The price of loosing

[Berthier]

Just wanted to show a couple of examples of the personal cost of not winning battles in the age of sail (info from wiki). If any others have examples please add them below!

1) Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve (defeated at Trafalgar)
The British sent the captured Admiral Villeneuve to England but released him on parole during this time he lived in Hampshire. He was allowed to attend the funeral of Lord Nelson whilst at Bishop's Waltham. Freed in late 1805, he returned to France, where he attempted to go back into military service but his requests were not answered. On 22 April, 1806, he was found dead at the Hôtel de la Patrie in Rennes with six stab wounds in the left lung and one in the heart, a verdict of suicide was recorded. The nature of his death ensured that this verdict was much mocked in the British press of the time and suspicions abounded that Napoleon had secretly ordered Villeneuve's murder.

2) John Byng 1704-57

On the approach of the Seven Years War the island of Minorca which had been a British possession since 1708, was threatened by a French naval attack from and was invaded in 1756.

Byng, then serving in the Channel, was ordered to the Mediterranean to relieve the British garrisons. Despite his protests, he was not given enough money or time to prepare the expedition properly. His sailing orders were inexplicably delayed by five days, and this turned out to be crucial to the lack of success of the expedition. He set out with ten unseaworthy ships that leaked and were inadequately manned. Byng's marines were landed to make room for the soldiers who were to reinforce the garrison, and he feared that if he met a French squadron, he would be dangerously undermanned. His correspondence shows that he left prepared for failure, that he did not believe that the garrison could hold out against the French force, and that he was already resolved to come back from Minorca if he found that the task presented any great difficulty. He wrote home to that effect to the Admiralty from Gibraltar, whose governor refused to provide soldiers to increase the relief force.



Byng sailed on 8 May 1756. Before he arrived, the French landed 15,000 troops on Minorca, spreading out to occupy the island. On 19 May, Byng was off the east coast of Minorca and endeavoured to open communications with the fort. Before he could land any soldiers, the French squadron appeared.


The Battle of Minorca was fought on the following day. Byng, who had gained the weather gage bore down on the French fleet at an angle, so that his leading ships went into action while the rest, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. The French badly damaged the leading ships and slipped away. When his flag captain pointed out to Byng that by standing out of his line, he could bring the centre of the enemy to closer action, he declined because Thomas Mathews had been dismissed for so doing. The French, who were equal in number to the British, sailed away undamaged.After remaining near Minorca for four days without being able to reestablish communication with the fort or sighting the French, Byng realised that there was little more he could do without effecting badly needed repairs to his ships. As the nearest port available for carrying out repairs and landing his wounded men was Gibraltar, Byng's plan was to sail there, repair his ships, and try once again to get extra forces. He accomplished this, and after the reinforcements arrived Byng began preparation for a return to Minorca to relieve the garrison. However, before his fleet could sail, another ship arrived from England with further instructions, relieving Byng of his command and took him back to England, where he was placed into custody. Ironically, Byng was finally promoted to full Admiral on 1 June, following the action off Minorca.


The garrison on Minorca held out against the overwhelming French numbers until 29 June, when it was forced to capitulate. Under negotiated terms the garrison was allowed passage back to England, and the fort and island came under French control.


Court Martial The failure to hold Fort St Philip on MInorca initially caused public outrage among fellow officers and the country at large. Byng was brought home to be tried for breach of the Articles of War, which had recently been revised to mandate capital punishment for officers who did not do their utmost against the enemy, either in battle or pursuit. The Articles had been revised following an event in 1745, when a young lieutenant named Baker Phillips was court-martialed and shot after his ship was captured by the French. His captain, who had done nothing to prepare the vessel for action, was killed almost immediately by a broadside. Taking command, the inexperienced junior officer was forced to surrender the ship when she could no longer be defended. Although the negligent behaviour of Phillips's captain was noted by the subsequent court martial and a recommendation for mercy entered, his sentence was approved by the Lords Justices of Appeal. This injustice angered the nation and the Articles of War were amended to become one law for all: the death penalty for any officer who did not do his utmost against the enemy in battle or pursuit. The court martial sitting in judgement on Byng acquitted him of personal cowardice and disaffection, and convicted him only for not having done his utmost, since he chose not to pursue the superior French fleet, instead deciding to protect his own. Once the court determined that Byng had "failed to do his utmost", it had no discretion over punishment under the Articles of War, and therefore condemned Byng to death. However, its members recommended that the Lords of the Admiralty ask the King to exercise his perogative of mercy.


The new First Lord of the Admioralty was granted an audience with the king to request clemency, but this was refused in an angry exchange. Four members of the board of the court martial petitioned Parliament, seeking to be relieved from their oath of secrecy to speak on Byng's behalf. The Commons passed a measure allowing this, but the Lords rejected the proposal.



The Prime Minister, William Pitt the Elder was aware that the Admiralty was at least partly to blame for the loss at Minorca due to the poor manning and repair of the fleet. Lord Newcastle, the politician responsible, had by now joined the Prime Minister in an uneasy coalition and this made it difficult for Pitt to contest the court martial verdict as strongly as he would have liked. He did, however, petition the king to commute the death sentence. The appeal was refused.


The severity of the penalty, combined with suspicion that the Admiralty sought to protect themselves from public anger over the defeat by throwing all the blame on the admiral, led to a reaction in favour of Byng in both the Navy and the country, which had previously demanded retribution. Pitt told the king: "the House of Commons, Sir, is inclined to mercy", to which George responded: "You have taught me to look for the sense of my people elsewhere than in the House of Commons."



The king did not exercise his prerogative. Following the court martial and pronouncement of sentence, Admiral Byng had been detained and on 14 March 1757 in the presence of all hands and men from other ships of the fleet in boats surrounding Monarch, the admiral knelt on a cushion and signified his readiness by dropping his handkerchief, whereupon a platoon of marines shot John Byng dead.


Byng's execution was satirized by Voltaire in his novel Candide. In Portsmouth, Candide witnesses the execution of an officer by firing squad; and is told that "in this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, in order to encourage the others" (Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres).

[Berthier]

That should be losing not loosing! Duh.

[Comte de Brueys]

Good information, Daniel.

I'm not so sorry about Monsieur Villeneuve. Fled at Abukir 1798 and recieved the missed kick in the a** 1805. Responsible for the biggest maritime defeat that saved Englands claim of the seas for the next 100 years.

Not the best end for a maritime high commander but it fits to his achievements.

[Diamondback]

Hence the REASON for the old tradition of a captain going down with his ship: better certain death at sea than railroaded to disgrace and execution by the incompetent meddlers and vile political hacks (and equally vile self-important To-Manor-Born-With-Head-Up-Arse aristocrats, but they're covered by the other two) ashore.

[csadn]

It's a pity I don't know Latin -- I wonder how "Victory Is Life; Defeat Is Death" translates.

In Byng's case, tho': He did not help his cause with his behavior in the days between the loss of Minorca and his execution (Rodger's _The Command of the Ocean_ has details). Let's just say: "When you're in a hole, stop digging."

[Diamondback]

True... but there's NEVER enough blame that can be given to the festering-pustule-on-the-butt-of-society REMFs to meet what THEY deserve either.

[Coog]

The Action of 1 August 1801 was a single-ship action of the First Barbary War fought between the American schooner USS Enterprise and the Tripolitan polacca Tripoli off the coast of modern-day Libya. As part of Commodore Richard Dale's Mediterranean Squadron, Enterprise had been deployed with the American force blockading the Vilayet of Tripoli. Enterprise, under the command of Lieutenant Andrew Sterett, had been sent by Commodore Dale to gather supplies at Malta. While cruising towards Malta, Enterprise engaged the Tripoli, commanded by Admiral Rais Mahomet Rous. Tripoli put up a stubborn fight, and the engagement lasted for three hours before the polacca was finally captured by the Americans. Although the Americans had taken the vessel, Sterett had no orders to take prizes and so was obliged to release her.

When he finally arrived at Tripoli, Rous was severely chastised by Yusuf Karamanli, the Pasha (ruler) of Tripoli. Stripped of his command, he was paraded through the streets draped in sheep's entrails while seated backwards on a jackass before suffering 500 bastinadoes. (Bastinado is a form of corporal punishment in which the soles of the feet are beaten with an object such as a cane, rod or club, a stout leather bullwhip, or a flexible bat of heavy rubber.)