MEMOIRS OF

GEORGE BYNG, LORD TORRINGTON,

ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE, &c.

GEORGE BYNG, Lord Viscount Torrington, rearadmiral of Great Britain, was descended from an ancient family in the county of Kent, and was born in the year 1663. 1663. At the At the age of fifteen, he went to sea, a volunteer, with the king's warrant, which was given him at the recommendation of the duke of York. In 1681, he quitted the sea service, upon the invitation of General Kirk, governor of Tangiers, and served as a cadet in the grenadiers of that garrison; but a vacancy soon happening, the general made him ensign of his own company, and, not long after, a lieutenant. In 1684, after the demolition of Tangiers, he was appointed lieutenant of the Orford; from which time he continued in the sea service. The next year he went a lieutenant of the Phoenix, to the East Indies, where he engaged and boarded a Zinganian pirate, who maintained a most desperate fight, insoinuch that most of those who entered with him were slain, and he himself was severely wounded; and the pirate sinking, he was taken out of the sea, with hardly any remains of life. In the memorable year 1688, Mr. Byng being first lieutenant to Sir John Ashby, in the fleet commanded by the earl of Dartmouth, and fitted out to oppose the designs of the prince of Orange, was particularly entrusted and employed in the intrigues then carrying on among the most considerable officers of the fleet, in favour of that prince, and was the person they chose to send with their secret assurances of obedience to his highness; to whom he was privately introduced at Sherborne, by Admiral Russel, afterwards earl of Orford,

Upon his return to the fleet, the earl of Dartmouth sent him, with two captains, to carry a message of submission to the prince, at Windsor, and made him captain of a fourth rate man of war. In 1690, he was advanced to the command of the Hope, a third rate, and was second to Sir George Rooke in the battle off Beachy Head. After this he was captain of the Royal Oak, and served under Admiral' Russel, commander-in-chief of his Majesty's fleet. In 1693, that great officer distinguished him in a particular manner, by promoting him to the rank of his first captain; in which station he served two years in the Mediterranean. Upon the breaking out of the war in the year 1702, he accepted the command of the Nassau, a third rate, and was at the taking and burning of the French fleet at Vigo. In the following year he was made rear-admiral of the red, and served in the fleet commanded by Sir Cloudesley Shovel in the Mediterranean; under which great admiral he served again, in 1704, in the grand fleet that was sent into the same sea in search of the French; and it was he who commanded the squadron that cannonaded Gibraltar with such vigour and effect, as obliged the Spaniards to quit their posts, and thereby enabled the seamen, who were immediately landed, to make themselves masters of their fortifications; by which exploit the garrison was reduced to a capitulation, and the place taken. The success of this undertaking was entirely owing to the caunonading, which drove the Spaniards from their posts; for the general officers, who viewed the fortifications after the place was in our hands, declared, that they might have been defended by fifty men against as many thousands. In the battle of Malaga, which followed soon after, he acquitted himself so well, that Queen Anne conferred upon him the honour of knighthood, Towards the latter end of this year, Sir George Byng commanded a squadron in the Soundings, and was so successful, as to take twelve of the largest of those

French privateers which had so much annoyed our. trade, together with the Thetis, a French man of war, of 44 guns, and also seven French merchant ships, most of which were richly laden from the West Indies. The number of men taken on board was 2070, and of guns 334. This remarkable success gave such a blow to the French privateers, that it was some time before they dared venture again into the Channel.

In the year 1705, Sir George Byng was made viceadmiral of the blue; and, upon the election of a new parliament, was returned for Plymouth; which place he represented in every succeeding parliament, till the year 1721, when he was created a peer. In the following year, his assistance was extremely useful to Sir John Leake, in relieving Barcelona; and he greatly furthered the other enterprises of that campaign, and particularly the reducing of Carthagena and Alicant. In the beginning of the year 1707, Sir George was ordered, with a strong squadron, to the coast of Spain, for the relief of the army, which was in want of almost every necessary. He accordingly sailed on the 30th of March; but when he arrived off Cape St. Vincent, he received the news of our defeat at the battle of Almanza; and soon after a message was brought to him from Lord Galway, acquainting him with the distress he was in, and desiring, that whatever he had brought for the use of the army, might be carried to Tortosa, in Catalonia, to which place his lordship designed to retreat; at the same time informing him, that, if possible, he would save the sick and wounded men at Denia, Gandia, and Valencia, where it was intended that every thing which could be got together, should be put on board. The admiral having performed this service, and being soon after joined by Sir Cloudesley Shovel from Lisbon, proceeded with him to the coast of Italy, with a fleet of forty-three men of war, and fifty transports, to second Prince Eugene and the duke of Savoy, in the siege of Toulon. In their return home from this

expedition, Sir George narrowly escaped shipwreck, when Sir Cloudesley Shovel was lost; for the Royal Anne, in which he bore his flag, was within a ship's length of the rocks, upon which the other great admiral struck; yet he was fortunately saved by his own presence of mind, and that of his officers and men, who in a minute's time set the ship's top-sails, even when one of the rocks was almost under her main chains. In the year 1708, Sir George was made admiral of the blue, and commanded the squadron that was fitted out to oppose the invasion designed against Scotland by the Pretender, with a French army from Dunkirk. This squadron consisted of twentyfour men of war; with which Sir George Byng and Lo d Dursley sailed from Deal for the French coast; and having anchored in Gravelin Pits, Sir George went into a small frigate, and sailed within two miles of the Flemish Road, and there learned the strength and number of the enemy's ships. On the admiral's anchoring before Gravelin, the French officers laid aside their embarkation; but, upon express orders from court, were obliged to resume it; and accordingly, on the 6th of March, they sailed out of Dunkirk. Sir George, at this time, had been obliged, for security, to go to an anchor under Dungeness; and, in his return to Dunkirk, was informed that the French were sailed, but could get no account of the place of their destination. He was, however, inclined to believe that they were designed for Scotland; whereupon it was resolved, in a council of war, to pursue them to the road of Edinburgh. On the 13th of March, the French were discovered in the Firth of Edinburgh, where they made signals, but to no purpose, and then steered a north-east course, as if they intended to have gone to St. Andrew's. Sir George pursued them, and took the Salisbury, a ship of fifty guns, formerly taken from us; on board of which were several persons of quality, many land and sea officers of great distinction, and five companies of the

regiment of Bearn. After this, Sir George finding it impossible to come up with the enemy, returned with the fleet to Leith, where he continued till he received advice of the French admiral's getting back to Dunkirk, and then proceeded to the Downs, pursuant to his orders. But before he left Leith road, the lord provost and magistrates of Edinburgh, to shew their grateful sense of the important service he had done them, by thus drawing off the enemy before they had time to land their forces, presented him with the freedom of their city in a gold box. Upon his arrival in London, Sir George was most graciously received by the queen, and by his royal highness, Prince George of Denmark, lord high admiral. One would have thought that the defeating of so extraordinary a scheme as this invasion was allowed to be, and the immediate restoring of public credit, which had suffered greatly, should have given entire satisfaction to the nation; but this was so far from being the case, that the admiral had scarcely set his foot in London, before it was whispered, that the parliament would inquire into his conduct. This rumour took its rise from a very foolish persuasion, that having once had sight of the enemy's fleet, he might, if he pleased, have taken every ship of them, as well as the Salisbury; and the persons who first propagated this story, thought fit to add, that Sir George was hindered from taking the French fleet by his ships being foul. This insinuation actually produced an inquiry in the House of Commons, and an address to the queen, desiring her Majesty to direct, that an account might be laid before them, of the number of ships that went on the expedition with Sir George Byng, and when the same were cleaned. Their request being granted, the inquiry ended in a resolution, that the thanks of the house should be given to the prince, as lord high-admiral, for his great care, in so expeditiously setting forth so, great a number of ships, whereby the fleet under Sir George