Captain the Hon. William Montagu
By T. HIGHMORE.
Three-quarter Length.
(In a Brown and Red Uniform laced with Gold. Pointing to a Ship with his Right Hand; holding a Telescope in his Left.)
Born, 1720. Died, 1757.—He was the youngest son of Edward, Viscount Hinchingbrook, and entered the Navy, at an early age, in which profession he was destined to distinguish himself, not only by his courage, and skill as an officer, but by his extraordinary eccentricity, which gained him the soubriquet of “Mad Montagu.” He commanded the “Mermaid” at the taking of Cape Breton, in 1745, whence he brought letters from Commodore Warren, with an account of the surrender of the fortress of Louisburg, and the adjoining territories, after a siege of forty-nine days. He commanded the “Prince Edward,” and the “Bristol,” and took the “Orvena,” a rich Spanish register ship. He appears to have been in constant scrapes, both private, and public, frequently writing to his brother, Lord Sandwich, in extenuation of some escapade, usually accompanied with a confession that he had erred through his propensity for drinking. But his genial humour, and untiring fun, generally extricated him from the difficulties, into which his folly had plunged him, and his mad freaks were a constant topic of conversation, and amusement. When under the orders of Sir Edward Hawker, in 1755, he solicited permission to go to town. The Admiral, thinking to compromise the matter and palliate his refusal by a jest (as he had no intention of complying with so improper a request), said he might go in his barge as far as he pleased from the ship, but no farther. Captain Montagu immediately caused a truck to be constructed at Portsmouth, to be drawn by horses; on this truck he placed his barge filled with provisions and necessaries for three days, and entering it with his men, gave orders to imitate the action of rowing with the oars. Sir Edward, it is said, having heard of this wonderful proceeding, in every sense of the word, soon after the boat was landed, sent the coveted permission to the Mad-cap.
In the sea-fight of May 3rd, 1747, Captain Montagu, and Captain Fincher, were rival competitors for fame. The “Bristol” having got up to the “Invincible,” and brought her to action, the “Pembroke” (Captain Fincher) attempted to get in between them, desiring Montagu, to put his helm a-starboard, or he should be aboard of him. “Run on board and be d——d! Neither you nor any other man shall come between me and my enemy,” was his answer. This action is the subject of a fine picture, in the Ship-room at Hinchingbrook, by Scott.
While commanding the same vessel in the Channel, Montagu fell in with a fleet of outward bound Dutch merchantmen, to whom he gave chase and overtook. Having done so, he ordered two boats to be manned, and sent a carpenter’s mate in each, desiring them to cut off the heads of twelve—not of the ship’s company, but of the ugliest of the grotesque ornaments with which the Dutch usually decorated the extremity of their rudders. When brought back to him, he arranged them, in as ridiculous a position, as he could devise round his cabin, and inscribed them with the names of the twelve Cæsars. A jest of a more ghastly nature, is recorded of Mad Montagu. Landing one day at Portsmouth, just after a Dutch vessel had been wrecked, he perceived about a dozen of her crew lying dead, on the shore. He immediately ordered his men to put all the poor fellows’ hands, into their pockets. He then proceeded to the coffee-house, where he found the Dutch captain, with whom every one was condoling. “D—— the idle lubbers!” said Montagu, “they were too lazy to take their hands out of their breeches pockets, even to save their lives.”
The Dutch captain was naturally indignant, when Montagu proposed to bet him six dozen of wine, that if any of the crew chanced to be washed on shore, his words would be proved. The waiter was despatched to reconnoitre; the result of course, was in the English captain’s favour, and not only had the poor foreigner to pay the forfeit, but the laugh on a most melancholy matter was turned against him. Captain Montagu sat in Parliament for a borough in Cornwall. He married Charlotte, daughter of Francis Nailor, of Offord, Huntingdonshire, but died in 1757, without issue.