Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez. Vol IIRoss, John, Sir
History
Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez. Vol II
Ross, John, Sir
Admirals -- Great Britain -- Biography; Saumarez, James, 1757-1836
The island of Anholt, which had been garrisoned by seamen and marines
under the command of Captain James W. Maurice, of the Royal Navy, was
attacked on the 23rd of March by a body of Danish troops, amounting to
1600 men; but they were so well received by the Governor and his
brave crew (for the island was on the establishment of a vessel of
war) that they were forced to capitulate, with the loss of their
leader Major Melstedt, two officers, and 500 of their people in
killed, wounded, and prisoners; while Capt. Baker, of the Tartar, and
Captain J.P. Stewart, of the Sheldrake, chased and took several of
their gun-boats employed on that expedition.
Sir James had finished his three years in the Baltic, the time
generally prescribed for an Admiral commanding-in-chief to remain on
one station, and it was now his turn to have a command in the
Mediterranean, which was considered more lucrative; but his conduct
during his command in the Baltic had so completely gained the
confidence and good-will of the Swedes, and it had now become of such
importance to keep them, with such a general as Bernadotte at their
head, on good terms, that he was requested to continue on that most
important command, as the only chance of accomplishing the desirable
object of a Northern coalition. Nothing could be more delicate or more
difficult than the situation in which Sir James was now placed, for
while it required firmness to uphold the dignity of the empire which
he represented, as the only diplomatic functionary as well as
commander-in-chief in the North, tact, wisdom, and forbearance were
equally indispensable. These qualities Sir James possessed in a
superlative degree, and the Author, who from his knowledge of the
Swedish language was employed confidentially on all the communications
which subsequently took place, can testify that it is to the wise
policy of the Admiral that the nation owes the success of these
negociations. It is the opinion of Swedish and Russian diplomatists
that had Sir James not been employed, the Northern Coalition, which
was so fatal to the ambitious views of Buonaparte, never would have
taken place; and for such a service no reward which it was in the
power of Government to bestow on him would have been too great. There
can be no doubt, had the lamented Perceval not met with an untimely
end by the hand of an assassin, that he would at the close of 1812
have been rewarded by the Peerage which was so long unaccountably
withheld.
Sir James was still in London when he received the statement of the
discomfiture of the Danish attack on Anholt, a particular account of
which may be seen in James's Naval History.
The following letters on this gallant affair, which have not yet been
published, will be perused with interest.
London, 10th April 1811.
MY DEAR SIR,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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