40 NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2009
● Peruvians destroy their own ship, the Union, to prevent it falling into
Chilean hands – one of the many watercolours by Rudolph de Lisle
(The colour of) war and peace
THESE days a sizeable proportion of
attended society balls and observed battle – and Surprise (Conway, £30 ISBN 978-18448-60746). – “painting men” as FitzRoy called them. It is their
the Chilean Navy can trace its roots to
its aftermath (he painted the battle of Chorillos in The fi ctional Surprise is the star (alongside Jack work which is the superb ‘backbone’ of this work.
British shipyards.
January 1881 with particular fl air). Aubrey) of Patrick O’Brian’s novels. The real Surprise Charles Darwin is a name every biology student in
That battle saw the Peruvians routed, followed spent six years in the service of the Crown between the world knows. Beyond naval circles, the man who
But the RN’s ties with the South American nation
by by rape and pillage by the Chileans who razed the 1796 and 1802, after being seized from the French. led Beagle on her groundbreaking voyage, Robert
go back more than two centuries (they name a
towwn,n killed every Peruvian, young or old, man or FitzRoy, has rather been eclipsed – and not merely
ship for Cochrane to this day).
And it is the real frigate to which most of this
wowoman,man,ma they found, they fou then began fi ghting tiing among ng among among becbecause of ause of
And while the Senior Service enjoyed the
excellentexcellent collaboracollabo tion is devoted. because of his passenger’fhis s scientifi c genius.
yed the
excellent col
height of Pax Victoriana, Chile, Peru and u and d
thethemselvhemselvm es ues until they’d killed 200 men in 00 men in But itBut it’t’s ts the insights into the wthe way a y a DarDarwin wrwin as also a prolifi c writer – books,
Bolivia locked horns over the ownerrship shiphip
ththeir owwn ranksn . leadileading maring itime artist w works orks letlettertterss, diaries. FitzRoy was not – and so
of rich mineral resources which straddled dddled
“T“The scenes inside nnside whicwwhich are particularly ccularly mumuch of our knowledge of Beagle’s
the countries’ borders.
CChorillos are beyond nnd fafascinating. Hunt’uunt’s vovoyage comes from the civilian,
The result was war – and wwaar on r onn
ddescription, the ee ddevotion to his subject eect rather than the sailor.
land spilled over into war at sea sea
mmen rushing about isis admirable: he uses ess FitzRoy was also not an easy man
(largely between Chile and Peru).
mamaddened with ad thethe ship’s plans to to tto get on with. The two frequently
For two years, Lt Rudolph
fi g ghting and liquor,htih ng builuild scale models, ququaruarrreled (although the naval offi cer
de Lisle watched the two South
buburning and destroninn g ying gaathethers all the quiquickly calmed doickly wn), but above all,
American navies fi ght from the
thethe whole place, whwhh ” de Lisle liteliteraerature of the natu vies FitzRFitzRoRoyy quarreled with the Admiralty,
privileged vantage point of HMS MS
wrowrote.rote. of thof the dahe day he can, matches railingrailing ag at them for asking him to do the
Shannon.
The The Peruvians were no less o less contemcontemporarmpo y liveries and nnd impossiimpossible – without,ible of course, paying for it.
De Lisle kept a fairly comprehensivnsive die diariaryy
ruuthlessthless. As their army crumbled,mmbled, the the makes makes copious notes and sketches copc eetches “This “This SurSu vey has indeed done me more
which, on its own, presents a fascinating insight into ing insight ht into
peopeople revple revolted… and sacked their oedd their od their owwn n (some reprod(some(some reproduced here) before tackling rep e tackling harm in evveerryy way than it is easy to believe,” he
a (pretty brutal) war and the RN of the dahe day.
capital, Lima, Lim in particular its Chinese quarhinese quarter. the fi nal paintipainting. fumed in Chile fdfumed in Chile in 1834.iCh “I have lost by it health,
What lifts it into another league, however, is the the
“h“Anyone who ventured out into the streets was After all this blood and guts, how nice to pick up nice to pick up timetime, money and frmoney and iends.”
wealth of fi ne paintings, splendidly reproduced in in received with a shower of bullets.”
a more relaxing volume, again adorned with copious ‘This Survey’ would, in time, give birth to that
colour alongside the journal in The Royal Navy and The battles fought by HMS Surprise were, illustrations.
book – a book which FitzRoy detested.
the Peruvian-Chilean War 1879-1881 (Pen & Sword, mercifully, rather less bloody. Her career is equally James Taylor’s Voyage of the Beagle is another
Today he is remembered as the father of the Met
£30 ISBN 978-1844-156528). sumptuously illustrated, however, courtesy of the impressive volume from the Conway stable (£20
Offi ce (he fi nally had a shipping forecast area named
De Lisle painted pretty much everything he brush of Geoff Hunt, arguably the world’s pre- ISBN 978-18448-60661). after him in 2002).
witnessed in South America: the ships, the mountains, eminent maritime artist. Beagle’s voyage would eventually give rise to It was one science Robert FitzRoy embraced. Yet
the wildlife, the ports, the railways, the soldiers, the He has joined forces with the respected (and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (published 150 years he never accepted the fi ndings Darwin drew from
battles, the dead. increasingly prolifi c) Brian Lavery to recount the ago this very year). their legendary voyage, always choosing “to believe
He played cricket (de Lisle wasn’t a bad batsman), ship’s factual – and fi ctional – story in Frigate Darwin aside, Beagle also carried an offi cial artist God rather than Man”.
Peace and a piece of paper
The Bell époque
THE public has a habit of forgetting The only problem was that most far beyond the realm of the clouds. what happened to it after Lindbergh
very quickly. of these ships were far from ready Yet Lindbergh was charmed (or, wrote it.
AS WE begin the centenary year of naval aviation,
How often do we label the Great for war in September 1938. more accurately, hoodwinked) by Wills, who is currently working
how timely it is that the memoirs of one of
War ‘senseless’, the fi ghting in the HMS Ark Royal was still a good the Nazis, and especially Hermann on a biography of the impressive
its pioneers have been reprinted after four
trenches ‘pointless’, ‘butchery’ and few months off commissioning. Göring, who invited him to tour
Capt John Leach, CO of the ill-
decades.
so on? The King George Vs were still German aircraft factories and
fated Prince of Wales, was granted
Richard Bell Davies was one of the first
Yet it was not seen that way being built, new carrier Illustrious airfi elds.
access to key private papers.
of the few – he joined the naval air wing
in November 1918. Victory was wouldn’t be ready until the spruntil the sprpginging With Europe teeterWith E ing
Kennedy’s were severely pruned. before it earned the title Royal Naval
celebrated. Peoples across Europe of 1940. on the bron the brink of war, the
Lindbergh’s were not. They Air Service.
celebrated their independence. And so First Sea Lord Sea Lord AmerAmerriican Ambassador c
show, as conclusively as they can, He was only the second naval
Munich has become a byword Roger Backhouse advised advised in London,in L Joseph
that Chamberlain met Hitler in aviator to earn the Victoria Cross – a
for failed international diplomacy. the government strongly strongly Kennedy (fK ather
September 1938 either having read deed he plays down in his memoirs,
It fed rather than satiated Hitler’s against war as Hitler Hitler of JFK) asked the o
avarice for land. tubthumped for the aviator to compile
a copy of the report, or at the very Sailor in the Air (Seaforth, £9.99
the av
Today we lampoon Chamberlain annexation of the a report on the state
least a précis of it.
ISBN 978-1-84832-0116).
he a rea
and his ‘piece of paper’. In Sudetenland, of the continent’s air
It is impossible to say, of course,
Indeed, Bell Davies has a habit of
offt h
September 1938, however, he was a region of forces.
whether it fundamentally affected
describing most of his accomplishments –
forcees
hailed by the British public for Czechoslovakia History has come to
Chamberlain’s thinking, but he
and their are many – with remarkable sangfroid.
Histort
seemingly averting war. largely inhabited by know it as ‘the Lindbergh
was terrifi ed by the prospect
Ferocious German flak defending U-boats alongside the Mole
y know it as
The RN in the summer and ethnic Germans. report’, a chilling document
of Londoners “lying as prey to
at Zeebrugge, for example, was dismissed as “hullabaloo”
report’, a ch
early autumn of 1938 was if not Chamberlain listened compiled just hours before
bombardment”.
(which managed to shoot the aviator in the thigh...).
tened compiled jus
unprepared for war, then reluctant to Backhouse – and his Chamberlain met Hitler in
Lindbergh grossly over-estimated
Bell Davies was not the first man to land on a carrier at sea
annd his Chamberlain
(that distinction fell to Edwin Dunning, an exploit oddly chosen
to become embroiled in another Army and RAF counterterparttss. September 1938.September 19S b 38.
German strength. The Luftwaffe
as the jacket cover), but he was instrumental in perfecting the
European confl agration. But he also listened to an d Lindbergh wLi db h arned that
never did have the power to raze
In the late 30s, the Senior Service untrained – and often misguided “Germany now has the means
London, Paris or Prague, while
basics of carrier operations as we know them today: launching
and, especially, landing aircraft.
was going through a massive – American observer, perhaps of destroying London, Paris and within six months, Chamberlain’s
Indeed, the island, hooks and arrestor wires are all thanks
expansion and modernisation crucially, as Matthew Wills Prague. For the fi rst time in history, piece of paper was entirely that.
to a series of experiements Bell Davies and his fellow pioneers
programme. shows in The Lindbergh Report a nation has the power either to And so today we view Munich as
conducted in the autumn of 1918. As befits the pioneering days
Politicians hail the current (Authorhouse, £10.99 ISBN 978- save or to ruin the great cities of an out-and-out failure. It delayed
of aviation, it was all rather improvised: sailors would rush out on
investment in the Type 45s and 1434349880). Europe.” war rather than forestall it.
to the deck of HMS Argus and slap down paint at the spot where
future carriers, but it rather pales Charles Lindbergh is best Historians – and the public – But for the Senior Service,
the wheels of Bell Davies’ Sopwith 1½ Strutter touched down.
with the year 1937 when a major remembered as the fi rst man to fl y have known about the report for
that was a blessing. It was in a far
Although he was an airman, Bell Davies was a sailor first;
warship was being laid down or solo across the Atlantic. The fl ight the past 70 years.
stronger position in the autumn of
unlike many contemporaries, he refused to transfer to the RAF.
launched every week. brought him fame and infl uence – But what we have not known is
1939 than it was 1938.
0040-041_NN_Feb.indd 140-041_NN_Feb.indd 1 220/1/09 10:11:180/1/09 10:11:18
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