MINUTES Of A COURT MARTIAL Holden on Board His Majesty's Ship GLADIATOR, in Portsmouth Harbour, on Wednesday, the 26th Day of July, 1809, and Continued by Adjournment Till Friday, the 4th Day of August following, on the Trial of The Right Honourable JAMES LORD GAMBIER: Admiral of the Blue, Commander in Chief of the Channel Fleet, &c., &c. Including a Complete Copy of His Lordship's Defence, Taken from the Original: and the Whole of the Evidence and Occasional Discussion. Taken in Short-hand by Mr. W. B. Gurney.
Portsmouth: Printed by Mottley, Harrison, and Miller; Sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row, London; and Congdon, Plymouth Dock, 1809. 1st Edition. viii, 232 [i.e., 216], 39, [1], 16 pp. Pages 65-68 and 93-104 omitted in numbering. Publisher catalogue last 16 pages, dated Dec 1, 1808. Text-block untrimmed. Folding map after p. 92; second folding map at rear. 8vo. 9-1/4" x 6". Modern marbled paper binding. Gilt-stamped parchment title label to spine. Modern eps. Binding with little wear, Nr Fine. Period pos ["C. L. Eastwick"] to top of t.p. Maps with repaired splits along folds. Text-block with expected bit of age-toning & soiling, Very Good. Item #52104
"The court-martial of James, Lord Gambier, was a notorious British naval legal case during the summer of 1809, in which Admiral Lord Gambier requested a court-martial to examine his behaviour during the Battle of the Basque Roads in April of the same year. Noted for the acrimony and corruption of proceedings, it has been described as 'one of the ugliest episodes in the internal history of the Royal Navy'.
Gambier was the Royal Navy commander of the Channel Fleet during the later Napoleonic Wars, primarily tasked with the blockade of the French Atlantic Fleet in Brest. In February 1809 the French fleet tried to break out into the Atlantic and was chased into the anchorage of Basque Roads near the river Charente. On 11 April a major attack was launched on the anchored fleet by fireships and over several days the French fleet was driven ashore and battered by an inshore squadron commanded by the maverick officer Lord Cochrane. Gambier, stationed just offshore with the main fleet, refused to support Cochrane and as a result, although damaged, most of the French fleet eventually escaped to safety.
On his return to Britain, Cochrane used his position as a Radical Member of Parliament to attempt to block an effort to thank Gambier formally for the victory, placing him in direct opposition to Prime Minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland's administration and First Lord of the Admiralty Henry Phipps, 3rd Baron Mulgrave. Mulgrave warned Gambier of the position taken by Cochrane, who responded by demanding a public examination of his conduct via a court-martial. Convened at Portsmouth on 26 July 1809, the members of the court were deliberately chosen by Mulgrave to favour Gambier, and over the next eight days a call was issued for particular witnesses who largely discredited Cochrane with misleading evidence. When Cochrane was called to give evidence he was subjected to aggressive questioning, lost his temper and was officially reprimanded.
At the conclusion of the court-martial the members of the court unanimously found in Gambier's favour and despite Cochrane's best efforts Parliament voted thanks to Gambier. Gambier was restored to command and served in the Navy until his death in 1833. Despite popular support, Cochrane's resistance had alienated much of the naval and political establishment in Britain and not long afterwards he was implicated in the Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814, convicted and publicly humiliated. He was dismissed from the Royal Navy, although he was later pardoned and reinstated in 1832. Historians have subsequently sided with Cochrane." [Wiki]
Uncommon in the trade, with RBH showing 2007 as the last time this work hit the marketplace.
Price: $425.00