything in fiction."

Who's Who in Scottish Military history #1- Admiral Sir Charles Napier KCB GOTE RN

I’ve decided to start a new series of posts entitled “Who's Who in Scottish Military History”. This will highlight some of our country’s greatest (and sometimes not so great) men and women who are little remembered now.

Around 150 years ago Scotland lost two well-known Admirals. This first was "The Sea Wolf", Thomas Cochrane, the 10th Earl of Dundonald who passed away on 31st October 1860. I hope to cover him fairly soon.

The other passed away on 6th November 1860, just a few days after Cochrane.

He’s not well known today but at his death Charles Napier was one of Scotland’s most famous sons. He was born in 1786 and joined the Royal Navy in 1799 during the wars with France. That was the start of a sixty year career in the Navy which included leading an army in Syria and taking a fleet to the Baltic during the Crimean War.

He also managed a spell at Edinburgh University and took a seat in Westminster as an MP. He even led the Portuguese Navy for a while during a civil war in the 1830s and when he died their navy went into eight days of mourning.

He was known as a fearless warrior but in Victorian times he was most remembered for his campaigning to improve the conditions for his sailors and to introduce more modern ships into the Royal Navy. The Admiralty usually ignored his ideas which were often years ahead of their time but that didn’t stop him bombarding them with letters.

Still adventurous to the last, only days before his death Napier had written to Garibaldi offering to command a fleet for him in the liberation of Italy.