P R E F A C E.
At length, after six years of unremitting toil, mental and physical, I have succeeded, to the entire exclusion of every other pursuit, in accomplishing an undertaking deemed by all most arduous, by many impracticable; disheartening truly in the perspective, but in the retrospect, a source to me of sincere gratification and, I hope I may add, of honourable pride.
That any apology will be considered necessary for the publication of the present work I cannot believe: it was due to the Service — it was due also to the country. To the country, it was due that it should be made acquainted with the merits, individually, of men to whose collective efforts it is, in the main, indebted for its proud pre-eminence in the scale of nations; and upon whom it must, in days to come, rely in a great measure for its permanent security. To the Profession, it was due that some exertion should be made to furnish a public memorial of the services performed, the dangers braved, the honours attained, and the disappointments suffered, by those who have fought and bled in support of England’s greatness, and who, during a long period of peace, have equally maintained her dignity, afforded protection to her commerce, and in every way guarded her interests.
Should any explanation, however, be looked for of the causes which have induced a civilian, previously unconnected with the Service, to embark in such an undertaking, the only excuse I have to offer is, that I perceived the necessity that existed for a book of the kind, and that I determined to attempt to supply it. The degree of success I may have achieved in the performance of my self-imposed task, it is not for me to estimate; but I can venture to claim credit for the most earnest zeal, the most unwearied industry, and the most undeviating impartiality in the prosecution of my labours.
The following pages will be found to comprise an account, more or less detailed, of nearly five thousand officers, including all those now deceased, (in number upwards of six hundred,) whose names are contained in the ‘Navy List’ for January, 1845. I have not the presumption to anticipate that I have, in every case, afforded satisfaction. He would, indeed, be over confident, and possess but a slight knowledge of human nature, who could for a moment believe that it was in his power to please so vast a number of persons as those who must of necessity be more or less interested in these records. All I can fairly hope, is that the result of my labours may be received with general favour, and that the desire I have felt to do entire justice to my subject may have proved successful to as great an extent as I could be warranted in expecting. A work of this character could not have been compiled without an extensive intercourse with the individuals to whose professional biography it is devoted; and it is with pride I confess my belief that no public writer was ever more honoured with the confidence of a profession than I have been with that of the Navy. With many, however, especially of the younger members, owing to their absence on foreign service, I have not been able to communicate; and some there are who, from a too fastidious feeling of modesty, or from accidental causes, have left me to my own resources. Whenever such difficulties have arisen, I have endeavoured, I trust not unsuccessfully, to overcome them so far as increased activity and perseverance could enable me so to do; and to obtain, from sources hardly less authentic, the materials of which fortuitous circumstances had deprived me. In all cases I have endeavoured to be as correct in my statements and as copious in my details as circumstances would permit.
For whatever errors may have crept, unconsciously on my part, into the memoirs of those who have afforded me information, I can only express my regret, and suggest as an excuse the impossibility, in a work embracing so immense a body of facts, of guarding against occasional inaccuracies. But these I trust and believe will be found to be of rare occurrence. I shall be equally sorry if faults of commission (and faults there must also be of omission) should present themselves in the histories of those who have disregarded the applications which I felt myself bound to make, in duty to them as well as to myself. In the prosecution of my task I have avoided adulation, and I hope that I have in no case rendered myself liable to the charge of having bestowed unmerited praise. I have, indeed, as a general rule, confined myself, in awarding commendation, to the language adopted in public despatches or other official documents; and in accordance with this principle, as well as with a view to rigid accuracy, I have, at no small pains, carefully examined the ‘London Gazettes’; affixing in every instance to a memoir, by way of note, the date and page of the Gazette in which the officer’s name stands recorded; with the single exception of occasions on which the captain of a comparatively large ship has obtained mention through the capture of privateers and letters-of-marque. With regard to Courts-martial, I have, whenever I have found it possible to do so, avoided any reference to them; the advantage to be derived from reviving the details of inquiries of this nature appearing to me anything but obvious; and I hope, for the credit of the Service, there are few, if any, of its members who would desire to enhance their reputation by recalling the errors, often trivial, of their brother officers.
Important as have been the communications I have received from members of the Naval Service, the work would have fallen far short of its present dimensions and completeness had it not been for the cordial support and countenance with which I have been honoured by the Board of Admiralty, who have most obligingly afforded me access to every record in their possession which appeared at all likely to facilitate its progress.
I have but little more to add: few besides myself can conceive the anxiety I feel for the success of an undertaking that has absorbed so many years of labour, and upon which so large an amount of capital has been expended; but I commit it with confidence to the leniency and consideration of the Service, trusting that my readers, mindful of the pains I have taken to satisfy all reasonable expectations in regard to it, and of my earnest endeavour to perform my task conscientiously and correctly, will rather give me credit for, what I have achieved than censure me for what I have not.
I cannot conclude this notice without offering, in the most unequivocal terms, my acknowledgments to the present estimable Secretary of the Admiralty, Captain W. A. B. Hamilton, for the public-spirited manner in which he entered, from the date of my earliest application to him, into my views; and for the kindness with which he made known my intentions to his venerable predecessor Sir John Barrow, and after his own accession to office extended to me every facility for acquiring information. The memory of Sir John Barrow, too, I must ever revere, for the attention I experienced from him during the latter part of his official life, and for the sympathy he expressed, and the interest he appeared personally to take, in my labours. To my valued friend John Barrow, Esq., Keeper of the Records of the Admiralty, I owe more than I can well express. I could indeed scarcely find words adequate to convey my sense of the indefatigable assistance I have received at his hands through out the progress of the work, and of the benefits I have at all times derived from his experience and his highly-prized advice.
Independently of the Admiralty, I have reason to feel gratified by the courtesy which has been exhibited towards me by members of other departments of the public service; and to no one am I more bound by obligation, and it is with heartfelt pride and pleasure I record it, than I am to William George Anderson, Esq., the Assistant Paymaster-General, both for the aid which his official position has enabled him to render me, and for the acts of personal kindness by which they have been accompanied.
It would be unjust to terminate this series of grateful acknowledgments without mentioning the aid I have received from a member of my own family, my brother, Robert Henry O’Byrne, author of the ‘Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland’; to whose affectionate zeal and energetic exertions I am indebted not only for the compilation of the greater part of the Appendix, but for the collection of a large portion of the details on which the work is founded.