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Admiral Sir David Milne and the
Bombardment of Algiers 1816.
In May 1816, following distinguished
service at sea since 1779, Rear Admiral David Milne, then aged 53, was
appointed to the command of the Royal Naval squadron patrolling North American
waters. Hearing that an expedition was being prepared to undertake the task of
dealing with the menace of the corsairs from Algiers he applied to serve as
second-in-command of the British squadron in the expedition.
Pirates
operating from the Barbary states of Morocco, Tunis and Algiers on the African
littoral of the Mediterranean had plagued merchant shipping for centuries, even
travelling as far as northern Europe in search of captives to be ransomed or
sold into slavery in the interior of Africa, but by 1816 only those from
Algiers remained at all active. Persistent warfare between the affected
countries had always prevented any lasting and consensual action in dealing
with the problem but the defeat of France in 1815 provided an opportunity for a
full-scale assault upon Algiers to eradicate the pirates operating from there
under the protection of its Dey, or governor. Accordingly, two squadrons of
ships were assembled, from Britain and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the
command of the expedition, together with that of the British squadron, given to
Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, Lord Exmouth, one of whose ancestors, Thomas Pellew,
had been a captive of the Barbary pirates for 24 years.The force assembled at
Gibraltar, with Milne hoisting his blue flag at the mizzen-top of HMS
Impregnable, a 1st Rate ship-of-the-line of 104 guns, and arrived in the bay of
Algiers on 27th August 1816.
The fortifications of Algiers and their
defenders proved harder to subdue than had been expected and Allied casualties
were high once the artillery duel began, HMSs Impregnable and Leander suffering
greatest. Milne’s flagship was in the thick of the action close to one of
the pirates’ forts, received over 200 hits in her hull and sustained over
200 casualties among her ship’s company: Milne himself was bruised by a
roundshot passing between his legs. The bombardment lasted nine hours, by the
end of which the Algerian corsair fleet had been burned to destruction and the
fortifications of the town reduced to rubble. The Dey capitulated, released his
Christian captives, returned a colossal sum in ransom money and signed a treaty
agreeing no longer to encourage piracy. Although the treaty was promptly broken
and piracy resumed, only to be eradicated when Algiers was occupied by France
in 1830, the bombardment of Algiers marked not only the beginning of the end
for the Barbary corsairs but also the beginning of a century in which the Royal
Navy would have largely undisputed control in the Mediterranean.
Milne
returned home bearing Lord Exmouth’s dispatch announcing the victory but
was delayed by unfavourable weather and a copy of the dispatch arrived,
overland via France, some days before Milne’s ship docked at Plymouth on
23rd September 1816. By that time, the dispatch had been printed in both the
London Gazette (15th September) and The Times (16th September) and Milne’s
support for Lord Exmouth, “Rear Admiral Milne … from whom I have
received, during the whole service intrusted (sic) to me, the most cordial and
honourable support”, duly noted. It was almost immediately rewarded too.
Two days before Milne arrived in Plymouth, the London Gazette had announced
that he had been created a Knight Commander of the Military Division of the
Order of the Bath (KCB) and on 2nd October 1816, Sir David Milne went to
Carlton House to be knighted and to receive the insignia of his knighthood from
HRH The Prince Regent.
Although, as commander of the expedition, Lord
Exmouth received the lion’s share of its official rewards, Milne’s
proportion was lavish. He received “a rich chased sword” to the value
of 100 guineas from the City of London, together with the Freedom of that city
and the membership of the Livery of the Company of Ironmongers, all three
distinctions being presented to him on 31st January 1817. Britain’s
allies, the Dutch, created Milne a Knight Commander in their Military Order of
William by Royal decree on 22nd October 1816 and the Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies (which had received 357,000 dollars in repaid ransoms from the Dey of
Algiers) created him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Januarius in 1818.
Sir David Milne was also granted an augmentation to his armorial bearings
(London Gazette 8th August 1817). This consisted not only of a
“chief” on his shield representing the fortifications of Algiers but
also a representation his admiral’s flag incorporated into his crest:
“the flag of a Rear Admiral of the Blue inscribed with the word
IMPREGNABLE”.
The City of London’s
presentation sword
of 100 guineas’ value.
Mounted in ormolu, the grip probably
in gold, a straight-bladed sword of spadroon type in an ormolu-mounted scabbard
with dark blue velvet panels.
The pommel is formed as a bearded and
crowned head, probably intended to represent Neptune/Poseidon. The knucklebow
is formed of a cable and blocks and incorporates an oval decorated with the
sword and mace of the City, in saltire. The straight quillon is formed as a
fasces, the stepped langets decorated with mythical sea creatures and
terminating in acanthus leaf and pineapple finials.The polished grip bears, in
relief, the Arms of the City of London and those of Sir David Milne,
Milne’s Arms being those granted to him following his knighthood and
recorded in the London Gazette 30th August 1817 (pp 1854-55), and having
pendant from them the badges of the Order of the Bath, Military Division, and
the Dutch Royal Military Order of William, of which Order Milne was created a
Knight Commander in October 1816. Above and below the Arms are naval trophies
and crowns; the grip ferrules are formed of oak-leaves and acorns.
The straight, 31” (79cm) blade
is blued and gilded for its entire length, the decoration incorporating the
Arms of the City, female figures allegorical of Fame and of the City, trophies
of arms and the presentation inscription:
WOOD, MAYOR. A COMMON COUNCIL
HOLDEN IN THE CHAMBER OF THE GUILDHALL OF THE CITY OF LONDON ON THURSDAY THE
26TH DAY OF SEPR.1816. RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY, THAT THE FREEDOM OF THIS CITY WITH
A SWORD OF THE VALUE OF ONE HUNDRED GUINEAS BE PRESENTED TO REAR ADMIRAL SIR
DAVID MILNE, KNIGHT COMMANDER OF THE MOST HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH, IN
TESTIMONY OF THE ESTEEM & GRATITUDE OF THIS COURT FOR THE ZEAL BRAVERY
& TALENT DISPLAY’D BY HIM IN THE VICTORIOUS ATTACK UPON ALGIERS BY THE
FLEET UNDER THE COMMD. OF ADML. LORD VISCT. EXMOUTH, ON THE 27TH OF AUGUST
LAST. WOODTHORPE.
The scabbard is of wood, sheathed in
ormolu, with dark blue velvet in three openwork panels on either side, each
panel being partially filled with ormolu trophies of arms. The upper part of
the scabbard is struck on either side with two ovals enclosing a depiction of
Hercules defeating the Lernaean Hydra, each oval being surmounted by a scroll
bearing the name IMPREGNABLE and with naval trophies above and below. The
middle part of the scabbard is struck on either side with ovals enclosing the
figure of Victory and with naval trophies above and below. The lower part of
the scabbard is struck on either side with naval trophies and the sword and
mace of the City, in saltire within an oval wreath.
Engraved into the top
rear of the scabbard, at its throat, a panel enclosing the retailer’s name
and address: R. TEED / Drefs Sword Maker / to the PATRIOTIC FUND / Lancaster
Court / STRAND LONDON. The scabbard’s suspension rings are formed as sea
serpents and the scabbard terminates in a sphere enclosed by acanthus
leaves.
The procedure for awarding Sir David
Milne the Freedom of the City and the sword began officially on 26th September
1816, when the Common Council met and unanimously decided to reward both Milne
and Lord Exmouth with swords and Freedoms (Exmouth’s sword, currently in
the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, was to be to the value of 200 guineas). The
swords and Freedoms were presented to both men on 31st January 1817, on which
occasion they were admitted to the livery of the Worshipful Company of
Ironmongers. On 23rd January 1817, it was ordered “That Mr Chamberlain do
pay unto Mr Richard Teed the Sum of One Hundred and Five Pounds for his Bill,
for providing a rich chased Sword for Sir David Milne, in pursuance of the
order of the 26th day of September last”. Later in 1817, he having died in
1816, Teed’s estate was paid, as was “…James Boudon Clerk of the
Chamber…for designing Writing & Emblazoning the honorary Freedoms to
Admiral Lord Viscount Exmouth and Rear Admiral Sir David Milne…”:
Boudon received £110 and 8 shillings (40p) for his work.
Richard Teed
(1756-1816) was responsible for the manufacture and supply of the swords
presented by the Patriotic Fund to deserving sailors and soldiers during the
Napoleonic Wars, 1803-14. This accounts for a similarity of reference between
the decoration of the Milne sword and that of the different grades of swords
presented by the Patriotic Fund: for example, the langets and quillon, the
decoration of the scabbard and the style of belt.
Only two other swords
similar to that presented to Milne are known, one of which is the gold-mounted
sword awarded by the City to Vice-Admiral Sir John Duckworth KB in 1806 and now
in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. The Duckworth sword, of 200
guineas’ value, is similarly mounted to the Milne sword but, while its
mounts were made by Teed, the sword was supplied by the retailer Robert
Ritherdon. The other sword, also in the National Maritime Museum, is a
gilt-mounted one presented to Sir Thomas Staines in 1810 by the Gentlemen of
the Isle of Thanet; this sword appears - like the Milne one - to have been
supplied and made by Teed.
Sold as lot 255 by Lyon and Turnbull,
Edinburgh, Scotland,
on 26 March 2003.
Reproduced by courtesy of Lyon
and Turnbull, auctioneers. |
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