Who is Peter Parker?
This edition of the Yankee Doodle Spies will relate the exploits of one Peter Parker. No, not that Peter Parker. Our Peter Parker was not a web crawling teen like his comic book namesake. But before he was a teen, he was skipping along the rigging with a speed and grace that would make even a Spider-Man jealous. This is our first naval topic in a while and focuses on a little known British sailor who rose through the ranks through long service, a little patronage, good timing, and courage. Sometimes all it takes to rise to the top is just being there.
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| Skipping up the rigging |
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| Midshipman |
Our Peter Parker was born in Ireland in 1721, the son of Vice-Admiral Christopher Parker. Like all the legacy officers of the Royal Navy, he started early, serving as a cabin boy and midshipman. In this capacity, he served on several vessels under Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon of the West Indies station at the start of the War of Jenkins' Ear.
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| Vice Adm Sir Edward Vernon |
War of the Austrian Succession
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| Rear Admiral Sir William Rowley |
The eight-year War of the Austrian Succession would provide plenty of action for the Royal Navy and lots of opportunities for up and coming young officers like young Peter. Parker received his lieutenant’s commission in the summer of 1743 aboard the HMS Russell, a second rate 80-gun ship of the line. He served on several warships at various stations. Most notably the Mediterranean, where he took part in the battle of Toulon on 11 February 1744 aboard the flagship of Rear-Admiral William Rowley, the 90-gun HMS Barfleur.
In May 1747 he made captain and commissioned a captured French privateer as the 24-gun frigate HMS Margate. Captain Parker commanded this vessel in the Channel, North Sea, and the Mediterranean, and when she was paid off in April 1749, he had a short stint aboard the 66-gun HMS Lancaster before going on half-pay with the war’s end. It was common practice to place officers on half-pay in-between “hot” wars.
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| Young Lieutenant Parker served at Toulon |
Seven Years of War
Captain Parker remained ashore on half-pay for several years while supervising the construction of the 44-gun HMS Woolwich at Portsmouth. With the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, he took to sea on the Woolwich and commanded it on a voyage to the Baltic Sea. But he fell badly ill during the voyage when he caught a fever that swept through the ship.
After he recovered, the navy sent him to the Leeward Islands in December 1756, where, in January 1759 he transferred to the 50-gun HMS Bristol. Parker commanded the Bristol in the unsuccessful campaign against Martinique and later in the campaign that took Guadeloupe.
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| Taking Fort Louis at Guadeloupe was one of many sea-land campaigns in Parker's career |
In 1760, he transferred back to home station (the Channel) where he took command of the 64-gun HMS Montague. Parker took several prize-ships while cruising the narrow but deadly waters between Britain and the Continent. His success gained him command of the 70-gun HMS Buckingham and a squadron that reduced French fortifications on the Isle d’Aix. The following year he participated in the assault on a fort at Belle-Isle. This was classic 18th-century warfare, reducing posts and gaining chits to negotiate a better peace. But plenty of hot action and naval savvy made this possible. His last wartime command was the 74-gun HMS Terrible just before the 1763 Treaty of Paris.
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| HMS Terrible in action |
Another Half-Pay Hiatus
The 1763 Treaty of Paris consigned Parker and most of his fellow officers on to half-pay. This half-pay status was intended to reduce expenses while keeping experienced officers in hand so they could be reactivated for the next war. And in the 18th century Royal Navy, there always was the next war. Parker remained without a command for nearly a decade. But then things got interesting. Knighted in 1772, Sir Peter Parker was given command of the second-rate but heavily armed (90-gun) HMS Barfleur when he rejoined the service in 1773. By 1773 things were heating up in the North American colonies. In 1775 Parker was given command of the fourth-rate 50-gun HMS Bristol but more importantly, he would soon receive command of a squadron and promoted to commodore.
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| Ships returning to Plymouth |
War of Rebellion
In February 1776 Captain Peter Parker was named commodore of a small squadron at Plymouth and ordered to transport several Irish regiments under General Charles Cornwallis to America. Destination: the Cape Fear region of North Carolina. This was part of a complex plan in which he would cooperate with North Carolina’s infamous Royal Governor Josiah Martin and General Henry Clinton in an effort to raise Loyalist support in the troubled colony.
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| Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet |
Ill-Fated Southern Rendezvous
Bad weather and bad luck would thwart these efforts. A rough Atlantic voyage ensued, and by the time Parker’s armada reached its rendezvous with Clinton, the expected Loyalist uprising they depended on had been crushed. To their chagrin, they learned of the decisive battle at Moores Creek Bridge on 21 February 1776. The resettled Scots highlanders of the Carolina hill country had agreed to march to the coast in support of the crown. The irony here was that many had been resettled after the disaster at Culloden decades earlier in Scotland. Now they had taken up the claymore on behalf of the crown that vanquished them in 1745. The highlanders’ attack was easily scattered by the rebels from the coastal tidewater - thus, no force to link up with.
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| Battle at Moores Creek Bridge |
But no armada should ever go to waste, so Parker and Clinton shifted their sights south - on Charleston, South Carolina. The town was seen as weakly defended. Quickly seizing it would provide a good naval base in the south and provide a safe haven for Loyalists throughout the region. The idea of winning hearts and minds was still part of the British approach to the war.
Charleston
On 1 June 1776, Parker’s flotilla lay off Charleston but the lack of charts (see the Yankee Doodle Spies Blog Post on hydrography) forced the British to sound the waters while they waited for the tides to favor and attack. A good plan under the conditions, but the delay gave the American commander, Colonel William Moultrie, time to improve the defenses of Fort Sullivan on Sullivan’s Island.
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| Moultrie's gallant defense of Fort Sullivan spared the south for a few years |
On 28 June, Parker was finally able to land the British troops on Long Island, the island next up the coast to the north-east of Sullivan’s Island, and place ships where they could fire on the island. Despite a horrific bombardment, the defenders held out, protected by Fort Sullivan’s palmetto walls. The spongy bark palmetto logs absorbed cannon fire. The defenders had only a few guns but Moultrie used these to good effect. He concentrated their fire upon Parker’s flagship, HMS Bristol. In a stroke of ill-luck, the ship’s cable was shot away. Out of control, Bristol swung around, and guns from the fort poured enfilade fire into her.
Our commodore bravely stood his post on the quarterdeck in the finest tradition of the Royal Navy. But a heated cannonball, deadly red hot shot, seared his pants off his rear end and burned him badly. Meanwhile, things went from bad to worse. To evade capture the frigate HMS Actaeon ran onto shoals and grounded. Under American fire, the savvy British sailors burned their ship to avoid her capture. The intense fighting went on for 10 hours. Finally, with casualties amounting to over 250, Parker signaled the flotilla to break off and they disengaged.
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| Shoals, palmetto logs and well aimed guns set our commodore's pants afire |
Parker’s failure at Charleston saved the south for the glorious cause, at least for a few years. The resultant boost in American morale rallied southern patriots and subdued southern Loyalists. In the kind of war the rebellion was becoming, morale would prove decisive.
True North
With their commodore recovering from his burns, Parker’s flotilla made its way back to New York. There it joined the fleet under Admiral Richard Howe. Commodore Parker recovered enough to command the squadron that captured Long Island in August 1776. There his ships supported the landing of British troops on Long Island, causing the rebel army to be forced from New York City.
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| Parker's leadership was part of a brilliant sea-land campaign that resulted in victory on Long Island and New York |
In December 1776, Parker was given command of a flotilla that transported an invasion force under Henry Clinton in another successful venture: seizing Newport, Rhode Island. This provided the British an additional base from which to threaten Massachusetts and Connecticut. More sea-land success for the commodore that would not go unnoticed.
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| Sir Henry Clinton |
Commodore Parker remained on station at Rhode Island for almost a year with two 50-gun warships and several frigates under his command. Despite the seemingly apparent backwater assignment, his career was about to pivot him in a higher trajectory: flag rank!
A Flag Officer
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| Comte de Grasse |
His time in America came to a close in 1782. Parker returned to England in August of that year. But he had the distinct privilege of carrying the captured French admiral, Francois-Joseph-Paul, Comte de Grasse, and his staff as prisoners from the Battle of the Saintes. Despite the defeat at the Saintes, de Grasse gained honors for his victory at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781-a rare defeat of the Royal Navy that set the stage for American victory. One can only wonder about the sea stories they shared over wine during the voyage back! In London, de Grasse would set the stage for negotiations leading to the Treaty of Paris ending the American War for Independence.
High Command
Service in American waters brought Parker great distinction, despite Charleston. He was elevated to a baronetcy in 1783, and given command of Portsmouth harbor, home port of the Royal Navy. During that time he met and mentored a young Lieutenant Horatio Nelson, future victor of Trafalgar. Parker facilitated his early career and for that, if nothing else, the British should hold him in esteem. Parker was named admiral of the fleet in September 1799 upon the death of Admiral Lord Howe. He was also named a general of marines. Sadly, one of Parker’s last official acts was to serve as the chief mourner at Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson’s funeral on 9 January 1806.
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| Parker would mentor a young Horatio Nelson and sadly preside at his funeral |
An MP
Not uncommon for military officers at the time, Parker served in parliament as MP for Seaford from 1784-6 In 1787, he became M.P. for Malden, which he held until 1790. Parker’s West Indian prize-money allowed him to build an estate in Essex, although during his parliamentary years his address was given as Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire. He supported the government but only made two speeches during his time in the House of Commons. As a member of Parliament, Parker was a pro-slaver, stating that “the abolition of the Africa Trade would, in my opinion, cause a general despondency amongst the Negroes and gradually decrease their population and consequently the produce of our islands, and must in time destroy near half our commerce and take from Great Britain all the pretensions to the rank she now holds as the First Maritime power in the World.”
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| Parliament |
Family Life
True to his class and position, Parker made a good match in his family life. Parker married Margaret Nugent. They had two sons and two daughters. One son, Christopher, would rise to Vice-admiral.
Admiral Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet was viewed as tough and opinionated, and well regarded for his composure and coolness in action. After all, how many admirals continued to fight with their pants seared off? Although he was considered cantankerous, he met his match with Margaret. His wife was of a very strong personality, and during his period of command at Jamaica was almost his equal in the management of the station. He died in London, on 21 December 1811 and was buried at St Margaret's, Westminster.
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| Peter Parker's resting place at St. Margaret's Church |
Legacy
Peter Parker's Forest Gump like career, spanning decades, continents, battles, and interaction with a who's who of the 18th century Royal Navy was not uncommon. After all, forging an empire requires such men to put themselves in strange places, often for years at a time. Naval officers often sprang from a line of naval officers. As we can see, Parker's line was pretty darned accomplished. In addition to being the son and father of an admiral, he was also the grandfather of an admiral. Parker's use of patronage rose his son Christopher (who served under him) to captain and then admiral at a very early age. Christopher's son Captain Peter, the celebrated 2d Baronet, also served under his grandfather as well as Horatio Nelson. The second Peter Parker fought in America as did his father and grandfather. This time in the War of 1812, where during combat near Baltimore in 1814, he was shot in the pants like the first Sir Peter. Unfortunately, this would be mortal. He too was buried at St. Margaret's.
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| Captain Peter Parker, 2nd Baronet |
