Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 57.djvu/253

 but the Rainbow had not been able to prove the value of her armament. Trollope was very anxious to try it against a 74-gun ship, but no opportunity offered, and the Rainbow was paid off at the peace.

Trollope's distinguished success in command of cruising vessels during the war had placed him in easy circumstances, and for the next eight years he lived in a pleasant freehanded manner at a country house in Wales. In the Spanish armament of 1790 he was appointed to the Prudente of 38 guns, and, on her being paid off when the dispute with Spain was settled, he was moved to the Hussar, in which he went out to the Mediterranean. He returned to England early in 1792, and again retired into Wales, where he stayed till, in 1795, he was appointed to the Glatton, one of six Indiamen which had been bought into the service and were ordered to be fitted as ships of war, with an armament of carronades. Guided by his former experience of carronades, Trollope proposed a special method of fitting them in the Glatton, and persuaded Lord Spencer to allow it, notwithstanding the objections of the navy board, on the grounds that the new method would take very much longer, and the ships were wanted at once. Trollope pledged his word that, if he were allowed a free hand, he would have the Glatton ready as soon as the others; and, assisted by a capable foreman, lent him by Mr. Wells, who had built the ship, he had her ready and at the Nore nearly a month before any of the others. What was of still more importance, the Glatton proved an effective ship of war; her fellows were quite unserviceable, and were used only as transports.

For the next two years the Glatton formed one of the North Sea fleet, then under the command of Admiral Duncan, and was frequently employed on detached service, watching the enemy's coast. On 14 July 1796 she sailed by herself from Yarmouth to relieve one of the ships then off the Texel, and the following afternoon off Helvoetsluys ‘engaged and drove into port a squadron of six sail of frigates, large brig, and cutter; and thereby, in the estimation of Earl Spencer, then first lord of the admiralty, and of various departments of the commercial interests of London and other corporations, most effectually insured the safety of upwards of three hundred sail of British merchantmen on their passage from the Baltic under convoy of a sloop of war’ (Memorial; cf., i. 372–377; , iii. 41–2). The action has often been referred to as a striking proof of the great power of the Glatton's armament; but this can scarcely be admitted in view of our uncertainty as to the force of the French squadron, the fact that Trollope always asserted that the Glatton was equal to any 74-gun ship, and our doubt as to whether an average seventy-four would not have more effectively disposed of the French frigates. Trollope, however, won great credit by his conduct on this occasion; he was presented by the merchants of London with a piece of plate value a hundred guineas, with another by the Russia company, and with the freedom of the boroughs of Huntingdon and Yarmouth.

In May 1797, when the mutiny broke out in the fleet, the men of the Glatton mustered on deck and told Trollope that, though they were perfectly satisfied with him and the other officers, they must do as the other ships did, and were resolved to go to the Nore. Trollope obtained leave to go on board the flagship to see the admiral, and agreed with him that there was no way of preventing the ship sailing, but that he was to do what he could to prevent her going to the Nore. It so happened that she was becalmed off Harwich, and, anchoring there for the night, Trollope succeeded, after arguing with them for four hours, in bringing the men back to their duty. The next day, 2 June, when the anchor was weighed, Trollope took the ship to the Downs, where he found the Overyssel of 64 guns and the Beaulieu of 50 in open mutiny. By a threat of firing into them, he succeeded in persuading these two ships also to return to their duty; and on the following day he sailed to join Duncan off the Texel, where he received a letter from Lord Spencer, expressing his entire approval of his conduct, and appointing him to the command of the Russell.

In the Russell he continued for the following months, almost without intermission, on the coast of Holland, watching the Dutch fleet. When they put to sea on 7 Oct. he immediately despatched a lugger to the admiral with the news, and on the 11th joined the fleet in time to take an effective part in the battle of Camperdown. When the fleet returned to the Nore the king signified his intention of visiting it there, and Trollope, as the senior captain, was appointed to the Royal Charlotte yacht to bring him from Greenwich. The king accordingly embarked on 30 Oct.; but the wind came dead foul, and after two days the yacht had got no further than Gravesend. He therefore gave up the idea and returned to Greenwich, knighting Trollope on the quarterdeck of the Royal Charlotte before he landed. The accolade conferred ‘under the royal standard’