ground glass. Best of all, he thought, was to apply a thin outer sheathing of elm, which of itself was rot-resistant, while between this and the main planking a thick smearing of tar mixed with horsehair was applied. Although he admitted that this method was ‘invented by my father’, his view that ‘experience has taught it to be the best and of least coat’ is borne out by the fact that it remained in use until Dolphin completed a circumnavigation in 1769, successfully sheathed in copper.
Whether or not Hawkins and Dainty would have completed a successful circumnavigation will never be known, for the ship was captured by the Spanish after a lengthy fight in which, true to form, the behaviour of his crew contributed much to their defeat. Yet, in theory, Hawkins knew precisely what was needed among a company to keep a ship safe while at sea. This necessitated: having a knowledgeable captain keeping a watchful eye upon all his men and their works; a watchful pilot; a boatswain to keep the ship clean, and well-rigged and secure; and a carpenter who regularly inspected the ship’s sides, pumps, masts, boats. Above all, Hawkins believed:
Every officer, in his office, ought to be an absolute commander, yet ready in obedience and love, to sacrifice his will to his superior command. This cannot but cause unity; and unity but purchase a happy issue to dutiful travellers.
Unless, of course, they fall foul of a stronger enemy, a circumstance which ended Hawkins’s voyage and which Cumberland, often frustrated by the escape of his quarry, was determined to avoid.
The Scourge of Malice and her Consorts
So in 1594 that most optimistic and persistent of pirates resolved, in Monson’s words, ‘to build a ship from the stocks that should equal the middle rank of Her Majesty’s and act so noble and rare, it being a thing never undertaken before by a subject that it deserved immortal fame’, comments that would have been as appropriate for the earlier Ark Ralegh.
Cumberland’s desire was to have a ship not only capable of overwhelming the great carracks whose escape from his fleet’s clutches in earlier years had so frustrated him, but also one not subject to the queen’s caveats against close-quarters engagements, and one that he could crew and victual himself. The result was a four-masted vessel of some 700 tons and a set of ten sails, including topgallants and two lateen sails. Her thirty-eight guns included a number of demi-cannons, sixteen culverins, twelve demi-culverins and eight sakers, a suite that would have enabled her to batter as well as board.
Rather than confiscate her for her own use, as she had done with Ralegh’s Ark, Elizabeth graciously agreed to be present at the launching of ‘the best ship that ever before had been built by any subject’, being most content that the name she gave her, Scourge of Malice, had an irony that would not be lost on those whom the ship was designed to plunder. In fact she plundered but little, being an unlucky vessel through most of her piratical career despite Elizabeth’s early support.
On 28 March 1595 the Queen issued authority for Cumberland to victual and arm for sea the ‘Malice Scourge and such other ships and pinnaces . . . not exceeding six’, although she made sure that her own coffers would benefit from the permit by stating that ‘all prizes that shall be taken by you or by any person or persons appointed by you are to be brought into the most convenient haven without breaking bulk or making any distribution of shares until our further pleasure is known.’
The earl, having a close relationship with the queen by right of rank rather than, as in Ralegh’s case, whim, might well have protested against the stringency of audit as outlined above, for in less than a month he had new documents which instructed him: ‘to weaken the force of those who are hostilely disposed against us and to destroy the forces of the subjects of the King of Spain’, for which service the earl was allowed ‘the value of any prizes taken by them without account saving £10,000 on every carrack bound from Portugal to the Indies or £20,000 on any from the Indies to Portugal.’
Prior to sailing, Cumberland had gained some intelligence as to the timings of the departures of the Indies ships from Portugal, only for him to arrive at Plymouth to discover reports that Hawkins and Drake had stolen a sail on him and had captured just such a carrack, an act and a presence that had led to the cancellation of further sailings that year. Much disgruntled, Cumberland disembarked, sending his squadron on without him. Without his being present, they lacked the drive to achieve much and returned with a limited haul.
In 1596, the year of the Cadiz raid, Scourge of Malice appears to have been employed in a supporting and not rewarding ancillary role, being tasked with investigating shipping movements around Ireland and making a show of force off Calais, which the Spaniards had recently captured. Inactivity or absence from the centre did not appeal to Cumberland and in 1597 he offered to lead a fleet in his flagship to ‘burn the Spanish Navy [or] impeach them divers ways and hinder them from going to Ireland or pursue them thither.’
Whatever the aim, the weather intervened and a few days out Scourge lost her mainmast and had to return to harbour. This assault by the weather should not have surprised observers of Cumberland’s sea career, for he seemed to have drawn storms to him like a meteorological magnet and he needed strong ships to ride them out, as is evidenced in the account of a most frightening gale:
Upon Thursday the seventh of September, the gale began to be very fresh and to keepe the sailes stiffe from the Masts, and so continued all that day. Upon Friday it began to speake yet lowder, and to whistle a good in the shrowdes, insomuch that our Master made the Drablers bee taken off, and before night it had blowne the fore-top-saile in pieces by the terrible board; this was taken for the beginning of a storme, which came indeed about the shutting in of the day, with such furie and rage, as none could say it stole upon us unawares. For I am out of doubt that I had never heard any winde so high. One of our Bonnets had beene taken in the evening, and the other was rent off with the furie of the storme. And thus (for our mayne-top-saile was taken in and the top-mast taken downe) bearing onely a bare corse of each, if the ship had not beene exceeding strongly sided, shee could not have indured so rough weather. For oftentimes the Sea would ship in waves into her of three or foure Tunne of water, which (the ship being leakie within board) falling often, was as much as both the pumps were able to cast out againe, though they went continually all night, and till noone the next day were never throughly suckt, so that if any leake had sprung upon us under water, it could not have beene chosen, but shee must have foundered, seeing the pumpes were hardly able to rid the water that was cast in above hatches. The Missen-saile had beene in the evening well furled (for the winde came upon the starboard quarter) and yet the storme had caught it, and with such violence and furie rent it, that with much adoe the Missen-yard was hailed downe, and so the quarter decke and poope saved from danger of renting up. All this was in the night, which made it much more hidious, specially in the fore-end of the night before the Moone got up. The winde continued in this excesse of violence till midnight, and then abated hee something, but then began the effect of his blowing to shew it selfe, for High-swoke then the Sea began to worke, and swell farre higher then before. His Lordships ship is a very goodly one, and yet would shee bee as it were in a pit, and round about vast mountaines of water, higher then our mayne-top. And that (which is strangest) the Sea came upon every point of the Compasse, so that the poore ship, nor they that directed and cunned her, could not tell how to cunne her to bee safe from the breaking of these vast waves upon her. This continued all night: and though the winde fell by little and little, yet the Sea was so light, that all Saturday it was not quieted, so that though out of a storme, yet were wee still in a stormy Sea, insomuch that our mayne-top-mast was broken.10
Cumberland was to endure many such storms including one so powerful that ‘his Lordships Cabbin, the dining roome, and halfe Decke became all one, and he was forced to seeke a new lodging in the hold.’ He may have experienced more extremes of weather than most, but the best description of such conditions was written by the poet, and landlubber, John Donne, whose brief time at sea while serving the earl of Essex on both the Cadiz raid and the Island Voyage, gave rise to his poems ‘The
