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**Parihaka** · 08-23-2007, 19:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluesman

Then you're not fit for your hypothetical command. No decent commander leads his unit into self-destruction and almost hopeless combat. You'd not be tried for EITHER failure to engage the enemy, NOR for endangering the ship and crew, because no trial would be convened for the former, and you likely wouldn't live to see the latter.

Quote:

In 1800 Cochrane was appointed to command the sloop HMS Speedy. Later that year he was almost captured by a Spanish warship concealed as a merchant ship. He escaped by flying a Danish flag and dissuading an attempt to investigate by claiming his ship was plague-ridden. Chased by an enemy frigate, and knowing it would follow him in the night by the glimmer of light from the Speedy, he placed a candle on a barrel and let it float away. The enemy frigate followed the barrel and Speedy escaped.

One of his most famous exploits was the capture of the Spanish frigate El Gamo, on 6 May 1801. El Gamo carried 32 guns and 319 men, compared with the 14 guns and 54 men on Speedy. Cochrane flew an American flag to get close, finally approaching so closely to Gamo that its guns could not depress to fire on the Speedy's hull. This left only the option of boarding, but whenever the Spanish were about to board Cochrane would pull away briefly, and fire on the concentrated boarding parties with his ship's guns. Cochrane then boarded the Gamo, despite still being outnumbered about five to one, and captured her. St Vincent, not wishing to enrich an officer recently reprimanded, refused to purchase the Gamo for the royal navy: as a result Cochrane and the crew of the Speedy received no prize money.

Rear Admiral Thomas Alexander Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Marquês do Maranhão