Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769-1839)
Famous as Nelson’s favourite flag-captain, Hardy was dedicated to the service of his country. Though he never matched the achievements of some of the great admiral’s other followers, he enjoyed a long and eventful career.
He was born on 5 April 1769 at Kingston Russell House near Long Bredy, Dorchester, the second of three sons and six daughters of Joseph Hardy, a small landowner of Portisham in Dorset, and his wife, Anne (Nanny) Masterman.
Hardy entered the navy as a 12-year-old during the American Revolutionary War in November 1781 aboard the brig Helena 14, Commander Francis Roberts, being employed in convoy duty in home waters. Beginning in April 1782, he appears to have spent some time at school in Crewkerne with his two brothers before running away to join the merchant service. He served as a merchant seaman in the years following the end of the war in 1783, at the same time remaining on the books of two naval ships (the Seaford 20, Captain Roberts, and the Carnatic 74), in order to earn sea-time. In February 1790 he rejoined the navy aboard the Hebe 38, Captain Alexander Hood, as a midshipman, and in the following year he was with the sloop Tisiphone 8, Commander Anthony Hunt, which was engaged in the preventative service off the south coast of England.
In May 1793, three months after the French Revolutionary War began, Hardy transferred with Captain Hunt into the frigate Amphitrite 24, going out to the Mediterranean. There, on 10 November at the age of 24, he was commissioned lieutenant of the Meleager 32, Captain Charles Tyler, who was replaced by Captain George Cockburn in February 1794. Hardy was aboard the Meleager at the Battle of Genoa on 13/14 March 1795 and the Battle of the Hyères Islands on 13 July.
When Captain Cockburn removed to the Minerve 38 in August 1796, he took Hardy with him, and they continued to serve in the Mediterranean. On 20 December, shortly after Commodore Horatio Nelson had raised his broad pennant aboard the Minerve, she captured the Spanish frigate Santa Sabina 40. Hardy was ordered to command the prize, but when the Spanish fleet approached, he deliberately attracted the enemy ships away from the Minerve to enable her escape. This selfless act led to the Santa Sabina being easily recaptured, and Hardy and his prize crew being made prisoner. On 9 February 1797, Hardy and Lieutenant John Culverhouse were exchanged for the captain of the Santa Sabina, Don Jacobo Stuart. Two days later he very nearly fell into Spanish hands again, having jumped into the Minerve’s jolly boat in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue a drowning seaman. The frigate was being pursued by a superior Spanish force, and Hardy was only saved by the loyalty of Nelson who ordered the Minerve to put about and pick up the boat. On 14 February, having rejoined the fleet the previous day, the Minerve was present at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
Continuing with the Minerve, on 29 May 1797 Hardy led her boats (and those of the Lively 32, Captain Benjamin Hallowell) in the cutting-out of the beautiful little French brig Mutine 14 from the roads off Santa Cruz, Tenerife. Although, the brig was captured quite quickly, the attack alerted the Spanish garrison and a nearby ship which fired both artillery and musketry for the best part of an hour whilst Hardy’s men struggled to tow her out in the calm conditions. On 16 June, the Mutine with Hardy acting as her prize-master, joined the Mediterranean fleet off Cadiz, and the commander-in-chief, Admiral Sir John Jervis, immediately took the brig into the service and appointed Hardy to command her. His promotion to commander was confirmed on 10 July by the Admiralty.
Remaining with the Mutine in the Mediterranean fleet, in early June 1798 Hardy was detached to inform Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson that reinforcements of ten sail of the line under Captain Thomas Troubridge were to join him in searching for the Toulon expeditionary force. When the French fleet was eventually brought to account at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798, the Mutine was present, although she spent much of the engagement attempting to haul Captain Troubridge’s Culloden 74 off a sandbank at the entrance to Aboukir Bay.
Following the Battle of the Nile, Hardy replaced Captain Edward Berry aboard Nelson’s flagship, the Vanguard 74, (Berry was sent home with despatches), and they arrived at Naples on 22 September. Here Nelson was ordered to assist the Neapolitans in their alliance with the Austrians. In October the Vanguard was briefly diverted to the siege of Malta, by which time the 29-year-old Hardy had been posted captain (on 2 October). Returning to support the Neapolitans in their unsuccessful campaign to resist a French invasion, on 21 December the Vanguard evacuated King Ferdinand IV and his family, together with the British ambassador Sir William Hamilton and his wife Emma, to Palermo. Emma earned Hardy’s contempt not only for her dalliance with Nelson, but also for her efforts to prevent him flogging his boat’s crew.
On 8 June 1799 Hardy and Nelson transferred to the Foudroyant 80, and upon the French withdrawal that month they returned to the Bay of Naples. Here, Nelson controversially annulled a treaty signed by officers from his own squadron and the Neapolitan loyalist forces, resulting in the execution of scores of republicans who had given up their arms under the terms of the capitulation – Hardy at least emerged with credit from this disgraceful episode by attempting to treat the condemned republican leader, Commodore Francesco Caracciola, with some dignity. On 10 July while the Foudroyant was anchored in the Bay of Naples, the King and the Hamiltons came aboard and held court. In September the Foudroyant was dispatched to Sardinia to collect King Charles Emmanuel IV of Piedmont and deliver him to Leghorn on 22 September, following which she was dispatched to Palermo.
In October 1799 Captain Sir Edward Berry returned to his duties as Nelson’s flag-captain after recovering from illness, and Hardy was appointed to the recently captured ex-French frigate Princess Charlotte 36. She was considered a slovenly and seditious ship, and it was intended that his firm discipline would correct these problems. He left her a month later when Captain Thomas Stephenson arrived to take up the command, travelling overland to Cuxhaven on the North Sea, and arriving at the Admiralty with Nelson’s dispatches on 17 December .
A short, frustrating period of unemployment, (spent in London and Dorset) followed, before he was once more appointed flag-captain to Nelson aboard the Namur 98 at Plymouth during November 1800. Nelson had long wanted to replace Berry with Hardy in the post, and, that month the new flag-captain attended court and a play at Covent Garden with Lady Nelson and the Hamiltons. Shortly afterwards he transferred with the majority of the crew of the Namur to the San Josef 112, which was preparing for sea at Plymouth.
On 16 January 1801 Nelson raised his flag aboard the San Josef at Plymouth, and six days later they put out of the harbour for Cawsand Bay before sailing to Torbay on the last day of the month to join the Channel Fleet. Here Nelson and Hardy exchanged into the St. George 98, in which they arrived at Portsmouth on 21 February. Nine days later, the St. George departed Portsmouth for Great Yarmouth to join the expeditionary force under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker that had been ordered to act against the countries of the Armed Neutrality in the Baltic. Prior to the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April, Nelson transferred to the Elephant 74, Captain Thomas Foley, as the St. George drew too much water for inshore work, but Hardy played his part beforehand by bravely taking soundings close in to the enemy fleet at the dead of night.
After Nelson’s departure he remained (unwillingly) in the Baltic to serve as flag captain to Vice-Admiral Charles Morice Pole aboard the St. George. In August he was granted his wish to return, being appointed to the Isis 50, serving under Nelson off Boulogne. A couple of months later the Isis was stationed in the Downs, flying flew the pennant of Commodore John Sutton. After a cruise in October, she sailed for Sheerness where on the 6th it was reported that she was ran afoul by a Baltic trader, losing all her masts and her bowsprit along with other damage. If this was the case then she must have been rapidly repaired, for she appears to have briefly rejoined the Downs station and Commodore Sutton before returning to Sheerness at the end of the month to refit.
On 22 February 1802 the Isis sailed from Sheerness for the Downs, and at the end of April, with the French Revolutionary War having ended, she departed for Falmouth to collect Edward, the Duke of Kent for passage to Gibraltar where he had been appointed governor on the death of General Charles O’Hara. In June the ship entered Portsmouth Harbour to be fitted out as a flagship, but Hardy had left her, having been appointed to command the frigate Amphion 32. His new ship was based in the Downs during August and September before being ordered to take the new ambassador, Lord Robert Fitzgerald, to Lisbon in the last week of October. After, returning to Portsmouth in early December, the Amphion’s crew was paid off at the end of January 1803, but she was immediately recommissioned and began fitting for sea.
On 1 March 1803 the Amphion left Portsmouth Harbour, and nine days later she sailed for Cork to procure seamen, there being little doubt that the resumption of hostilities with France was imminent. Next ordered to fit for foreign service, she dropped down to St. Helens in early April to accept the flag of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson, whose designated flagship, the Victory 100, was not yet ready for sea. It was not until a few days after the resumption of war on 16 May, that the Amphion with Nelson and Hardy aboard set sail to join the Mediterranean fleet off Toulon. Shortly after their arrival the Victory joined the fleet and the two men moved into that vessel, with Hardy reprising his role as flag-captain.
For the next two years the Mediterranean Fleet maintained a loose and largely uneventful blockade of Toulon with only brief sallies by the French fleet to counter from May to August 1804. In January 1805 the Toulon fleet did come out but then returned to port within three days before they could be intercepted. Its second breakout on 29 March was more dangerous, and Nelson undertook the long chase to the West Indies and back. Having failed to catch the enemy, the Victory sailed for Portsmouth, arriving on 18 August. Hardy was now ill with rheumatism and recuperated in Dorset, visiting the King at Weymouth before returning to Portsmouth on 4 September. He was still under the weather when he and Nelson sailed for Cadiz eleven days later.
At the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October, Hardy witnessed Nelson’s last will and testament prior to the action, commanded the flagship throughout the battle, and attended the admiral in his dying moments. The Victory, which had led the lee line, lost a devastating fifty-seven men killed and one hundred and two wounded, having been roughly handled by the gallant Redoubtable 74. She was subsequently towed into Gibraltar for repairs, and she left for England with Nelson’s body on 3 November, anchoring at Spithead on 5 December before huge crowds, prior to sailing around to the Nore five days later. Hardy arrived in London from Chatham on 6 January 1806 and took a prominent role in Nelson’s state funeral on 9 January, carrying the ‘Banner of Emblems’ depicting a sorrowful Britannia in front of captured enemy flags in the procession. At the end of the month, in recognition of his conduct in the battle, he was awarded the Freedom of the City of London and a sword to the value of 100 guineas by the Court of the Common Council at the Guildhall, and on 4 February he was created a baronet. In the fullness of time, he received a total of just under £3,400 as both prize money and the government grant that had been awarded to Trafalgar men.
In early March 1806 Hardy attended a dinner in his honour at the Draper’s Hall, and at the end of the month he was appointed to the Sampson 64 at Portsmouth, although he did not take her to sea – instead, in May he joined the Triumph 74 as part of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Strachan’s squadron. This vessel was soon involved in the chase of Rear-Admiral Jean Baptiste Philibert Willaumez’s six sail of the line which ended in a storm off the Bahamas on 18 August. In late October he stood for election at Weymouth, but he failed in his bid to enter Parliament. Meanwhile for the best part of a year the Triumph remained in the Chesapeake in Lynnhaven Bay near Cape Henry, blockading two of Willaumez’ sail of the line, the Eole 74 and Patriote 74, which had sought shelter at Annapolis. Initially the Triumph was under the orders of Captain John Erskine Douglas of the Bellona 74, but in the late summer of 1807, when Douglas departed in the Bellona for a refit at Halifax, Hardy became the senior officer at the blockade. His conciliatory approach did much to smooth over relations with the Americans following the Leopard-Chesapeake affair, earning their respect for his politeness in comparison to the more aggressive Douglas.
In November 1807 Hardy married the 20-year-old Anne Louisa Emily Berkeley, daughter of the commander-in-chief at Halifax, Vice-Admiral Hon. George Berkeley. She was also the niece of both the Duke of Richmond and Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey, and four years later she would become the sister-in-law of Captain (later Admiral Sir) George Francis Seymour. The couple would have three daughters. Anne Louisa accompanied her husband on board the Triumph for the next five months, while the ship cruised in Chesapeake Bay, rarely touching land to avoid conflict with the Americans.
Towards the end of March 1808, the Triumph arrived at Plymouth with Admiral Berkeley. She was employed off the Dutch coast for the next few months; Hardy was briefly in London at the end of May to receive his ceremonial sword from the Court of the Common Council. The Triumph was refitted at Portsmouth over the summer, joining the Channel Fleet in October. On 10 November, she was in sight when the Amethyst 36, Captain Michael Seymour, defeated the French frigate Thétis 40 off the Isle of Groix, and although she played no part in the engagement, under the prevailing rules she was entitled to a share of the prize money. Another vessel that had also been in sight, the Shannon 38, Captain Philip Broke, initially declined their share, but Hardy and his men persisted in their claim, earning the disapproval of many contemporaries.
By January 1809 the Triumph was in the Tagus, but she had to leave the river when steps were taken to evacuate Lisbon on the invasion of Portugal by Marshal Jean de Dieu Soult’s French army , step which in the event proved unnecessary. A month later she was under the orders of Commodore John Beresford off Lorient when Rear-Admiral Willaumez’ eight sail of the line attempted to unite with the French force in that port. She then joined Admiral Lord Gambier’s fleet, but she was sent to Plymouth at the end of March with the commander-in-chief’s dispatches, thereby missing the Battle of the Basque Roads on 11 April.
Now off Cadiz, in May 1809 Hardy left the Triumph to exchange with Captain Samuel Hood Linzee of the Barfleur 98 in order to serve as the flag-captain to his father-in-law, Vice-Admiral Berkeley, now the commander-in-chief in the Tagus. With the French expelled from Portugal, this would prove to be an undemanding role, so much so that both the admiral and Hardy were able to bring their families out to join them in Lisbon. Hardy’s assistance to Portugal was recognised by his appointment as a commodore of the Portuguese Navy. During August, the Barfleur was with the squadron at Corunna fitting out Spanish ships to be sent to Cadiz. In April 1811 Hardy came home a passenger aboard the Tonnant 80, Captain Sir John Gore. Back in Lisbon by the beginning of 1812, in June he presided at the court martial of a crew member of the Union 98, who had stabbed Captain Samuel Hood Linzee, although happily not fatally – the man was sentenced to death. Hardy and Berkeley returned home with their respective families on 21 July.
During the late summer of 1812 (just after the beginning of the War of 1812), he commissioned the Ramillies 74, sailing out from Portsmouth with the West Indies convoy on 13 December. (She also collected further vessels at Falmouth). Arriving at Barbados, she then sailed north to Bermuda and beyond to Halifax to join the North American station in January 1813.
In June 1813 Hardy commanded a squadron off Nantucket which chased and then blockaded Commodore Stephen Decatur’s small squadron in New London, Connecticut. The blockade curtailed the New England coastal trade, although he refused to harry the American coast as he thought this was ungentlemanly behaviour. On 25 June ten of his seamen and a lieutenant were killed off New London when a schooner taken as a prize blew up, although Hardy had moved the vessel away from the Ramillies, suspecting that she might have been booby-trapped. Remaining off New London for the rest of the year, the tedium was only broken by the frequent rumours of a potential duel involving the blockaded American frigate Macedonian (captured from the British the year before) and an equivalent British frigate. To ensure a fair fight, the Ramillies would have had to not participate, but this speculation was quashed by Rear-Admiral Sir George Cockburn, who refused to countenance the possibility of the Ramillies chivalrously standing by while a victorious American frigate took her prize into port.
In early 1814 the Ramillies visited Bermuda to revictual, but she soon returned to the New England coast – by 12 June the American fort at Eastport in Maine surrendered to Hardy and the army. For three days during August (after giving the inhabitants an hour warning to leave) he bombarded Stonington in Connecticut, since it was believed that the town had been fitting out torpedoes (primitive mines) for use against the British ships. After wintering in the Chesapeake, the Ramillies joined the expedition to New Orleans in January 1815, and in the same month Hardy was nominated a K.C.B. With the War of 1812 coming to an end, the Ramillies departed for England from Negril Bay on 15 February with the Jamaica convoy, and she arrived at Portsmouth on 17 April, having lost many of her charges in a gale. Shortly afterwards, Admiral Lord Keith hoisted his flag aboard her, and following a brief visit to Plymouth in the first days of June she was ordered back to Portsmouth later that month to be paid off.
The wars with America and France may have concluded, but soon Hardy found himself facing a new conflict on an unexpected front. In July 1815 he and his family, together with the Marquis of Abercorn and his family, journeyed to the former’s seat at Baronscourt Castle near Newtonstewart in Ireland where they enjoyed Christmas together. On returning to England in the early weeks of 1816, Hardy found that over several weeks the Morning Herald had been insinuating that his 28-year-old wife had eloped with the 60-year-old marquis. On suing the newspaper for libel at the Sheriff’s Court, Hardy was awarded £1,000 damages in June, but that was not the end of the matter. Days later, after a disagreement at the Opera House, he accused the Marquis of Buckingham of having fomented the rumour. When Buckingham claimed Hardy had cast a slur on his honour, the two parties fought a duel at Kilburn Wells in which Lord March seconded Hardy, and William Fremantle, (brother of Hardy’s fellow captain Thomas Fremantle), seconded Buckingham. Discharging a pistol, each duellist missed his shot, and honour being satisfied, the seconds called a halt to the proceedings. Buckingham denied all knowledge of any involvement in the scandal, and many members of high society believed it impossible that a man of his rank could have stooped so low as to send scurrilous anonymous letters.
In July 1816 Hardy was appointed to the royal yacht Princess Augusta, based at Deptford, and in September 1818 to the Plymouth guardship Spencer 74, followed by the Superb 74. In July 1819 he was appointed commodore and commander-in-chief of the South America station. This was an important post, requiring the holder to defend British interests in a region where Spain’s colonies were fighting for independence. Britain wished to stay neutral in these conflicts, but both sides took measures that affected the valuable British trade with south America. In early September he set sail for Rio de Janeiro with his broad pendant aboard the Superb, Captain Thomas White, carrying the British ambassador to the Court of Portugal (temporarily residing in Brazil), Edward Thornton. (His wife and children remained behind and spent much of the next three years in Switzerland.) The Superb was accompanied by the Vengeur 74, Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, and the Hyperion 32, Captain Thomas Searle. Throughout 1820 he was in the River Plate, where local forces were clashing with troops loyal to Spain, and British merchants had very valuable investments. In the autumn he transferred his flag (with Captain White) to the Creole 42, and in early 1821 rounded Cape Horn to arrive at Valparaiso, Chile on 18 March. There Hardy clashed with Lord Cochrane, who was commanding the embryonic Chilean Navy is its war of independence against Spain, and was attempting to blockade ports where British ships customarily traded. By December the Creole had travelled north to Callao, the port of Lima, Peru, and by June 1822 she was back at Rio (where Hardy had taken a house in the city), With Brazil declaring independence from Portugal in September, Hardy sailed north to Bahia aboard the Tartar, 36 Captain Thomas Brown, to protect British interests in the region. After spending most of 1823 at Bahia, in November he was succeeded by Rear-Admiral Sir George Eyre, and arrived back at Portsmouth in January 1824, having taken passage home on the Creole. On arrival his tact and diplomacy in dealing with British interests on the station were widely praised. His three-year sojourn had been profitable; apparently he pulled in about £20,000 (entirely legally) from freight money, the commission given to admirals and captains for safely transporting specie on warships. During his period away, on 19 July 1821 he had been appointed a colonel of marines, which would also have further added to his finances.
There ensued a fallow couple of years for Hardy. In May 1824 he visited his wife and children who were then living in Florence, and a year later he was promoted rear-admiral and visited Paris. He returned to duty in November 1826 when he raised his flag at Portsmouth aboard the Sybille 38, Captain Francis Augustus Collier, to superintend the equipment and trial of several experimental ships. Before undertaking this role, in early December he was ordered to transfer to the Wellesley 74, Captain Gordon Falcon. The Wellesley escorted a convoy of troopships to Lisbon carrying troops under Lieutenant-General Sir William Henry Clinton to support the Portuguese monarchy in the early stages of the Miguelite Wars. The Wellesley returned to Plymouth towards the end of January 1827 and then moved on to Portsmouth.
After a short period of leave, the 47-year-old Hardy re-hoisted his flag aboard the Sybille to resume command of the experimental squadron. Transferring to the Pyramus 36, Captain George Rose Sartorius, the seven-ship squadron sailed for the Scilly Isles and Bantry Bay in April, returning to Portsmouth on 25 May. After an interview in London with the Lord High Admiral (the future King William IV), Hardy returned to Portsmouth to undertake a short cruise in June aboard the Tyne 28, Captain Kearney White, to test some new guns. Shifting his flag to the Galatea 36, Captain Charles Sullivan, Hardy led the experimental squadron of eight small vessels on a second cruise to the Scilly Isles on 30 June. The squadron proceeded to Lisbon in the following month, returning to Portsmouth at the end of August. After a third and final cruise in September-October, the Lord High Admiral came down to Portsmouth to visit the squadron.
Over the next couple of years, the active Hardy remained in contention for various naval commands and involved himself in reviewing improvements to many aspects of naval equipment, including rigging and gun carriages. He also was a frequent attendee at court, which may have been why in November 1830 the new King, (William IV) demanded his appointment as first naval lord of the Admiralty, as a quid pro quo for accepting the Whig Sir James Graham as the new first lord. During March 1831 Hardy and the rest of the board visited Chatham in a government steam vessel, and he inspected Portsmouth in the following month. Still a regular attendee at Court, in September he was nominated a GCB, and in November he and Graham visited Plymouth and Deptford. The busy routine of visiting dockyards continued with a visit to Woolwich in April 1832 and to Deptford in June, whilst in September the board took passage on the steamer Lightning to monitor Vice-Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm’s squadron as it performed trials off the Scilly Isles. During his time on the board, Hardy was a proponent of the adoption of steamships by the Royal Navy. In September 1833 Hardy was amongst the distinguished party who hosted Queen Dona Maria of Portugal at Portsmouth during her royal visit, and in November he attended the King at Brighton.
In April 1834 he was appointed the governor of Greenwich Hospital in succession to Admiral Sir Richard Keats, although King William stipulated that he would be expected to return to sea in the event of war. He relinquished his position at the Admiralty on 1 August, but he continued to have audiences with the King. During his time at Greenwich, he displayed great compassion and dedication to the hospital’s pensioners and implemented several improvements which enhanced the dignity of the old seamen. On 10 January 1837, in accordance with seniority, he became a vice-admiral.
By the summer of 1839 Hardy was in poor health, and after a week’s severe indisposition he died on 20 September 1839, aged 70. By his deathbed were his wife, his two unmarried daughters (the third was married to a nephew of the Duke of Atholl), and his brother, who was a wealthy Dorset landowner. He was interred in a vault in the college burial ground at Greenwich after (at his own wish) a modest funeral. A monument in dedication to his life was later erected on Blackdown Hill, Portesham, Dorset, in 1846.
Respected for his stoic common-sense, he was placid, a blunt conversationalist and had little imagination, but according to Admiral Lord St Vincent, was ‘the very soul of truth’. He was tall (six feet four inches), with heavy features and a big frame, and retained his west county accent all his life. A good seaman (though a reluctant administrator), he was also a stern disciplinarian of the old school who was renowned for being a regular flogger. On the other hand, rather than punish his youngsters, he is said to have had his midshipmen’s trousers sewn up to prevent them walking around with their hands in their pockets. He led by example, thinking nothing of making his way aloft to teach the uninitiated how to reef the sails.
Hardy was devoted to Nelson, and with his temperate, phlegmatic nature and modesty he was the very antithesis of the little admiral. Although he never spoke of the matter with Nelson, he disapproved of Lady Hamilton and remained friendly with Lady Nelson following the admiral’s separation. When he died, a miniature of Lord Nelson was found around his neck, and this was placed in his coffin.