HERITAGE


In 1800, having taken command of the brig


sloop HMS Speedy, we get the fi rst inklings of Cochrane’s tactical genius. Approached by a Spanish warship disguised as a merchant vessel, Cochrane fi rstly fl ew the Danish fl ag and then claimed the ship was suffering from an outbreak of plague to prevent boarding. That night, he placed a lantern on a barrel and let it fl oat away as a decoy; the Spanish vessel followed the false lights and Cochrane escaped. In this period, Cochrane –who meticulously


planned all battles – captured, destroyed or ran aground 53 French ships, earning him the nick- name Le Loup des Mers, The Sea Wolf. His most notable feat was to capture the xebec frigate El Gamo, although outnumbered fi ve to one. The capture depended on the Speedy’s better manoeuvrability; hugging close to the El Gamo to prevent them using their cannons and then moving away swiftly when they attempted to board and fi ring on the boarding parties. Cochrane entered parliament


in 1807,


although he stood on a pro-Reform agenda the year before in one of the very rotten boroughs, Honiton, he hoped to eradicate. Typically, he did not bribe the voters in 1806, but revealed in


86 WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK


1816 he paid voters a guinea each the next time round. Cochrane’s popularity was such that William Cobbett,


the crusading anti-


corruption campaigner, considered standing in Honiton but withdrew to allow Cochrane a clear run. In parliament, Cochrane criti- cised Admiral Gambier, his


incompetence at the


claiming Battle


of the Basque Roads prevented Cochrane’s wholesale destruction of the French fl eet. Gambier demanded a court-martial into himself to disprove the allegation and won, after which the Admi- ralty viewed Cochrane even more sceptically. Certain individuals must have been delighted


when he became implicated in the 1814 Great Stock Exchange Fraud. An essay in Dickens’ Household Words describes it succinctly. Spec- ulating on the origin of the word ‘cock’ for ‘a tale of news having no foundation whatever in fact’, he wrote ‘[does it] spring from the famous political hoax in which Lord Cochrane was said to have been implicated...for stock-jobbing purposes [they] gave out Bonaparte to have been torn to pieces by Cossacks’.


Top: Cochrane’s statue in Culross. Above: Engraving by James Ramsay. Above centre: His capture of the El Gamo in 1801 caused a sensation. Far right: After his conviction, Cochrane is lampooned: this cartoon is called ‘Things as they have been; things as they now are’


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