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in his tent than to stay onboard his vessel. Thereupon
P.P. ordered him to appoint the eldest officer under
him to command the flotilla in case of bad weather,
his own ill health, or any sudden motion of the
enemy preventing his being able to get onboard
when it might be necessary to act.
This PN wished to decline: knowing what the
consequences would be: but PP insisted;
upon which P.N. sent me an order to
take the command accordingly.
It being contrary to all custom & indeed
to the letter of the law that an Officer in the
army should command those of the Navy
much more 10 of those of the same rank
as himself in a fleet, the Navy gentlemen
had from the beginning shewn reluctance
and now were very ill disposed to obey
us Army gentry. besides there was
a Dutchman of the name of Winter
who had been taken into the sea service but
a short time after me I was made Lt. Colonel and with the
same rank: and he now commanded
one of the divisions of the flotilla
Fanshawe, who was now Colonel as
well as myself, had been promised
a regiment. I for my part doubted much
if I should have one given me fearing
that P.P. would find some means or other
to prevent my being able to decline the
Sea service: but, as soon as I had
received the order to command the
Flotilla as being the Senior Officer
in it, I was then sure of having a
regiment given me to get me out
of the way: and so it was the very
next day: for Winter, with the rest of
the White coats, had made such a
representation of the injury done to them
to put them under the command of a
green coat that the next day came
out a distribution of the vacant
regiments with orders for their respective
Colonels to join them with all expedition:
Fanshawe to that regiment of Flitsk,
and me to that of Rajsk. He was as
great a nuisance as I; for though
younger in seniority to me he was also
older than Winter. We made, both
of us, all haste to give up our fresh-water
-sailorships: and in 2 or 3 days bid
adieu to the Flotilla, obeying our last
orders to join our respective regiments.
He is gone to Olriopole with his, and
mine is now doing Garrison duty in
this town. It is the only regiment here,
and consists (compleat as it is now) of
2472 including all ranks.
It happens also, to the still greater
mortification of our enemies, that ours are
of the best regiments of Infantry there are,
and I believe the most compleat, but they
are composed for the most part of recruits
since the month of may.
What I dislike most is that probably
I shall pass the winter here and though
in my account I am pretty well seasoned
to the climate I fear I shall lose
1/3 of my men before the summer.
For the burning the Turkish Ships on the
18th & 17th the Empress has sent some swords
as presents to some of us but P.P. has
not yet delivered them. This is a mark
of distinction that only 2 or 3 of the
Commanders in chief received last war.
There will also probably be some prize
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Identifier: | JB/540/489/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540.
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