John Cooke (Royal Navy officer)

John Cooke
John Cooke John Cooke
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1776 to 1805
Rank	Royal Navy Captain
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War • Battle of Rhode Island French Revolutionary Wars • Glorious First of June • Capture of Résistance & Constance • Capture of Dédaigneuse Napoleonic Wars • Battle of Trafalgar

For other people named John Cooke, see John Cooke (disambiguation).

Captain John Cooke (1763 – 21 October 1805) was an experienced and highly regarded officer of the British Royal Navy during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the first years of the Napoleonic Wars. Cooke is best known for his death in hand-to-hand combat with French boarders during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. During the action, his command HMS Bellerophon was badly damaged and boarded by sailors and marines from the French ship of the line Aigle. Cooke was killed in the ensuing melee, but his crew successfully drove off their opponents and ultimately forced the surrender of Aigle.

Aside from his death, remarkably little is known of Cooke's circumstances. Even his date of birth is unclear, and unlike many of his fellow officers, Cooke was never a notable society figure. Indeed, all that is now known of Cooke's family life comes from the memorial tablet placed in his local church, which remembers his wife Lousia and their eight year-old daughter. Despite his unremarkable family life, Cooke was well respected in his profession and following his death was the subject of tributes from officers who had served alongside him.

Early life

John Cooke was born in 1763 to Francis Cooke, an Admiralty clerk. Nothing is known of his youth or education, records only emerging when Cooke gained a position as a midshipman on the ship of the line HMS Eagle in 1776, aged only thirteen. Aboard Eagle, Cooke served in the flagship of the North American Station during the next three years, seeing extensive action along the eastern seaboard. Notable among these actions were the naval operations around the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778, when Eagle was closely engaged with American units ashore. On 21 January 1779, Cooke was promoted to lieutenant and joined HMS Superb in the West Indies under Sir Edward Hughes, but was forced to take a leave of absence due to ill-health.

Cooke was back with the fleet in 1782, when he served aboard HMS Duke at the Battle of Dominica and the Battle of the Saintes, at both of which Duke was heavily engaged. Following the Peace of Versailles in 1783, Cooke retained his position under Alan Gardner, captain of Duke and then commodore at Jamaica. Gardner held this post for the next seven years. Over these years Cooke rose to become first lieutenant of HMS Europa, Gardner's flagship, and in 1790 returned to Europe as first lieutenant of Alexander Hood's flagship HMS London.

French Revolutionary Wars

With the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, Cooke transferred with Hood to HMS Royal George, second flagship of the British Channel Fleet. On 21 February 1794, Cooke was promoted to commander and given his first independent command, the small fireship HMS Incendiary. Three months later, Incendiary was a signal repeater for the Channel Fleet during the Atlantic campaign of May 1794, relaying Lord Howe's signals to the fleet and operating as a scout in the search for the French fleet under Villaret de Joyeuse. On 1 June 1794, Cooke was a witness to the battle of the Glorious First of June, although his tiny ship was far too small to engage in combat.

In the action's aftermath, Cooke was included in the general promotions issued to the fleet, becoming a post captain on 23 July 1794. For a year, Cooke was stationed off Newfoundland as flag captain to Sir James Wallace and spent sometime in the West Indies in command of HMS Quebec. He subsequently returned to Britain in 1796 to take command of the frigate HMS Nymphe. Nymphe was used in the blockade of the French Atlantic ports over the next year, and on 9 March 1797 was in company with HMS San Fiorenzo when they encountered the returning ships of a short-lived French invasion attempt of Britain which was defeated at Fishguard in Wales. The French ships attempted to escape into Brest, but were hunted down by the British frigates, who forced the surrender of Résistance and Constance in turn after successive short engagements. Neither of the British ships suffered a single casualty in the combat, and both French ships were subsequently purchased into the Royal Navy, bringing prize money to Cooke and his crew.

Despite this success, Cooke was unpopular with his men due to the strict discipline he enforced aboard his ship. This was graphically demonstrated just two months after the action off Brest, when Nymphe became embroiled in the Spithead mutiny. Cooke attempted to assist Admiral John Colpoys at the mutiny's outbreak, and was ordered ashore by his crew when he tried to return to his ship. Cooke was tactfully removed from command by the Admiralty following the mutiny, but was returned to service two years later aboard the new frigate HMS Amethyst, in preparation for the Anglo-Russian invasion of the Batavian Republic. During the invasion, Amethyst conveyed the Duke of York to the Netherlands and later participated in the evacuation of the force following the campaign's collapse.

Cooke was involved in operations in Quiberon Bay during the remainder of 1799, and in 1800 participated in an abortive invasion of Ferrol. During this time, Amethyst captured six French merchant ships and small privateers. During 1801, Cooke paticipated in the capture of the French frigate Dédaigneuse off Cape Finisterre, helping Samuel Hood Linzee and Richard King chase her down on 26 January. Amethyst was not heavily engaged with Dédaigneuse and received no damage, but aided in pursuing and trapping the French ship so that she could be seized. Dédaigneuse was later purchased into the Royal Navy. Shortly afterwards, Cooke captured the Spanish ship Carlotta and the French privateer Général Brune in the same area.

Napoleonic Wars

Battle of Trafalgar

With the Peace of Amiens, Cooke briefly retired on half-pay before being recalled to the fleet at the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803. Cooke was requested as flag captain by Admiral Sir William Young at Plymouth, but Cooke tactfully refused, instead applying for active service. He received command of HMS Bellerophon in 1804. He was heard to say at this time that "To be in a general engagement with Nelson would crown all my military ambition". In October 1805, Cooke's ambition was fulfilled when he sailed for Cadiz to join Nelson's fleet off the Spanish port. Nelson had trapped a large combined French and Spanish fleet, under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, in Cadiz and was blockading the harbour awaiting their expected attempt to escape. Bellerophon was one of a number of ships sent from the Channel Fleet to reinforce Nelson at sea off Cape Trafalgar.

The Franco-Spanish fleet escaped Cadiz on 18 October 1805, but was soon chased down by Nelson and brought to battle on 21 October. Nelson formed his fleet into two divisions; the weather column would attack to the north under his direct command and the lee column would operate to the south under the command of Cuthbert Collingwood in HMS Royal Sovereign. Cooke was stationed fifth in Collingwood's line, and so was an early arrival in action with the combined fleet. Cooke had reportedly been extremely concerned for his safety in the coming action, and took the unusual step of informing his first lieutenant William Pryce Cumby and his master Edward Overton of Nelson's orders, in case he should be killed in the battle.

Bellerophon was soon closely engaged with the French, breaking through the enemy line and closing with Aigle. As with the other French ships in the fleet, Aigle's rigging and mastheads were packed with musketeers and grenadiers, who kept up a steady fire on Bellerophon and took a heavy toll of sailors exposed on the British ship's deck. Much of the fire was directed at the quarterdeck, where Cooke, Cumby and Overton stood. Cumby noted with surprise that Cooke was still wearing his uniform coat, which sported epaulettes that marked him out as the ship's captain to French snipers. Cooke had forgotten to remove the epaulettes and recognised the danger they represented, but replied "It is too late to take them off. I see my situation, but I will die like a man".

As the action continued, the captain of Aigle ordered his crew to board and seize Bellerophon, using their superiority of numbers to overwhelm the British crew. Cooke sent Cumby below to make sure that the lower-deck guns continued to fire into the French ship as the battle continued overhead, and threw himself at the French sailors pouring onto Bellerophon's quarterdeck, shooting an enemy officer dead and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the men behind him. Within minutes, Cumby had returned to the deck with reinforcements from below, passing the mortally wounded Overton on the ladder. The badly wounded ship's quartermaster was also present, and he informed Cumby that Cooke had fallen in the melee. Cumby's charge cleared the French from the deck of Bellerophon, and he found Cooke dead on the quarterdeck, two musket balls lodged in his chest. Cooke's last words had been "Let me lie quietly a minute. Tell Lieutenant Cumby never to strike."

Cumby ably took charge of the battered Bellerophon, directing her fire into Aigle and ultimately forcing the French ship's surrender with the aid of other British vessels recently arrived in combat. Bellerophon had suffered grievously, losing 27 dead and 127 wounded. Cooke's body was buried at sea the day after the battle with the other fatal casualties from Bellerophon.

Legacy

Cooke's death, as with those of George Duff and Admiral Nelson himself, was widely mourned in Britain. Cooke's widow Louisa and their eight-year old daughter were given numerous awards and presents, including the gold medal minted for the captains who had fought at the action, and a large silver vase presented by Lloyd's Patriotic Fund. At least some of the money the family received was spent on a large wall plaque mounted in St Andrew's Church in Donhead St Andrew in Wiltshire, close to the family home. The plaque commemorates Cooke's life and death and provides the very little information known about his wife, who died in 1853 aged 96. Tributes from fellow officers were also forthcoming, including from the future explorer John Franklin, who had served on Bellerophon at Trafalgar and had said of Cooke that he was "very gentlemanly and active. I like his appearance very much." A number of letters that Cooke wrote to his brother prior to Trafalgar are held by the National Maritime Museum.

References

• Henderson, James (1994) [1970]. The Frigates. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-8505-2432-6.
• James, William (2002) [1827]. The Naval History of Great Britain, Volumes 1-6, 1793-1827. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-905-0.
• White and the 1805 Club, Colin (2004). The Trafalgar Captains. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-247-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• "Cooke, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, J. K. Laughton. Retrieved 2008-02-18.