Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/359

 12 S. IX. OCT. 8, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 293 BOMBERS IN CHARLES II.'S NAVY. (12 S. vi. 271 ; vii. 18.) THERE is a good deal more to be said in reply to E. R.'s inquiry in regard to these boats. The two lists of vessels given by Pepys are summarized in Clowes's 4 Royal Navy,' vii. 248-9, where it appears that the Firedrake, built in 1648, though classed as a bomb-ship, is at p. 328 called a fire-ship, and as such took part in the battle of Bantry Bay in 1689.* These bombers, to which frequent allusion is made in Clowes's work as " bombs " (Fr. bombe), " bomb- vessels " (Fr. bom- barde), " bomb-ketches " (see * N.E.D.,' s.v.) and fire-ships, from the year 1688 dow r n to the Crimean War, owed their importance at the close of the seventeenth century to the ingenuity of a young French engineer, Bernard Renau d'Elisagaray, better known as Petit- Renau, who introduced an entirely new method of coast bombardment in 1679 by placing mortars on the deck of an ordinary ketch or two-masted vessel, forward of the masts. The true fire-ships, on the other hand, were generally old hulks filled with explosives, which were manoeuvred so as to drift toward an enemy vessel or fleet, station- ary or at anchor, and were first used effectually by the Dutch at the siege of Antwerp in 1585 in blowing up the Duke of Parma's bridge over the Scheldt, when the Duke narrowly escaped death ; and afterwards in 1588 by Drake in a modified form as fire-ships with which the ships of the Spanish Armada at Calais and Gravelines were damaged and dispersed ; but their em- ployment was only possible under favourable weather conditions, as otherwise they did frequently as much injury to friend as to foe. Renau's bomb-ketch had a greater width of beam in proportion to its length than was usual in such craft, and as the one or two mortars which it carried had to be fired with a greater trajectory than is required on shore, their barrel was larger and con- siderably heavier than in a land mortar. The mortar was fixed on a strong emplace- ment, below which most of the hold down to the keel was filled with old cables cut into lengths so as to afford elasticity to the " cushee-piece " invented by Richard Leake (see ' D.N.B.,' vol. xxxii., p. 317, s.v. Leake, Sir John). boat after the gun vas discharged. The following description of this precursor of the modern gunboat is given in Falconer's ' Marine Dictionary '(1815), p. 51: BOMB-KETCH (galiote a bombes, Fr.), a vessel built and strengthened with large beams and equipped with two masts, the main and mizen masts, usually from 100 to 250 tons burden, for the use of mortars at sea. The bomb-ketch is therefore furnished with all the apparatus necessary for a vigorous bombardment. Bomb-ketches are built remarkably strong, being fitted with a greater number of riders than any other vessel of war : see Plate IV., fig. 18 ; and indeed this reinforcement is absolutely neces- sary to sustain the violent shock produced by the discharge of their mortars, which would other- wise in a very short time shatter them to pieces. The modern bomb-vessels carry two 10-inch mortars, from 68-pounders, and six 18-pounder carronades ; and the mortars may be fired at as low an angle as 20 degrees ; though these mortars are not intended to be used at sea but on very particular occasions, their principal in- tention at these low angles being to cover the landing, of troops and protect our coasts and harbours. A bomb-ketch is generally from sixty to seventy feet long from stem to stern, and draws eight or nine feet of water. The tender is gene- rally a brig, on board of which the party of artillery remain till their services are required on board the bomb-vessel. A cut of one of these boats is given on p. 249, vol. ii., of Clowes's book, where it is stated : " The bomb-ketch became, after the Revolution (1688), a feature in almost every English fleet." To return to Renau. His design having been approved by the French Admiralty as well as by Vauban, the French Fleet in the Mediterranean was forthwith furnished by Colbert with a number of these galiotes ; and it was owing to their presence at the bombardment of Algiers in 1682 that the famous Admiral Duquesne was at length able to destroy the fortifications of that nest of pirates and compel the Bey to submit to terms. Referring to this event Falconer says (s.v. ' Bomb-vessel,' p. 50) : "Till then (1682) it had been judged impracticable to bom- bard a place from the sea." Never did the prowess of the French navy stand higher than at this date. N. W. HILL. GENTLEMEN- PENSIONERS, 1684 (12 S. ix. 249). The Band of Gentlemen-Pen- sioners is the oldest corps in England, with the exception of the Yeomen of the Guard. It was instituted in 1509 by Henry VIII. , and was originally composed entirely of gentlemen of noble blood. William IV.
 * On this occasion she was armed with the