He was nick named the ‘second Nelson’. A
dashing officer that staged – and succeeded – not one but two successful sieges in the
Mediterranean.
Following the rigours of a Scandinavian
winter, my wife and I decided that the destination for our early summer break
was to be that tourist magnet of the Dalmatian coast, and sometime backdrop for
Game of Thrones – Dubrovnic. Not surprisingly, our tastes are again a heady mixture
of the Nelsonian and nautical, the horticultural and the historic. For me, the
Nelsonian was naturally first on the list or, to be more accurate, as it is
related one particular young naval officer with close connections to both His
Lordship and the the Adriatic. I am referring of course to Captain William
Hoste (1), the Admiral’s protegé and victor of the Battle of Lissa (2).
Despite receiving little more for that battle
than the medal that the parsimonious Admiralty sought to bestow and such as the
other captains of his small fleet received, Hoste himself was seen by many as
something of an expert on the Adriatic. He was not however so highly regarded by
all, including Rear Admiral Thomas Fremantle, Hoste’s superior and formerly one
of Nelson’s captains (3). Unfortunately, Fremantle did not seem to possess some
of his late Lordship’s qualities and consequently did not approve of the captains
under his command taking initiative, responsibility and glory upon themselves. Thus
Hoste was already under his admiral’s eye after Lissa.
In late 1813, Fremantle sent him to attack the
French in the so-called Illyrian Provinces (4). Two enemy-held cities now appeared
obvious targets, Cattaro (present day Kotor, in Montenegro) and Ragusa to its
north west (now Dubrovnic, in Croatia) both of which had strong French
garrisons. Beside the practical difficulties he was to encounter, Hoste had
also to perform something of a diplomatic balancing act between the various
factions involved. These naturally included the Montenegrin and Croatian inhabitants
but also the Bochese, descendants of Venetian traders, who also lived in the
area. Neither of them, however, could be
relied on to give Hoste their wholehearted support against the French, since
there was also considerable animosity towards each other. Austrian and Russia
meanwhile had their own designs, the former being intent on annexing both the cities
and the whole area to their Austro-Hungarian Empire, whilst the latter,
naturally, were desirous of it coming under the Czar’s influence. Hoste’s
primary object was to defeat the French and he had great difficulty in
resisting both local rivalries and larger state designs to achieve that end.
Cattaro was the first of the cities to receive
Hoste’s attention, not only from the fact that the Montenegrins had attacked
without waiting for British support, but also because of the proximity of both
the Austrians and the Russians (5). The city was reached from the sea by
passage through two inland bays, the smaller of them leading into the larger by
means of an interconnecting channel, with the city itself being situated at the
south-eastern end of the innermost bay. Navigating Hoste’s frigate ‘Baccante’
and the sloop ‘Saracen‘, commanded by Captain Harper, through them was
hazardous for although the water is deep for the most part, there is the odd
rock near the surface and strong currents necessitated frequent anchoring (6).
In addition strong winds blew down from the encircling mountains, producing
sharp squalls that required both expert topmen and seamanship, the ‘Baccante’ herself
having earlier been struck by lightning. Hoste and his men probably had little
time in which to admire the scenery they were sailing through, spectacular though
it was, since they had first to reduce the French held fortresses of Castello
Nuovo and Spanish Fort, and on the island of St. George, before Cattaro itself could
be reached. On finally gaining their goal, Hoste found that it was to present a
significant challenge.
The city itself is encirled by mountains up
to 4,000 feet high but one in particular, Mt. Theodore, overlooks the city. It
was to here and other surrounding heights, that Hoste’s crew hauled two of the
ship’s eighteen-pounder guns, plus howitzers and other artillery, to bombard it
– eventually forcing the surrender of its unbelieving, and probably somewhat
unnerved, French occupiers. The protracted seige itself is outside the scope of
this article, but suffice it to say that the whole operation took just over two
months. The French eventually surrendered on January 5th, 1814, for the
cost of one British seaman killed and a marine officer injured. On his leaving
and after having placed the safe keeping of the city in the hands of the civil
magistrate rather than the Austrians – who had not put in the expected appearance
– or any other faction, Hoste re-embarked his guns and stores and put back to
sea.
A new challenge
By the 19th January the
‘Baccante’ was off the ancient walled city of Ragusa where, following a brief
reconnoitre, Hoste realised that a frontal attack from the sea would be practically
impossible (7). The immensely strong medieaval fortifications included not only
the medieaval fortresses of Revelin to the east of the city and San Lorenzo to
the west, but also two new strongholds that the French had recently built. Fort
Royal on the nearby island of Croma (now Lokrum), commanded the approaches from
the sea whilst Fort Imperial had been constructed on Mt Sergius overlooking the
city. Unlike at Cattaro, however, Hoste had the assistance of an Austrian force
under General Milutinovic, fifty men of the British 35th Regiment
commanded by Lieutenant McDonald and, ostensibly, some Croat irregulars,
although the latter largely melted away when faced by the enemy (8).
With a direct assault out of the question Hoste
decided to attack the more accessible northern walls of the city, landing
howitzers for the purpose. Meanwhile the ‘Baccante’ and ‘Saracen’ kept up a
bombardment from the sea and, following an engagement, Royal Marines from the
two ships captured the island of Croma and Fort Royal. Whilst all this was in
progress, Hoste decided to revive a similar plan to the one he had successfully
employed at Cattaro – and haul a gun to the heights above the city. However,
even though the jagged cliffs of Mt. Sergius above the city are not as high as
those surrounding the former stronghold – being a mere 1,200 feet – the conditions
were difficult enough. Luckily, there was one feature that Hoste was able to
utilise – a fifteenth century covered aqueduct, supplying water to the city from
the mountains behind it. This ran westwards from the heights and down to the
Bay of Gravosa to the north west of the city, where Hoste had anchored the
Baccante, before turning south-eastward to Ragusa itself. The stone slabs
covering the aqueduct were just wide enough for an eighteen pound gun, mounted
on a sledge, to be manhandled along it. One slip however and the gun, sledge, and
very likely some of the men hauling it, would have plunged into the chasm
below.
Once landed, the party of approximately 100
men dragged the gun up the aqueduct and headed gradually eastward, unseen from Fort
Imperial which had been further supplemented by troops from the city below.
They then had to haul the weapon southward from the aqueduct to the chosen position
at the cliff edge, from where to open fire on the city below. All of this necessitated
a detour of perhaps three miles to escape detection, as the rear of the fort
overlooks a broad swathe of countryside to the mountains beyond. The harsh winter
weather brought with it rain and sleet, the men being continually drenched to
the bone during the day and lying in damp clothing at night, under sails rigged
as tents for the overnight stops. If that were not uncomfortable enough, once they
had left the aqueduct there was the difficulty of dragging the gun, its
carriage, power and shot, plus food etc., over rugged terrain that was littered
with rocks and coarse scrub, small trees and bramble thickets, the latter of
which tore at the the men’s clothing. It must have been unpleasant in the
extreme.
Finding the “Hoste Spot”
A few years ago, TNS Historian Nick Slope
wrote a short article on Hoste and his ‘bombardment’ of Ragusa. He had ended it
by encouraging readers to seek out the damage, caused to one of the columns
beside the main door of the Church of St Ignatius, by Hoste’s second shot. My
wife and I did just that and found the star-shaped mark, on the outward face of
the right-hand column. Nick’s article had already set me to wondering whether
it was possible to find the approximate position from where the ball had been
fired, i.e. Hoste’s ‘battery’ up on the heights. Not surprisingly, it didn’t
appear to be marked on the tourist maps, nor is it mentioned in any of the
local guide books that I read. It is, however, shown on a map in Tom Pocock’s
book on Hoste, ‘Remember Nelson’, thus its approximate position must be certainly
known (9).
Two hundred years after the event, the most
direct and easiest route to the heights above the City is by the cable car,
which runs from just north of the city wall to the east of Fort Imperial. The
778 metre journey takes approximately 4 minutes and one wonders what Hoste
would have thought of it, were he alive today. We had already found that, for
some reason or other, there was a dearth of information about Hoste and the first
siege of Ragusa (indeed, there seemed to be very little information about the Napoleonic
Wars in general) so we were not expecting much, as we set off to find any evidence
there might be as to the position Hoste had selected. Before leaving the area
of the fort we circumnavigated its walls, glancing up at the enormous TV and
radio mast, now mounted somewhat incongruously on the roof. The building houses
an exhibition on the later siege of Dubrovnik in 1991, when Serbian forces
bombed the city. (We didn’t view it, although we had earlier seen an exhibition
of graphic photographs in the city itself.) However, again there was nothing
about the Napoleonic Wars and certainly nothing about the earlier siege.
We moved away from the fort and cable car
station, with its tourists, gift shop and restaurant, and walked downhill in a
south-easterly direction, hopefully towards the approximate position of the
‘battery’ – or the ‘Hoste spot’ as my wife had now named it. Most accounts
record that he had chosen a position to the eastward of and lower than Fort
Imperial, hidden from its view by a rocky outcrop. I believe we found that
feature and the fort gratifyingly disappeared from sight, but just how far past
it Hoste positioned the gun was rather more difficult to determine. The made road
we were following was naturally set some distance back from the cliff edge, the
city below being therefore out of sight. In order to get a view of it, we were
obliged to leave the road and move somewhat closer – being careful, of course,
not to get too close! The terrain was littered with rocks, trees, tough grass
and small bushes, which made movement difficult. One could only imagine the
problems that Hoste and his men encountered, over a much greater distance, in rather
harsher weather, and pulling a heavy gun. (I stumbled a few times myself and
can thus literally say, that not a few stones were overturned in the researching
of this article!)
By means of the zoom lens on the camera we were
able to identify the distant Church of St Ignatius below and, with that as a
reference point, proceeded down the gentle slope until the damaged column, came
into view. We stopped at what we thought a suitable place, flattish but on a
slight slope, out of site of the fort and with the column of the church plainly
visible – but was it the ‘Hoste spot’? The answer, most likely, is – ‘probably
not’, for although we were presumably not that far from it, one patch of ground
looked very much like another in that terrain – and there was nothing so
conclusive as a rusty, 200 year old cannon ball lying around waiting to be
discovered, pinpointing the ‘battery’! I could almost here my wife thinking, ‘What
were you expecting, a brass plaque?’ Of course I wasn’t but, literally at the
end of the day, it didn’t really matter. To have been in the general area was
enough and even Hoste, in his Memoirs, didn’t go into great detail about the
position.
Annoying the Admiral
However, his siting and use of the gun had had
the desired effect, for after just a couple of ranging shots – the second hitting
the column of the church – the garrison capitulated, following demonstrations
by the local populace. As at Cattaro, the French had been somewhat unnerved by
the aerial ‘bombardment’ of a city that, up until then, was thought of as well-nigh
impregnable. The ‘second Nelson’ was himself satisfied with the outcome and was
only too thankful that the siege was over, having done more than his duty. Before
the business could be finally settled, however, one or two other problems were
to arise (10).
The first of these was in the shape of the
British frigate ‘Elizabeth’, under the command of Captain Edward Leveson-Gower,
which had arrived off Ragusa whilst the capitulation was in progress. He had
been sent by Fremantle, who had not only received word of Hoste’s plans but also
surmised that, after his success at Cattaro, he would be more than capable of
carrying them out. This, of course, had irritated the admiral, who saw that it
would also further add to Hoste’s laurels if he were again victorious. Leveson-Gower
was senior to Hoste and theoretically could have carried out Fremantle’s orders
and assumed command. However and much to his credit, the good captain ‘very
properly declined to pluck away a single feather of those glories which he
could have no claim to.’ Subsequently, he merely anchored his ship offshore at
a discreet distance and send his subordinate much-needed supplies.
There was also to be a slight hitch with
the capitulation arrangements, after the French troops marched out of the city
on 28th January. Unlike at Cattaro, the city was taken over jointly
by the British, Austrians and Croatians – a situation to which the Ragusan
rebels, desirous of restoring the Republic, strongly objected. However, forewarned
of their desparate plan to rush the eastern Ploca Gate into the city, the
Austrian and Croatian armies, augmented by Royal Marines from Hoste’s ships,
entered by the western Pile Gate and denied them entry. The rebels could do
nothing and gave in. General Milutnovic ‘expressed himself in the handsomest
manner for the assistance he had received’ from the British, although one can’t
help thinking that if it hadn’t been for Hoste’s aerial strategy, the seige
might well have failed.
A clever ruse and an unexpected sight
The fall of Ragusa, garrisoned by three
hundred and sixty French soldiers under General Montrichard and provisioned for
nearly six weeks, had been accomplished for the loss of one just British seaman
killed and two severely wounded. On the 4th February Hoste, having
re-embarked his men and guns, sailed from the City. Initially he called at Lissa
and then Trieste in Italy, where he reported to Fremantle. There were, however,
to be other claims on him before he finally reached England, including being
sent by the admiral to blockade Corfu, during which the ‘Baccante’ went aground
in full view of the enemy. By a clever ruse, pretending that the frigate had
just come to anchor, he later successfully managed to haul her off and sail
away. Understandably, there was great sadness shown by all hands on his leaving
the frigate at Malta and transferring to the ‘Cerberus’, which had been present
at the Battle of Lissa.
...that Buonaparte should absolutely be confined as a state prisoner in this horrible island for life, appears almost incredible. The man who, a few months ago, made all Europe tremble is now a prisoner in an almost desolate isle in the Mediterranean. There is nothing like it in history.
Calling at Elba on the way home they found
Napoleon there, a prisoner. The ship was signalled: ‘The Emperor Bony is here’,
Hoste later writing in a letter to his father, ‘Only conceive what ideas such
an event must create: that Buonaparte should absolutely be confined as a state
prisoner in this horrible island for life, appears almost incredible. The man
who, a few months ago, made all Europe tremble is now a prisoner in an almost
desolate isle in the Mediterranean. There is nothing like it in history.’ That situation,
of course, was not to last and it was to be another year or so before the most
hated man in Europe was confined for good, on St. Helena.
Service in the Adriatic and in particular the
sieges of Cattaro and Ragusa, had taken their toll of the ship’s compliment, many
falling sick due to their arduous labours. Hoste was particularly affected,
even temporarily losing the use of his legs, and he was to suffer recurring
bouts of illness for the rest of his short life (11). His death on December 6th
1828, brought great sorrow and he was greatly mourned by his family, his men
and by the many who knew him (12).
The League
of Armed Neutrality An uneasy
alliance between century old enemies that could have jeopardized the outcome of
the Napoleonic wars.
Sweden’s
Blue Band An
astonishing engineering feat, dug entirely by hand by 58 000 men and stretching
from coast to coast across Sweden. Once vital for trade and defence, now
attracting thousands of holiday makers, the Göta Canal is still a wonder.
Notes:
1. Born in Ingoldisthorpe, Norfolk, in 1780,
Hoste first went to sea in 1793 with Nelson in the Agamemnon. He served with
the Admiral in Corsica in 1794, at St. Vincent and Tenerife in 1797 and the
Nile the following year. He greatly missed Trafalgar, Nelson having sent him away
on a mission – perhaps a ploy – and was saddened by the Admiral’s death.
Collingwood sent him to the Adriatic in 1809, where he engaged in the actions
that made his name. Made a baron in 1814, and a K.C.B the following year, he
was also created a K.M.T (Knight of the Order of Maria Theresa) by Austria, for
services in the Adriatic. His last appointment was as Captain of the Royal
Yacht, in 1825. Marrying Lady Hoste in 1817, they had six children, but he sadly
died from tuberculosis in 1828, aged only 48. He is buried in St. John’s Wood Chapel,
London.
2. Fought off the Adriatic island of that
name on the 4th March, 1811 and noteworthy for being a frigate
action. The Franco-Italian fleet comprised six vessels, four of 40 guns, opposing
four slightly smaller British frigates, including Hoste’s 32-gun ‘Amphion’. Dubordeau
the French commander, a student of Nelson’s Trafalgar tactics, approached
similarly in two columns expecting victory. However, hoisting the signal
‘Remember Nelson,’ Hoste tightly closed up his line frustrating Dubordeau’s
design. The battle was hard-fought and entailed much manouvering, during which
Hoste forced the French flagship aground, it being destroyed by its crew. Two
enemy vessels surrendered and others fled. The damage was considerable, British
casualities amounting to approximately 50 dead and 145 wounded, the French an
estimated 600 killed.
3. Fremantle was born in 1765 and served
with Nelson as a young captain. At Tenerife in 1797, in commanded of the
frigate ‘Seahorse’, he was also shot in the right arm although his was not
amputated. Following command of the 98-gun Neptune at Trafalgar, he became a Member
of Parliament and Lord of the Admiralty from 1806-07. Attaining the rank of
Rear Admiral he was then posted to the Adriatic in 1808, with Hoste under his
command. Any animosity between them seems later to have been forgotten. He
became the C.-in-C. Mediterranean in 1818 and died a year later as a Vice
Admiral. He is buried in Naples.
4. Named after the ancient tribe who were
the original inhabitants, the IIyrian Provinces covered the area to the north
and east of the Adriatic [Croatia, Dalmatia and Slovenia] and were so-called on
becoming part of the French Empire 1809 – 1813. French administration brought some
law and order to the region.
5. Cattaro is the Italianate form of Kotor and
so written by Hoste in his Memoirs. Situated on one arm of a ria, or sunken
river valley, it was first settled by the Romans as Acruvium. It subsequently changed
hands many times, becoming part of the Venetian Republic 1420-1797, during
which it vied with both Ragusa and Venice for commercial dominance. It then
passed to the Hapsburg dynasty, before becoming part of the Illyrian Provinces
in 1810. Restored to the Austrians at the Congress of Vienna, it became part of
Yugoslavia in 1918 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, officially being
named Kotor. Now in Montenegro, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
6. ‘Baccante’ was a thirty-six gun frigate:
154’ in length, 39’ 6” beam, 1,077 tons. Built at Deptford and launched in
November 1811, Hoste became her first commander following Lissa. He was pleased
with both the ship and her crew, many of whom transferred from the ‘Amphion’.
Used for harbour service from 1837, she was broken up at Deptford in 1858.
7. Believed to have been settled by the
Greeks in the 6th century, as Ragusium or Ragusa, the name Dubrovnik
was also in use at various times. Following the crusades it came under Venetian
rule until 1358, when it became a free republic. Based on maritime trade,
Ragusa’s greatest phase was during the 15th and 16th
centuries, when it rivalled its old ruler Venice. The famous walls, almost 2
kilometres long and from 4-6 metres wide on the landward side – but narrower on
the seaward – date between the 12th and 17th centuries. An
earthquake in 1667 together with a fall in trade, gradually ended the republic
and in 1806 it surrendered to Napolean’s armies. Following Hoste’s siege, it
became part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire at the Vienna Congress in 1815,
until that too collapsed in 1918. Then as part of Yugoslavia, it was officially
renamed Dubrovnik. During WW2, it was a puppet state under German control and
following the later break up of Yugoslavia, was bombarded by Serbian and
Montenegrin forces in 1991. Extensively restored it is now a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. More recently it starred as King’s Landing, in the TV series Game of
Thrones.
8. Lokrum is a short boat trip from
Dubrovnik. Something of an uphill climb brings one to the fort, from where there
are spectacular views of the city and Mt Sergius opposite and the coastline
further south. The fort, circular in design and solidly built, stands within
star-shaped fortifications. Constructed by the French in 1806 it was later
completed by the Austrians, a marker stone over the entrance bearing a date of
1835. Eleven embrasures are spaced around the fort’s circumference, but the
wooden floors on which the guns would have stood are now gone. There is a well in
the centre of the fort and a large stone outbuilding nearby (now roofless) probably
housed the gun crews and perhaps the fort’s commander.
9. See the Nelson Dispatch, Volume 9, Part
8, October 2007, pp. 464-468.
Other publications consulted in the writing
of this article were:
‘Remember Nelson – The Life of Captain Sir
William Hoste’, by Tom Pocock, published by Collins, 1977, (map on page 225); ‘The
Memoirs and Letters of Captain Sir William Hoste’, Bart., R.N., K.C.B., K.M.T.,
by Sir William Hoste and Lady Harriet Walpole Hoste, published by Richard
Bentley in two volumes, 1833 (quoted passages from the facsimile edition, 2011);
‘Sea Battles in Close-up’, by David Lyon, published by Ian Allen, 1996; Various
internet sites.
10. In one of her more prophetic
statements, Emma Hamilton famously said of Hoste, ‘I say he will be a second
Nelson’.
11. In 1830, the former surgeon of the
‘Baccante’, Dr. Kidd, wrote of Hoste: ‘…the heavy tasks of reducing Castello
Nuovo, Fort Espagnol, Island of St George, but, above all, the fortresses of
Cattaro and Ragusa, produced such an effect upon his constitution, as I much
fear he never entirely got rid of.’
12. Vol. 1 of William Hoste’s Memoirs, has
this touching foreword to their children from Lady Harriet, regarding her
husband’s qualities: ‘It is for you, my beloved Children, that I have compiled
these pages. I am sensible that though my whole life were devoted to your
instruction, I could never teach you to attain that elevation of mind which you
ought to possess, unless I placed before you the conduct and feelings of your
father, throughout his eventful career. Let these be your guide! He was
snatched away in the days of your infancy, but he has left to you the rich
treasure of a spotless name and glorious reputation, for his life was
blameless, and his actions not obscure!’
