B L A 



mo 



B L A 



li.-litncts and uncertainty of the wind prevented them from 

 gain closing with the enemy, who escaped into < 

 After this battle, the <lrul'iiciir <>IV detachments on ilinVr. -at 

 ervice* reduced the Knj'.ish licet in the Channel to forty 

 sail. With thi f<>rcc Blake lay in the Downs, when Van 

 Trump again stood over to the English coast with eighty 

 men-of-war. Blake's, spirit was too high for him to decline 

 tin' b.ittlc, even ugainht these odds; an net of imprudence 

 for which he suffered severely. An action was fought off the 

 Goodwin Sands, November 29. Two of his ships were 

 taken, and four destroyed ; the rest were so much shattered, 

 that they were glad to run for shelter into the Thames. The 

 Dutch remained masters of the narrow seas; and VnnTromp, 

 in an idle bravado, sailed through the Channel with a broom 

 at his mast-head, to intimate that he had swept it clear of 

 English ships. However, neither the nation nor the admi- 

 ral were of a temper to submit to this insult, and great 

 diligence having been used in refitting and recruiting the 

 fleet, Blake put to sea again in February, 1653, with eighty 

 ships. On the 18th he fell in with Van Trorap, with nearly 

 equal force, escorting a large convoy of merchantmen up 

 the Channel. A running battle ensued, which was con- 

 tinued during three consecutive days: on the 20th the 

 Dutch ships, which, to suit the nature of their coast, were 

 built with a smaller draught of water than the English, ob- 

 tained shelter in the shallow waters of Calais. In this long 

 nnd obstinate fight the English lost one man-of-war, the 

 Dutch eleven men-of-war, and thirty merchantmen ; but 

 the number killed is said to have amounted to 1 500 on each 

 side, a loss of life of most unusual amount in naval battles. 

 Blake himself was severely wounded in the thigh. 



Another great battle took place on the third and fourth 

 of June, between Van Tromp and generals Deane and 

 Monk. On the first day the Dutch had the advantage : on 

 the second Blake arrived with a reinforcement of eighteen 

 sail, which turned the scale in favour of the English. Bad 

 health then obliged him to quit the sea, so that he was 

 not present at the great victory of July 29 (the last which 

 took place during this war), in which Van Tromp was 

 killed , but out of respect for his services, the parliament, in 

 presenting gold chains to the admirals who commanded in 

 that battle, gave one to him also. When Cromwell dis- 

 solved the long parliament and assumed the office of Pro- 

 tector, Blake, though in his principles a staunch republican, 

 did not refuse to acknowledge the new government. Pro- 

 bably he expected to find the administration more energetic ; 

 and he is reported to have said to his officers, ' It is not our 

 business to mind state affairs, but to keep foreigners from 

 fooling us.' He sat in the first two parliaments summoned 

 by the Protector, who always treated him with great respect. 

 Nor was Cromwell's acknowledged sagacity in the choice 

 of men at fault when he sent Blake at the head of a strong 

 fleet into the Mediterranean in November, 1654, to uphold 

 the honour of the English Hag, and to demand reparation 

 for slights and injuries done to the nation during that stormy 

 period of civil war, when internal discord had made others 

 daring against English vessels. Such a mission could not 

 have been placed in better hands. Dutch, French, and 

 Spaniards concurred in rendering unusual honours to his 

 Hag. The Duke of Tuscany and the Order of Malta made 

 compensation for injuries done to English commerce ; and 

 the piratical states of Algiers and Tripoli were terrified into 

 submission, and promised to abstain from further depreda- 

 tions. The Dey of Tunis alone resisted, but was speedily 

 forced to conclude peace on satisfactory terms. These trans- 

 actions occurred in the spring of 1655. 



On the breaking out of war between Spain and England 

 in 1656, Blake took his station to blockade the Bay of Cadiz. 

 At this time his constitution was greatly impaired, inso- 

 much that in the expectation of speedy death he sent home 

 request that some person proper to be his successor might 

 be joined in commission with him. General Montague was 

 accordingly sent out with a strong squadron. But in the 

 following spring that officer returned home in charge of 

 gome valuable prizes laden with bullion, and Blake was 

 again left alone in the Mediterranean, when he heard that 

 a Spanish plate fleet had put into the island of Teneriffe. 

 He immediately sailed thither, and arrived in the road of 

 Santa Cruz, April 20th. The bay was strongly fortified, 

 with a formidable castle at the entrance, and a chain of 

 mailer forts at intervals round it. There was also a con- 

 ideruble naval force, strongly posted, the smaller vessels 

 being placed under the guns of the forts, and the galleons 



strongly moored with their broadsides to the sea: insomuch 

 that the Spanish governor, a man of courage and ability, 

 felt perfectly at ease as to the security of h: The 



master of a Dutch ship which was lying in the hail on 

 less satisfied, and went to the govern* , r. 



quit the harbour, for ' I am sure,' he s-aid, ' that liuke will 

 presently be among you.' The governor made a confident 

 reply, ' Begone if you will, mid let Blake come if he <i 

 Daring was the last thing wanting: nor did the udminil 

 hesitate, as a wise man might well have done, at 

 real difficulties of the enterprise in which he was abc 

 engage. The wind blowing into the bay, he sent in Captain 

 Stayner with a squadron to attack the shipping, ].. 

 others in such u manner as to take off, and as tar ;> 

 sible to silence the fire of the castle and the forts, and him- 

 self following, assisted Stayner in capturing the gall 

 which, though inferior in number, were superior in si/c and 

 force to the English ships. This was completed by two 

 o'clock in the afternoon. Hopeless of being able !> 

 the prizes out of the bay against an adverse wind and a still 

 active enemy, Blake gave orders to burn them, and it is 

 probable that he himself might have found some dilli 

 in beating out of the bay under the fire of the cattle, which 

 was still lively, when on a sudden the wind, which had 

 blown strong into the bay, veered round to the s .' 

 thing, says the earliest writer of our admiral's life, not 

 known in many years before), and favoured his rctirn 

 it had favoured his daring approach. Of this, the mo-t 

 remarkable and the last exploit of Blake's life. Claren- 

 don says, ' The whole action was so incredible, that all men 

 who knew the place wondered that any sober man, with 

 what courage soever endowed, would ever have under! 

 it, and they could hardly persuade themselves t> believe 

 what they had done ; while the Spaniards comforted them- 

 selves with the belief that they were devils and not men 

 who had destroyed them in such a manner. So much a 

 strong resolution of bold and courageous men can bring to 

 pass, that no resistance or advantage of ground can disap- 

 point them; and it can hardly lie imau'iied how small a 

 loss the English sustained in this unparalleled action, not 

 one ship being left behind, and the killed and wounded not 

 exceeding 200 men ; where the slaughter on board the 

 Spanish ships and on shore was incredible." 



For this service the thanks of parliament were voted to 

 the officers and seamen engaged, with a diamond ring to 

 the admiral worth 500/. Blake returned to his old slation 

 off Cadiz; but the increase of his disorders, which wire 

 dropsy and scurvy, made him wish to return to England, 

 a wish however he did not live to accomplish. He died as 

 he was entering Plymouth Sound, August 17, Ki-"r. His 

 body beinj' transported to London, was buried with great 

 pomp in Westminster Abbey, at the public expense. After 

 the Restoration it was disinterred, and, with the bones nt' 

 others who had taken part with the Commonwealth, was 

 removed to St. Margaret's churchyard. 



Blake was of a blunt and singularly fearless temper, 

 straightforward, upright, and honest in an unusual degree. 

 He seems never to have sought his own advancement by 

 any underhand means, and his pecuniary integrity was tin- 

 impeached. He left his paternal estate unimpaired, but 

 notwithstanding the great suras which passed through his 

 hands, it is said that lie did not leave 500/. behind him of 

 his own acquiring. His temper was liberal, and his be- 

 haviour to his sailors most kind. Clarendon gives the fol- 

 lowing account of his character : ' He was a man of private 

 extraction, yet had enough left him by his father to give 

 him a good education; * * * of a melancholic and sullen 

 nature, nnd spent his time most with good fellows, who 

 liked his moroseness, and a freedom he used in inveighing 

 against the license of the time, and the power of the court. 

 They who knew him inwardly discovered that ho had an 

 anti-monarchical spirit, when few men thought the govern- 

 ment in any danger.' ' After having done eminent scnice 

 to the parliament, especially at Taunton, by land, he then 

 betook himself wholly to the .sea, and quickly made himself 

 signal there. He was llw lirst man that declined the old 

 track, and made it manifest that the science might be 

 attained in less time' than was imagined, and despi-ed th"sr 

 rules which had long been in practice to keep his ship and 

 men on! nl' danger, which had been held in former times a 

 point nfgrc.it al'ility and cireiu.i-peclion. as if the principal 

 art requisite in the captain of a ship had been to be sure to 

 come safe home again. He was the first man w bo brought 



