Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/170

 made lieutenant-colonel, and in 1698 colonel of the second regiment of marines—appointments which his constant service at sea shows to have been honorary, or rather lucrative sinecures. He was also appointed, on 20 April 1693, extra commissioner of the navy, and in March 1699 comptroller of the victualling, an office which he held till 25 Dec. 1704.

On the supersession of Russell, in the autumn of 1692, the command of the fleet was put into commission, and Delavall, Killigrew, and Shovell were appointed ‘joint admirals.’ After the disaster to the Smyrna convoy [see ] the joint admirals were at once superseded; but in the following year Shovell was vice-admiral of the red under Lord Berkeley in the abortive expedition to Camaret Bay, and after Berkeley's return was in command of the squadron off Dunkirk. In 1695 he was again second in command under Berkeley in the attack on St. Malo and Dunkirk, and wrote to Berkeley strongly condemning the ‘machine ships,’ which he considered ‘an invention to swell the projectors' accounts’ [see, third ; , (1653–1702)]. In April 1696 he commanded the squadron which covered the bombardment of Calais. In October he was promoted to be admiral of the blue, and during the rest of the war commanded the fleet in the Channel and off Brest. In 1698 he was returned to parliament as member for Rochester, which he continued to represent in successive parliaments till his death.

In 1699, and again in 1701, he commanded a squadron for the guard of the Channel. On the accession of Queen Anne he was promoted to be admiral of the white, and in October 1702 joined the main fleet under Sir George Rooke, four days after the attack on the combined French-Spanish fleet at Vigo. He was then left by Rooke to bring home the treasure and prizes, a service of some difficulty, considering the disabled state of many of the ships. In 1703 he commanded a squadron in the Mediterranean, and in 1704 was sent out with a large reinforcement to the fleet under Sir George Rooke, whom he joined off Cape St. Mary on 17 June, and afterwards took part in the capture of Gibraltar and in the action off Malaga on 13 Aug., where he commanded the van of the English line. In September he returned to England with Rooke, and on 26 Dec. was appointed rear-admiral of England. On 13 Jan. 1704–5 he was appointed admiral and commander-in-chief of the fleet, to wear the union flag at the main; and on 1 May 1705 was appointed, by special commission, commander-in-chief of the fleet, jointly with the Earl of Peterborough [see, third ]. The fleet sailed from St. Helen's in the end of May, and after a delay of six weeks in the Tagus went on to Barcelona, where, on Peterborough's landing, the conduct of the fleet was left entirely to Shovell, by whose voice, it would appear, the council of war was mainly decided to continue the siege, and who, by landing guns and seamen to work them, largely contributed to the ultimate success. After this Shovell with the greater part of the fleet returned to England, where he remained during most of the following year, although his commission as joint commander-in-chief was renewed on 10 March. It was not till September that he sailed for Lisbon, where on 7 Nov. he was appointed sole commander-in-chief, and a few days later was ordered to carry large reinforcements for the army under the Earl of Galway round to Alicante.

By the middle of March 1707 he was back at Lisbon, but sailed again in the end of April, with orders to co-operate with the Duke of Savoy in a contemplated attack on Toulon. By the end of June he had arrived off Nice and Antibes, and, in consultation with the Duke of Savoy, undertook to drive the enemy out of the works which they had constructed to guard the line of the Var, but which were open in the rear to the fire of the ships. This was effectively done without loss, and the passage for the army opened to Toulon, where they arrived on 15 July. The French had meantime been making every effort for the defence of the place, and the force with the allies proved utterly insufficient. On 10 Aug. they raised the siege and retired into Piedmont, the only gain being the destruction of the enemy's ships of war, most of which the French sank to prevent their being set on fire, and the larger part of them when raised were found to be not worth repairing. Eight such ships, of from sixty to ninety guns, are named by Brun, and two others as having been destroyed by fire. So far as England was concerned the result was decisive, for the French Mediterranean fleet had ceased to exist; and Shovell, having covered the retreat of the allies till they had recrossed the Var, sailed for England.

On 22 Oct. the fleet came into the soundings. The weather was cloudy, there had been a succession of strong westerly winds, and the fleet was set to the north by the action of the current, then not understood, but since known by the name of Rennell, who first