192 HEREDITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 



57. GEORGE BRYDGES RODNEY. 



GEORGE BRYDGES RODNEY was born February 1719. He studied at Harrow, 

 went to sea at 13 years of age, and served for seven years in the Channel fleet. 

 As commander of the Eagle (60 guns), he participated in Hawkes's victory off 

 Ushant (October 14, 1747) over the French fleet. The Eagle was heavily engaged, 

 had her wheel shot to pieces, but pursued, unsuccessfully, the two French vessels 

 that escaped. In May 1749 he was appointed governor and commander in chief 

 of Newfoundland, with the rank of commodore; but he returned to England in 

 1752 and was elected to Parliament. He performed well various minor naval 

 duties in the Channel and at Cape Breton (Louisburg), and in 1761, England 

 then being at war with France, he was sent to the Leeward Islands, of which he 

 took several from the French. In the West Indies Rodney took a large view of 

 his duties and tried to adjust his actions to the protection of England's interests, 

 even outside the particular region assigned to him. For a period of fifteen years 

 from 1763 there was peace and Rodney had little to do. He got into money 

 trouble through extravagance and gambling. For five years he was governor 

 of the Greenwich hospital and for three years commander in chief at Jamaica. 

 In 1779 Rodney received orders to command at the Leeward Islands and to relieve 

 Gibraltar, now besieged by Spain, on his way. As good luck would have it, he 

 captured a Spanish convoy of 22 vessels, 7 being warships. Of these 12 were 

 provision ships, which he turned in to feed Gibraltar. Eight days later he defeated 

 the Spanish Admiral de Langara off St. Vincent, taking or destroying 7 ships. 

 Learning at Santa Lucia that a French fleet under De Guichen was sailing from 

 Martinique, Rodney went to meet them. He issued definite orders, but these 

 were not lived up to by all of his captains, so that the French fleet escaped severe 

 injury. Rodney's insistence on discipline during the following two years put his 

 fleet into better shape to meet the next battle with the highly organized French 

 fleet on April 12, 1782. In this battle, between fleets of 33 and 35 ships respec- 

 tively, Rodney's fleet won a tactical victory, capturing 5 of the enemy's ships 

 and sinking 1. Had the survivors been followed more energetically many of them 

 might have been captured, but as it was the threatened island of Jamaica was 

 saved and French naval prestige was ruined. Rodney seemed to feel that he had 

 done enough and had little desire to fight for the love of fighting; but he was 63 

 years of age and in poor health. Rodney was made a baron and died ten years 

 later, after having lived in retirement. 



Of Rodney, Mahan (1901, p. 151) says: 



"Intolerance of dereliction of duty, and uncompromising condemnation of 

 the delinquent, were ever leading traits in Rodney's course as a commander-in- 

 chief. He stood over his officers with a rod, dealt out criticism unsparingly, 

 and avowed it as his purpose and principle of action so to rule. It is not meant 

 that his censures were undeserved or even excessive; but there entered into them 

 no ingredient of pity. His dispatches are full of complaints, both general and 

 specific. When he spared, it was from a sense of expediency -- or of justice, 

 a trait in which he was by no means deficient; but for human weakness he had no 

 bowels. Each man has his special gift, and to succeed must needs act in accordance 

 with it. There are those who lead and those who drive; Hawke belonged to one 

 class, Rodney to the other." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



MAHAN, A. 1913. Types of Naval Officers, drawn from the history of the British Navy. Bos- 

 ton: Little, Brown & Co. 



