35 
Chapter 5 -
British
Dominion
36
THE BRITISH LAND IN MINORCA
1708
Leake took immediate action and sailed
from Pula the same evening (18 August), arriving off Port Mahon six days
later, when he immediately blockaded the island. He arrived well before
Stanhope, who did not arrive until three weeks later. Leake did not waste
his time; he marked and surveyed a proposed landing place at Cala Alcaufar,
5km (3 miles) from the fort, and fetched a small quantity of stores and
men from Majorca. He found out that the opposing garrison in Fort St Philip
under the French General Jonquiere numbered 1,000, half of them picked
French marines, and the remainder Spanish. Leake's fleet standing off the
island numbered thirty ships of the line, and he hoped that this show of
strength together with his blockade would help to cow the inhabitants into
early submission.
Leake covered Stanhope's landing
of advance troops at Cala Alcaufar on 15 September, the day after the two
commanders had made a rendezvous. In a mutilated letter in the British
Museum from a junior officer, Cornet John Cope, to his absentee Colonel
Raby, we have an 'on the spot' account of the landing and the operation.
(This was the future General John Cope, the commander-in-chief routed at
Prestonpans in Scotland in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.)
Minorca,
from the Castle of St Philip
before Port Mahon
Sept. 29, 1708
. . . About 2 the General landed,
a great distance from the Castle, and marched himself at the head of 100
Grenadiers near three miles up the island without opposition; where we
lay that night, the soldiers on their arms. The following day we disembarked
most of our Forces, which then did not count above 2,000 men. The head
people of the Town of Mah6n came to pay obedience to the General which
he excepted [sic], and in the afternoon went to take possession of it,
which he secured by leaving 100 men. The 16th we marched something nearer
the Castle fort and got some marines from the Fleet, that we made a body
of 2,500 men, and began to disembark our Canon.
At this stage Leake was in a dilemma,
although in no doubt how to resolve it. Winter with its dangerous storms
was not far off, and he was under orders from the Admiralty to proceed
home with the fleet as soon as possible lest the tragedy of Shovell be
repeated. Having covered the landing, and given Stanhope both marines and
stores, he decided to leave a strong squadron of ships under his second-in-command,
Sir Edward Whittaker, and himself proceed home. This consisted of 26 ships
(18 ships of the line and frigates, 1 fire ship, 2 bomb vessels, 2 hospital
ships, and 3 Dutch ships). Some of these quickly secured the surrender
of the castles of Fornells and Ciudadela.
Stanhope was critical of Leake's
early departure, but on the evidence Leake did efficiently all that was
necessary, left Stanhope adequate help and acted correctly. In addition
to Whittaker, Stanhope had the assistance of two extremely competent senior
officers, Brigadier Wade, the famous road-builder in the Scottish Highlands
in the' 45 Rebellion, and Colonel Pettit, an engineer.
The disembarkation of the siege-train
of forty-two heavy guns and fifteen mortars and their transport over rocky
terrain took twelve days.
'The country is nothing
but rocks and stone walls,' complained Cope. A nearer landing-stage was
chosen, but this was under enemy fire. The marines constructed a rough
road. Others pressed on with setting up gun batteries before the fort.
'The General himself stayed in the Battery every night till 12 o'clock
to forward the Work.'
When the attack came, the battle
was fierce and of short duration. At dawn on the 28th, the General opened
fire from a battery of nine guns against the two middle towers of a line-wall
which had been hastily built by the defenders outside the main defences
of the fort. He demolished the two towers, and breached the line-wall,
which he determined to attack the following day. But the excitement of
battle hastened events. Some of Brigadier Wade's Grenadiers on the right
flank advanced to the breach in the line-wall without orders, and penetrated
it. The brigadier had no alternative but to follow in strength in their
support. The General, hearing the fire, also advanced, and the enemy retired,
abandoning the other two towers. Stanhope and Wade consolidated these gains,
and remained all night at the foot of the glacis of St Philip's Fort.
In the heat of this attack Stanhope
suffered severe personal tragedy. His brother, Captain Philip Stanhope,
was struck by a cannon ball in the head while peering over the line-wall,
and died. But the general continued to lead his men personally on horseback,
'exposed to the enemies' cannon, smallshot and bombs' .
Of this personal loss he was later
to write in his official dispatch to the Admiralty these words:
The conquest has cost me very
dear, but since Philip died in doing service to Her Majesty and his country,
I shall think his life well bestowed, as I should my own.
On the following morning (29 September)
the enemy sent a small boy into the British camp as a spy, and Stanhope
found time to order a leaflet campaign:
The General ordered a great quantity
of papers to be writ that all those who would desert should have two pistols
each. Half he writ in Spanish and the rest in French, and sewd them all
round the boy, tied his hands behind him, and sent him back to the Castle.
The end came quickly the same day.
The allied heavy artillery breached the main walls, and the invaders poured
into the exterior defences of the fort. In the evening
…the enemy left off firing, sending
a drum to ensure a cessation of arms, and have some of our officers come
to the Castle, upon which the General ordered Major Killingrew and Captain
Moysier to go with the drum.
Jonquiere decided to surrender.
When Brigadier Wade accepted surrender
from Jonquiere inside the castle, he was astonished to find a large British
cannonball on Jonquiere's table. The whole operation had lasted three weeks,
and there were only forty British casualties. The French were furious,
for they wanted Minorca for themselves, and had Jonquiere imprisoned.
In his dispatch to the Admiralty
after the conquest Stanhope expressed the opinion:
'England ought never to part
with this island, which will give the law to the Mediterranean in time
of war and peace.'
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