John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent
admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
1735 CE to 1823 CE
Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC (January 9, 1735 – March 14, 1823) is an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
Jervis serves throughout the latter half of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth, and is an active commander during the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars.
He is best known for his victory at the 1797 Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, from which he earns his titles, and as a patron of Horatio Nelson.
Jervis is also recognized by both political and military contemporaries as a fine administrator and naval reformer.
As Commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean, between 1795 and 1799 he introduces a series of severe standing orders to avert mutiny.
He applies these orders to both seamen and officers alike, a policy that makes him a controversial figure.
He takes his disciplinarian system of command with him when he takes command of the Channel Fleet in 1799.
In 1801, as First Lord of the Admiralty he introduces a number of reforms that, though unpopular at this time, make the Navy more efficient and more self-sufficient.
He introduces innovations including block making machinery at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard.
St Vincent is known for his generosity to officers he considered worthy of reward and his swift and often harsh punishment of those he feels deserve it.
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After arriving in the West Indies in February 1794, Grey had chosen to conquer Martinique, St. Lucia and Guadeloupe and troops from his force under the command of John Whyte only arrive in St. Domingue on May 19, 1794.
Whyte decides rather attacking the main French bases at Le Cap and Port-de-Paix to march towards Port-au-Prince, whose harbor is reported to have forty-five ships loaded with sugar as the allure of rich booty proves more enticing.
During the course of 1794, most of the British forces have been killed by the dreaded "black vomit" as the British call it, as within two months of arriving in St. Domingue the British had lost forty officers and six hundred men to yellow fever.
Ultimately, of Grey's seven thousand men, about five thousand will die of yellow fever while the Royal Navy will report osing "...forty-six masters and eleven hundred men dead, chiefly of yellow fever".
The British historian Sir John Fortescue will write "It is probably beneath the mark to say that twelve thousand Englishmen were buried in the West Indies in 1794". (Perry, James Arrogant Armies Great Military Disasters and the Generals Behind Them, Edison: Castle Books, 2005 page 69.)
The British lose about three hundred dead and the French take no prisoners, executing any British soldier and sailor who surrenders.
The Royal Navy under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats a larger Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, on February 14.
The Spanish suffered minimal casualties, with only thirty dead and forty injured, while the British incurred heavy losses, with two hundred and fifty dead and one hundred and twenty-eight wounded.
The return journey to England proved arduous, as Nelson had lost a significant number of men.
In an act of chivalry, Lieutenant General Antonio Gutiérrez de Otero y Santayana, Nelson's Spanish counterpart, offered two schooners to assist the beleaguered British on their way back, even allowing them to depart with their weapons and war honors.
This display of generosity led to a courteous exchange of letters between Nelson and Gutiérrez.
Nelson agreed to report news of the battle back to the Peninsula, and in late July, the frigate Emeral arrived in Cádiz, carrying reports of Gutiérrez's victory.
Admiral John Jervis, however, expected to see the Union Jack flying over Santa Cruz and was enraged when he learned of the fiasco.
The Admiral failed to discern the difference between well-defended Spanish port cities like Cádiz and Santa Cruz and the Spanish ships his squadron had defeated in February.
The British fleet's haughtiness, coupled with inadequate resources for an invasion, resulted in a painful defeat, ensuring that they would never again attempt to capture Santa Cruz.