English Men of Action RODNEY [Illustration: colophon] [Illustration: RODNEY] RODNEY BY DAVID HANNAY London MACMILLAN AND CO. and New York 1891 _All rights reserved_ CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE FAMILY AND EARLY CAREER 1 CHAPTER II SERVICE AS CAPTAIN TILL 1752 19 CHAPTER III MARRIAGE, THE PRESS-GANG, AND THE FLAG 35 CHAPTER IV FLAG RANK AND PARLIAMENT 52 CHAPTER V SIXTEEN YEARS OF PEACE 70 CHAPTER VI THE RELIEF OF GIBRALTAR 86 CHAPTER VII THE WEST INDIES 106 CHAPTER VIII THE CAMPAIGN OF 1780 122 CHAPTER IX ST. EUSTATIUS 143 CHAPTER X RODNEY’S STAY IN ENGLAND 164 CHAPTER XI TO APRIL 12TH 174 CHAPTER XII THE BREAKING OF THE LINE 188 CHAPTER XIII THE END 214 CHAPTER I FAMILY AND EARLY CAREER George Brydges Rodney, the most famous of the great generation of English admirals who raised the navy to the level at which Nelson found it, was by descent a Somersetshire man. The family was one of considerable antiquity--of more antiquity indeed than fame. From the reign of Henry the Third until far into the seventeenth century they were established as owners of land in and about Stoke Rodney, at the foot of the Mendips, in the valley of the Axe between Draycott and Wells. The history of the house was summed up by Sir Edward Rodeney, the last of them who held the family estate, in words which I do not presume to think I can better, and shall therefore quote.