HISTORIC BOMBARDMENTS

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 26, 1 April 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

HISTORIC BOMBARDMENTS

ENGLAND ATTACKED FROM THE SEA. " The truth is 1 do fear so much that ihe whole Kingdom is undone. ... So God help us, and God knows what disorders wo may fall into." Some idea of the consternation whic.'i was caused by the naval invasion of the Thames, and' the threatened attack on London, may be gathered these words of Pepys, the famous English politician and diarist, who, at the time, viz., in 1667—was acting as Secretary to the Admiralty. And it must be iomembered that Pepys was in no way a "nervy" person: for during the great plague a year or two previous ho remained in London and in his official capacity alone conducted the entire administration of the Navy.

Pepys, however, had good reason to fear the raid, for it was conducted and o-ganized by that bold Dutch seaman. Admiral do Ruyter, who deserves to take rank with Blake and Nelson. It was in order to avenge the descent the English lieet had made on the Dutcli coast that De Ruyter, with a fleet of sixty sail and a number of troops in transports, attacked Sheerness, which he carried by assault, and afterwards sailed up the Medway, burning some of the English ships, and entered the Thames a second time as high as Gravesend, besides attacking Harwich. It was mainlv due to the fact that peace between England and Holland was shortly afterwards declared that De Ruyter was robbed of the fruits of a victory which might have had serious consequences for us. That, was the last occasion on which the Metropolis was seriously threatened by a hostile fleet. And it is rather curious that Scarborough, which, together with Hartlepool and Whitby, has suffered so severely from the German raid, should have been connected with the last serious naval invasion of England. This was in 1770, when a Franco-American squadron, under the command of the redoubtable Paul .Jones, made a hostile descent on the shores of the Solway Firth. At Whitehaven he fired one ship and spiked thirty-six guns. He then sailed up the Forth and had Edinburgh and Leith at his mercy, had not a timely gale come on and blown him out to sea. Ultimately, off Scarborough, he fell in with a large fleet of Baltic merchantmen under convoy of H.M.S. Serapis and Countess of Scarborough. Jones at once gave battle, captured the latter vessel, and eventually compelled the captain of the Serapis to haul down his flag. It was the most desperate and sanguinary engagement which has ever taken place immediately off the shores of Britain. An even later naval engagement oil Scarborough took place on February 13th, 1808, when the British ship Sappho chased and brought into action the Danish brig, Admiral Jawl, the Sappho, in half an hour compelling the enemy to capitulate. It is curious to reflect, however, that our modern peaceful "Queen of Watering Places" was also formerly a favourite spot for freebooters' raids, and historians have : chronicled how, in 1377, one Mercer, a pirate, attacked Scarborough to rescue his father, who was a prisoner in the castle, and carried away several shins from the harbour. One has to go back nearly 120 years, however —to the year 1797 —for the last occasion on which the invader set foot on English soil. In that year, when the French revolutionary wars were at their height, and through a momentary loss of our command of the sea, General Hocbe's expedition to Ireland nearly succeeded in landing, while a French force of 1,500 men, under General Tate, an American adventurer, actually landed in Cardigan Bay, on the coast of Pembrokeshire. This filibustering force, v which had sailed with orders to burn Bristol and make mischief generally, stopped first a*; Ufracombe, where they scuttled a few merehantment. But the troops were not landed, because there were volunters drawn up ready to resist them. The expedition, however, did land at Fishguard; but the invasion was a total failure, for the force, on being surrounded by the local militia, surrendered without striking a blow.