Benbow, JOHN

Benbow, JOHN, admiral, was born in 1653, the son of a Shrewsbury tanner. He entered the navy as a master's mate in 1678, but it was as captain of a merchantman that he first distinguished himself in a bloody action with Sallee pirates (1686). After the Revolution he re-entered the navy, and received his first commission as third-lieutenant, June 1, 1689; but before the close of the same year he was appointed in succession captain to three men-of-war, and by 1696 had risen to be rear-admiral. The most memorable of all his exploits was his last, where his stubborn valour contrasted nobly with the disloyal behaviour of his captains. Off Santa Marta, in the West Indies, on 19th August 1702, he came up with a superior French force under Du Casse. For four days he kept up a running fight with the enemy, almost deserted by the rest of his squadron. On the morning of the 24th his right leg was smashed by a chain-shot. His officers consoled with him. 'I had rather have lost them both,' said the sturdy admiral, 'than have seen this dishonour brought upon the English nation. But, hark ye—if another shot should take me off, behave like men, and fight it out!' As soon as his wound was dressed he was carried to the quarter-deck, and directed the fight while it lasted. The enemy sustained severe loss; but the behaviour of the other captains, who actually refused to obey the admiral's signals, made the contest hopeless, and Benbow sailed away to Jamaica. He died of his wound at Port Royal, on the 4th November. The recusant officers were tried by court-martial, and two captains were shot. Cowardice is none so common among English naval officers that we can rest content with that as an explanation of the strange conduct of Benbow's captains in their mutinous disobedience to his orders. Indeed, it is more than likely that their disaffection was to a large extent a personal matter, and that the 'honest, rough seaman,' by his overbearing and bullying nature, had made himself as hateful to his higher officers as he was popular with his crew for his off-hand manners and personal courage.