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MY ADVENTURES DURING
THE LATE WAR
1804-14
MY ADVENTUKES DUEING
THE LATE WAE
A NARRATIVE OF SHIPWRECK, CAPTIVITY
ESCAPES FROM FRENCH PRISONS, AND SEA SERVICE
IN 1804-14
BY
DONAT HENCHY O'BRIEN
CAPT. K.N.
EDITED BY CHARLES OMAN
FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE AND DEPUTY PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
NEW EDITION, ILLUSTRATED
WITH A PREFACE, NOTES, AND BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
1902
All rights reserved
o
PREFACE
WHILE engaged during the last ten years in the task of
mastering the original authorities for the history of the
Napoleonic wars, I have had to peruse many scores of
diaries, autobiographies, and journals of the British
military and naval officers who were engaged in the great
struggle. They vary, of course, in interest and import-
ance, in literary value, and in the power of vivid presenta-
tion of events. But they have this in common, that they
are almost all very difficult to procure. Very few have
been reprinted ; indeed, I believe that the books of Lord
Dundonald, Kincaid, John Shipp, Gleig, and Mercer are
well nigh the only ones which have passed through a
second edition. Yet there are many others which contain
matter of the highest interest, not only for the historical
student, but for every intelligent reader. From among
these I have made a selection of ten or a dozen which seem
to me well worth republishing.
Among these is the present volume the narrative of
the three escapes of Donat O'Brien from French captivity,
and of his subsequent services in the Mediterranean during
the last years of the great French war. I imagine that no
prisoner not excluding Baron Trenck himself ever made
three such desperate dashes for liberty as did this enterpris-
v
219196
vi PREFACE
ing Irish midshipman. It is fortunate that he found the
leisure, and had the skill, to narrate all his adventures.
He had a talent for minute description, a wonderful
memory, and a humorous way of looking on the world
which will remind the reader of the spirit of Captain
Marryat's naval heroes.
It is not, I think, generally known that O'Brien's
escapes actually suggested to Marryat a great part of the
plot of one of his best known books Peter Simple. In
that excellent romance the narrator (it will be remem-
bered) actually escapes from Givet in company with an
Irish naval officer, and goes through a hundred perils
before reaching safety. It was a strange liberty to take
with a living comrade, that Marryat actually names Peter
Simple's comrade O'Brien, and utilises many touches from
the real Donat's adventures to make his tale vivid. In
the end the fictitious O'Brien plays a great part in the
story and marries the hero's sister. What the retired
captain thought, or said, on finding himself thus liberally
dealt with in a novel is not recorded. But I fancy that
he must have considered it hard that Peter Simple should
be reprinted some thirty times, while his own most inter-
esting book never saw a second edition.
It is now very rare : in ten years of systematic
searching of second-hand book shops, in quest of old
military and naval autobiographies, I have only come on
three copies of the work. I trust that by this edition it
may be brought once more to common knowledge.
The reader will find in it a most wonderful study of
the life of a hunted man, "a sort of Nebuchadnezzar
living on cabbage stalks," as O'Brien styles himself,
during his miserable lurking in the cliffs of the Vosges.
PREFACE vii
Almost as interesting is the sketch of the gloomy exist-
ence of the thousand "refractory" British prisoners in
the souterrains of the rock-fortress of Bitche. French
writers have often denounced the Portsmouth pontoons,
on which so many of their compatriots were forced to
dwell. But they compare favourably with the under-
ground dungeons in which Napoleon confined O'Brien
and many another British sailor. In strong contrast
with this part of the story is the short narrative of life
in Verdun, where the detenus on parole seem to have been
allowed as much, and even more, liberty than was good
for them. Roulette tables and race meetings were
demoralising luxuries for men suffering from enforced
idleness. From other sections of O'Brien's narrative the
reader may obtain curious side-lights on many features of
the Napoleonic regime in France the ubiquity of the
gendarme and his natural prey, the escaped conscript, the
bare and squalid life of the peasantry, the estrangement
between the military caste and the bourgeoisie. There
are also glimpses of Germany during the existence of the
Rhembund, when the people w r ere united in a sort of
tacit conspiracy against the governments who had made
themselves the tools of Bonaparte. Not least interesting
are the final chapters, in which O'Brien, free at last, shows
us how British naval ascendency was maintained in the
Adriatic, and helps us to realise the truth of the saying
that "wherever a boat could float Bonaparte's power
found its limit." It was to no purpose that he called
himself king of Italy, annexed Dalmatia and Illyria, and
established his brother-in-law at Naples : three or four
British frigates, based on the island stronghold of Lissa,
dominated the whole seaboard, ransacked every estuary,
viii PREFACE
and destroyed whatever naval force was sent against them
even though it was on paper twice their own strength.
Hostess battle of 13th March 1811 was, as far as mere
disparity of numbers goes, a victory that can be compared
to St. Vincent alone among all the long list of British
successes at sea.
I have ventured to cut short O'Brien's narrative at the
end of the Napoleonic war. It went no further in his
own first draft, which (as I have stated in the succeeding
biographical note) was compiled before 1815. When he
published his two-volume book, in 1839, he subjoined to
his narrative of captivity and naval service three long
chapters, detailing his visits and rambles in England and
Ireland during the years of his middle age, his cruise to
Brazil and Chile in 1818-21, and his continental tour
with his wife in 1827. In these 150 pages there is so
little matter to interest either the historical student or
the general reader, that I have thought it well to omit
them. For O'Brien, as for so many other British soldiers
and seamen, "the joy of eventful living" ended in 1815.
For this excision, and for certain other small cuttings,
I think that I may appeal with a clear conscience for the
pardon that editors are wont to demand.
C. OMAN.
OXFORD, September 1902.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
DONAT HENCHY O^BRIEN was born in County Clare during
the month of March 1785. Of his odd combination of
names, the first was one common in the sept of the
O'Briens since the earliest ages : it has nothing to do with
St. Donatus, as the casual reader might suppose, but re-
presents the old Erse Donough or Donoght. 1 His second
name came from his mother, a Miss Henchy, sister of
Counsellor Fitz-Gibbon Henchy, a Dublin lawyer of some
repute in his day. Of Donaf s father we find nothing
more in O'Byrne's Naval Biography than the character-
istically Hibernian statement that "he was descended
from one of the ancient monarchs of Ireland."
Donat O'Brien entered the navy on 16th December
1796, when only eleven, starting even younger than the
average of the midshipmen of those hard days. Appar-
ently he owed his introduction to the service to Captain
(afterwards Rear- Admiral) Edward Walpole Brown, whom
he styles " his early patron." His first vessel was the
Overyssel (64), a Dutch line-of-battle ship which had been
1 The most celebrated bearers of the name were Douogh
O'Brien, King of Thomond (1208-1244), and Earl Donough O'Brien
(1577-1624), one of Queen Elizabeth's few Irish loyalists and a noted
lighter in her behalf.
ix
xii BIOGRAPHY OF CAPTAIN O'BRIEN
men named Ashworth and Tuthill. After making their
way through countless dangers as far as Etaples on the
coast of Picardy, they were seized by douaniers when
actually in sight of the sea and the English cruisers in the
Channel. Their status being soon discovered, they were
sent back to prison, after an Odyssey which had lasted
from the 28th of August to the 18th of September 1807.
After recapture O'Brien and his companions were told
off for confinement in the mountain -fort of Bitche, a
bleak fastness in the Vosges, appropriated to refractory or
undesirable prisoners of war. While on their journey
thither, escorted by mounted gendarmes, the prisoners had
a chance of escape they made a sudden dash for a
neighbouring wood and ran for their lives. In their
flight they soon lost sight of each other, and, while the
others were recaptured, O'Brien got away. He made for
the nearest neutral frontier, that of Austria, and nearly
reached his goal. After passing the Rhine, crossing the
Black Forest, and working far into Bavaria, he was
arrested on suspicion at Lindau on the Lake of Constance.
It was soon discovered that he was an escaped English
prisoner, and the Bavarian Government sent him back
under escort to France. His second futile attempt to
escape had covered the period from 15th November to
30th November 1807.
His two desperate dashes for freedom secured O'Brien
a place in the most miserable subterranean casemate of
Bitche. Nevertheless, after a year's captivity this un-
daunted master's mate once more escaped this time in
company with a midshipman named Hewson, a dragoon
officer named Batley, and a surgeon named Barklimore.
Having constructed a rope, they let themselves down from
BIOGRAPHY OF CAFPAIN O'BRIEN xiii
the three concentric walls of Bitche, a height of 200 feet
in all, and got clear away.
This time fortune was with O'Brien. He and two of
his companions (the third. Captain Batley, fell ill at
Rastadt and had to be left behind) crossed South
Germany in safety, and reached the Austrian frontier not
many miles from Salzburg. The local officials politely
acquiesced in a transparent fiction by which the fugitives
pretended to be Americans, and allowed them to proceed
to Trieste, where they were picked up by a boat of the
A?nphioji, one of O'Brien's old ships. The third voyage of
this much-travelled man had lasted from 15th September
to 7th November 1808.
We need not linger over his service in the Mediterranean
on the Amphion, Warrior, and Bacchante. Suffice it to
say that he became a lieutenant on 29th March 1809, and
was promoted to the rank of commander on 22nd January
1813. He had seen much service during these four years,
and had once been severely wounded in an unsuccessful
attempt to board and capture a Venetian trdbaccolo off
Trieste. The most important action in which he was
engaged was Commodore Hoste's victory off Lissa on
13th March 1811.
On being promoted to the rank of commander, O'Brien
had to return to England, no ship being available for him
in the Mediterranean. He arrived at Portsmouth on
4th October 1813, and took for some months a well-earned
holiday. He was in hopes of seeing service against the
Americans, but the times were unpropitious. Both the
Napoleonic and the American wars were coming to an end,
and, like so many other energetic naval and military men,
O'Brien found himself placed on half-pay in 1814.
b
xiv BIOGRAPHY OF CAPTAIN O'BRIEN
He only had one more turn of service afloat, in
command of the Slaney, a 20-gun sloop, which cruised on
the South American station from 1818 to 1821. The rest
of his life he was still only thirty-six years of age was
spent in enforced retirement : in the thirties and forties
the navy was kept low, and there was little prospect of
work for the half-pay captain.
On 28th June 1825 O'Brien married Hannah, youngest
daughter of John Walmsley of Castle Mere, Lancashire, by
whom he became the father of a large family, seven
children in all. Two years after, he took his wife for a
long tour round northern France, to show her the places
of his imprisonments and escapes. It was this revisiting
of old scenes that caused him to write the book which we
have here reprinted. But he did not publish it till 1839,
when it appeared, dedicated by permission to the young
Queen Victoria. He had, however, already put out long
before a shorter narrative of his escape, from which the
two -volume book of 1839 was expanded. It had ap-
peared in the Naval Chronicle for the years 1812-15, in
the strange form of sixteen " Naval Bulletins " addressed
to no less a person than the Emperor Napoleon. The
dedication of this original draft deserves reproduction it
runs as follows :
"As your Imperial Majesty has long delighted in the
compilation of endless Bulletins, as they are styled, in
which truth and candour are never suffered to appear, it
may perhaps amuse you, during some of these pauses which
occasionally occur in your systematic destruction and
humiliation of your fellow-creatures, to be enabled to hear
a little truth, and to trace the manner in which such a
humble individual as myself bade defiance to your persecu-
BIOGRAPHY OF CAPTAIN O'BRIEN xv
tions, and has at length returned to his duty as a naval
officer, notwithstanding all the dungeons, fetters, and
insults which distinguished your reign of despotism.""
The last of the " Naval Bulletins " appeared in the same
number of the Naval Chronicle as a narrative by Henry
Ash worth, one of the companions of O'Brien's first escape.
From this, an incomplete story, which Ashworth did not
survive to finish, certain parts of O'Brien's tale can be
corroborated and expanded.
O'Brien was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral on
8th March 1852. He survived five years more, and died
on 13th May 1857 at Yew House, Hoddesdon, in his
seventy-third year.
The not very flattering portrait of him which we have
reproduced as our frontispiece was drawn by J. Pelham
and engraved by J. Brown for the book of 1839.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE . . v
BIOGRAPHY OF CAPTAIN O'BRIEN . ix
CHAPTER I
The Hussar Frigate is sent home with Despatches, and wrecked on
the Saintes Efforts to save the Ship Attempt to escape in the
Boats foiled hy bad Weather A Surrender to the Enemy.
Pagel
CHAPTER II
A kind Reception by the Enemy Our Shipmates all Prisoners
Consolations under Misfortunes Prisoners sent to the Hospital
at Brest Robbery by a French Seaman Running the Gauntlet
Dilemma of wearing or giving up a Sword Kindness of the
French Nuns Orders to march into the Interior Wounded
Pride and Hard Fare Bad Faith of the Minister of Marine
The March begins for Verdun Arrival at Landernau Aristo-
cratic Differences in Rates of Pay or Allowances amongst Re-
publicans Landiviziau An Illustration of Equality Morlaix
to Rennes Prisoners and Vermin Vitre English Dogs at a
French Inn Laval A Spectacle for the Mob Alencon
Difficulties increased Part of the Crew separated from their
Officers Our Arrival at Rouen An honest Gaoler and his
amiable Wife A moderate Bill for Gaol Fare Sons Gar?ons
in a Prison Our Arrival at Amiens English Sympathy for
suffering Countrymen ..... Page 7
xviii CONTENTS
CHAPTER III
Departure from Amiens Arrival at Albert Our French Officer's
Delicacy and Liberality A Civic Feast at Bapaume Effects of
Champagne on French Aldermen A Separation from our kind
Conductor A New Escort A forced March to Cambray
Pitiable State and severe Sufferings of the Seamen Entrance
into Cambray Imprisonment Landrecies, A vesnes, Hirson A
Billet upon the Inhabitants Rocroy A brutal Landlord The
Robbery and Abuse of Prisoners Givet Charlemont A De-
scription of the Fortifications An Escape of Prisoners A
fruitless Pursuit Generosity of the French Commandant
Private Lodgings A Jacobin Landlady Exhausted Funds
The 4th of June Honours done to King George the Third's
Birthday Roast Beef and Plum Pudding French Terrors of
Insurrection The Difference between taking off and only
touching Hats in saluting Men in Authority Good News A
joyful Departure in a cart for Verdun . . Page 20
CHAPTER IV
Our Arrival at Verdun A joyful Reception General Wiriou His
Indulgence towards the Prisoners The Meetings of old Ship-
mates and Friends Mental Employment the best Antidote
against Ennui and Dissipation Restiveness at Confinement
Anxiety to be again in the Active Service of Old England
Meditations upon an Escape Contrivances to avoid a Breach
of Parole or any Breach of Honour Three Comrades or Com-
pagnons de Voyage Scaling Ramparts A Descent of Seventy-
two Feet The Open Country The March commences Flying
by Night, and hiding in Woods by Day Heavy Rains, Dismal
Roads, and Swampy Beds, with Bad Fare and Good Hearts
Leaping a Moat A Dislocated Knee The March resumed, and
pursued lamely The Town of Neuville Extreme Sufferings
from Thirst Water at length procured, Anguish allayed, and
the Escape proceeded upon with renewed Spirits . Page 43
CHAPTER V
The Journey pursued A Bivouac in a Wood Dangers of being
Shot Making free with an Orchard Crossing the Oise A
Mode of obtaining Provisions A Cabaret and a Village Fete
CONTENTS xix
Kindness of the Peasantry Petit Essigny Wringing drenched
Garments, and Drying them over fading Embers A miserable
Landlord A Change of Quarters Luxuries of a Hay-loft A
Samaritan of a Hostess Wretched Sufferings of Mr. Essel
Resort to another Village A kind Landlord Sympathies for
Deserters "A Fellow-feeling makes Men wondrous Kind"
The Luxuries of a Clean Bed Resort to another Village A
motherly Hostess A lucky Road-acquaintance Virtue and
Happiness in humble Life The charitable Baker Dangers
from Sportsmen to Gentlemen hiding in Woods Mr. Essel's
Illness disappearing Increased Speed not always safe to
Fugitives Coldness of the Weather An hospitable Farmer
A French Harvest - home Hesdiu Neuville Etaples
Turned out of a Straw Bed A new Inn, with a Gendarme in
Disguise in the Kitchen Bribing a Landlord No Boat to be
had An old Shepherd too cunning for a young Lieutenant and
Midshipmen Extreme Difficulties High Hopes Despond-
ency and Resources . . . . . Page 63
CHAPTER VI
A False Direction and an Appalling Repulse A Bribe refused A
Deluge, and Shelter in a Barn A fatal Resolution Dangers
of Fugitives journeying by Daylight A Market-day at Etaples
Passing through Crowds not very convenient for runaway
Prisoners of War An Attempt to reach the Sand-hills on the
Coast A Bold Progress through a Despicable Village The
last House Parching Thirst, and begging for a Draught of
Water An Acquiescence or Reply in the shape of two Custom-
house Officers Our Capture A clever Fiction well devised,
better sustained, and totally defeated Getting rid of suspicious
Goods An Examination before the Mayor Americanism and
the American Gentleman An awkward Exposure A Mittimus
to Boulogne Gaol An Examination of our Persons and Clothes
Our Fate sealed and Hope destroyed . . Page 90
CHAPTER VII
Our Entrance into the Gaol of Boulogne Tantalising Sight of Old
England's Flag and white Cliffs A Gaoler's Supper and a con-
scientious Bill Another Examination The Route to Verdun
xx CONTENTS
Arras The Gaoler kind, arid the Commandant full of Indul-
gence Bapaume The Baker, and Inquiries for our lost Money
Cambray Cateau-Cambresis and its horrible Dungeon
Landrecies Our Awkwardness in Chains, Handcuffs, and Fetters
My Dislike to them Avesnes Information that we were to
be Shot The Dungeon of Avesnes A dungeon Companion who
had killed and cut up both his Parents A Night of Horrors
and Lunacy Hirsou, a Town without a Gaol, but with a Dun-
geon A Supper and its Consequences The Discovery of our
Implements of Escape Maubert Fontaine A new Dungeon
and a Fellow-prisoner Reciprocal Services A novel Mode of
hiding Pistol-barrels Chaining Prisoners to a Cart Mezieres
Arrival at Verdun Separated from my Companions Reflec-
tions on being Shot A close Examination Questioned in
relation to Buonaparte Allowed to join my old Associates
Another Cross-examination A Recommittal to Prison Our
Fate determined The Dungeon of Bitche The Rev. Lancelot
C. Lee, a detenu His Generosity . . . Page 100
CHAPTER VIII
Our Departure from Verdun for Bitche Mars-la-Tour, Metz,
and Sarrelouis I receive a useful Present from Mr. Brown
Sarreguemines A last Chance A mounted Guard
Thoughts of an Escape Calculations upon a Chase in a Wood
between Horse-soldiers and Prisoners on Foot Attempt
resolved upon Signal given Flight from the Prison Caravan
to the Wood French Pursuit A Prisoner recaptured My
Escape from the Wood into another My Companions, I fear,
less fortunate My Concealment A swampy Bed and a stormy
Sky, with a Torrent of Rain, for a Canopy A prospective
Flight of nearly 800 Miles The Misery of a fruitless Search
for lost Companions Feeding on Haws, and herding with
Quadrupeds and Vermin A Hut discovered Hunger compels
me to enter A Compromise, a Bribe, Female Advocacy, and
an Escape On the Road to the Rhine A Preparation to sell
Life dearly A narrow Escape Living on Cabbage-Stalks and
raw Turnips Bad Feet and worse Health A lonely House
near a Wood Strong Temptations to Enter A brutal Host,
extreme Danger, and a narrow Escape Bad Specimens of
Human Nature ... . Page 116
CONTENTS xxi
CHAPTER IX
inclement Season A Retreat in a Cavern Somnambulism
The Discovery of a Shepherd's Hut A Traveller put out of a
wrong Road Swimming in a Winter's Night Passing through
a Mill A suspicious Traveller may be an honest Man A
Lorraine Cottage seen through a Fog Dangers from over-kind
People Repugnance to be introduced to a Mayor or any other
good Society Concealment in a hollow Willow An honest
Fellow-traveller of fugitive Reminiscences An ingenious
Fiction A Perspective of Strasbourg . . Page 131
CHAPTER X
Fhe Banks of the Rhine Contemplations on crossing the River
irregularly Difficulties of finding a legal Passage Mistaking
two armed Officers for two harmless Fishermen An appeal to
Feelings, and a national Assurance of Patriotism Cattle cross-
ing the Bridge of Kehl An Intermixture with the Cattle, and
a Passage over the Rhine Joy of being out of France A
Progress towards Friburg Contrast between a warm Feather-
bed and bivouacking in the Mud An innocent Landlord
clever at a Guess An Escape round Friburg A Night's Rest
En route to Constance A Village Inn A Countryman for
a Waiter, and a long Gossip upon Personal Histories and
Native Places The Inconsistencies of Superstition and Hunger
My Approach to Constance Effects on the Mind produced
by its magnificent Scenery and beautiful Lake Crossing
a Branch of Lake Constance Leaving the Kingdom of
Wiirtemberg and entering the Kingdom of Bavaria A Night's
rest in a Bavarian Village La route to Lindau Out-marching
an Enemy The Gate to Lindau Successfully passing the
Sentinels Elation of Spirits An awkward Querist Unsuc-
cessful Invention A Capture Examination and Imprisonment
Bitter Reflections upon my cruel Destiny . Page 146
CHAPTER XI
A fresh Incarceration Stripping a Prisoner naked a more effectual
detainer than Chains and Padlocks Hopes of Escape prove
delusive Gaol Surgery and Gaol Diet A timely Loan of
xxii CONTENTS
Books A short Visit from a Swiss Captive Orders to prepare
for a Return to France A heavy Chain and huge Padlock
The Mob at Liudau Leave-taking between a Prisoner and the
Gaoler and Gaoler's Wife the Road to France Going to Bed
in Chains Strict Watching Chances of a Rescue Anticipa-
tions of the Horrors of Bitche Commiseration of my Guards
Crossing the Bridge of Kehl A Surrender to the French
Gendarmes Captivity in the Military Gaol of Strasbourg A
kind Gaoler and as kind a Wife His Gratitude for English
Kindness when a Prisoner of War Examined by the Police
Affectionate leave-taking of the honest Gaoler and his Wife
On the Road to Bitche heavily chained to Eleven Corsicans
going to suffer Military Execution The horrible Dungeon of
Niederbronn A revolting Night's Confinement Dreadful
Sufferings of two of the Corsican Soldiers Distant Prospects of
Bitche Anticipations of a cruel Confinement Arrival at the
Fortress ...... Page 174
CHAPTER XII
Conjectures of the Prisoners as to my Country and Crimes Infer-
ences from my Chains that I had committed Murder Mr.
Ashworth and Mr. Tuthill, with Mr. Baker, rejoin me
Lieutenant Essel dashed to Pieces in attempting to descend the
Ramparts of Bitche My Grief at his Death The immense
Height of the Ramparts My Horrible Dungeon Its revolting
State of Filth Interview with the Commandant An Applica-
tion to be allowed to take the Air granted for Two Hours a Day