Hiya I'm Bruce Fummey. Today I'm in Culross in Fife. Now thousands flock here
each year to see film locations used for the fictional hero, Jamie Fraser in Outlander, but they miss the real hero.
In my Scotland history tour videos, I've told stories about Robert the Bruce,
John Logie Baird, Andrew Carnegie, scientists, inventors, politicians, war heroes, troublemakers
independence fighters, nobility, men who became fabulously rich, and men unjustly imprisoned. Today
I'm going to tell you about a single guy who was all these things and more. There are some
people live more lifetimes in one existence than a nation experiences in a century, and this guy is
one of them. If you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then hit
the subscribe button at the bottom right. For more information, links, books, how to buy me a coffee or
become a member, all that is in the description below. In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
This is Thomas Cochrane, he's a boy's own hero who was continually mired in controversy,
a nobleman who upset the nobility, a Lord who wanted to enlarge the right to vote, a fraudster
who was jailed but then knighted by Queen Victoria, and a Latin American freedom fighter.
That's a lot to get through before your porridge! The reason that Culross has been used as a film set
in period adventures, is that its exteriors have been largely unchanged since the 17th Century,
so that Culross today looks a bit like it would have when Thomas Cochrane grew up. Now I said he
was a hero. I'll tell you how much of a hero he was. He joined the Royal Navy when he was five years
old. It was actually his uncle that enrolled him at that age, and it was a ploy so that by 1793 when he
joined for real at 17, which is actually a bit late, he'd enough years service to do so as a midshipman.
I've no idea but he was diligent, curious, industrious, and brave and he learned his
trade quickly as Britain fought Revolutionary, then Napoleonic France. In 1800, Lord Nelson had
captured some French ships, and Cochrane was given the responsibility of taking one back to base,
which he managed to do through a storm-ridden, enemy infested Mediterranean and then as a reward
he was made Commodore and given charge of a small 14-gun ship firing four pounders. Now that means
that there were seven guns either side and each gun could fire four of these. Now you might be
thinking that Lurpak wasn't invented until 1901 but that's how far ahead of his time Thomas Cochrane was.
Not only was the fire power of this new ship puny, but with only five feet headroom, the ship
was too small for him to stand upright below deck. I think your naval talent
was weighed against that Court-martial for insubordination when they gave you that ship.
Maybe that was the navy's way of telling you to keep your mouth shut. What do you think? Anyway
I'm sure I'm not the first person to tell you it's not the size of your frigate that matters,
and Thomas Cochrane certainly knew how to use his to make an impact. This young naval officer in
this tiny little ship, sunk, grounded or captured 53 enemy ships in 13 months. That's one a week!
That's mental! Did you ever see the film 'Master and Commander', where Russell
Crowe's character was being chased by a bigger ship, and they had no chance right?
So as night fell, they floated a lamp in a barrel, killed all the lamps in the ship, and then escaped
as the enemy followed the light of the empty drifting barrel. That was Thomas Cochrane, in fact
all your Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower novels are based on Thomas Cochrane. There was one time
that this little 14-gun, 50 crew boat took on a 32-gun, 300 crew Spanish monster. It's like
a bloke on a bike squaring up to a Bradley tank. It doesn't matter how hard you throw those packs
of butter, that's a fight you can't win. How would you feel if you were the captain of the big ship?
Somebody throws butter and you end up with egg in your face. That'd take the biscuit!
So what Cochrane did was to sail his tiny ship, that was called the Speedy towards the big warship,
but flying an American flag when he got in close, he suddenly unfurled the British flag. By that time,
because the ship was so small, the big Spanish gun ports were too high to aim at the Speedy's
deck and hull, and they ended up just firing into the sails. so everyone in the Speedy was safe, apart
from one really tall guy that got his head blown off right, but he winnae be so smart standing in
front of folk at the rugby now will he eh? Anyway the gunners and the Speedy threw everything
at the hull of the big ship: butter, sugar, eggs, milk, the whole side of the big ship was scone!
One four pounder was like an annoying fly, but lots of them continually was like a swarm of midges,
and the big ship was like a lowlander in a wooded loch in July, so the Spanish gathered
together on deck to jump across and board the Speedy, but when they did that Cochrane sailed
just out of reach and started to blast the boarding party on the deck. Now the Speedy was
far enough away for the big Spanish guns to hit it, so the Spanish ran back to their firing stations.
Whilst they did this, the Speedy came back in close again and started pounding. Damn it! The Spanish
came back on deck to board and the Speedy pulled away. Every time the Spanish went to the guns, the
Speedy came in close and pounded. When they went to board, Speedy moved away and pounded the
boarding party. Yah fannies! Eventually the Speedy had no sails left because that's all the Spanish
were hitting, so at this point Cochrane dropped off a boarding party at the bow of the Spanish ship.
As the Spanish went to meet them, the Speedy slipped back and dropped another boarding party at
the rear. Hand-to-hand combat followed that and the British pulled down the Spanish colours and that's
how a 50-man little sloop captured a 300 man Spanish warship. Look I don't have time to list,
let alone describe the extraordinary feats that Cochrane carried out in this push bike of the seas,
but it was incredible, astounding, unprecedented, unbelievable. I'll leave a link to books below.
Now remember that when you took a foreign, ship the Captain got a big chunk of the value, so Cochrane
was becoming a very rich man. He was also becoming a wanted man. It took a squadron of three huge
French gunships sent to hunt and capture him, and his tiny little boat. When he was captured,
some daft French officer released them in exchange for another French Captain and Napoleon went
mental and Court-martialed the French officer for being a plonker in the line of duty. Cochrane
got a bigger ship and with it he did all sorts of daring stuff. They landed on dry land and
captured a French fort. They sneaked into a French signal station, copied the codes and left the
original so the Royal Navy knew exactly what the French were up to. As I said I don't have time for
the whole list. Then he stood for Parliament and became an MP. Now in spite of being from a noble
family, he was radical and supported reform and an increase in voting rights. Now that rubbed a bunch
of Lords and Admirals up the wrong way, but he was asked to come back out of semi retirement as an MP
to sink the French Atlantic Fleet hiding in the Bay of Biscay. Now the only reason he
wasn't completely successful in this was that the Admiral under whom he worked was a vacillating
chicken. Oh no, he's slagged off an Admiral now and there's a national incident! Now the whole of
establishment hates him. He made himself a target for revenge, and soon there was an opportunity. When
in February 1814 a rumour broke out that Napoleon was dead and been killed by some Russian Cossacks.
The Stock Market rocketed at the thought that the war was ending. Half a dozen blokes made a killing
on a particular government stock. Now you and I know that the Battle of Waterloo wasn't until 1815,
and that Napoleon died on a remote island in the Atlantic in 1821 so it looked like a fraudulent
conspiracy. So when Cochrane sold in today's terms around 10 million pounds of the stock that he'd
only recently bought it looked suspicious. Now Cochrane had actually given his agent a standing
instruction if the stock went up by one percent he was to sell, so he actually missed most of
the big gains but the fact that he was neither a big gainer nor actively involved in the transaction
didn't help him. He'd upset enough people in the Tory establishment that he was caught up in the
affair, convicted of fraud, stripped of his knighthood, sacked from the Navy, thrown out of Parliament and
sentenced to a year in jail, a thousand pound fine and an hour in the pillory. Now they relented
on the pillory but on the grounds he was so popular the scene might be more trouble than it's worth.
Did he escape from jail? Of course he did, but rather than run away he went
straight back to Parliament to state his innocence and they put him back in jail again.
If you've been wrongly convicted of fraud, deselected as an MP, oh did I mention that when
the by-election for a seat was held a month later he was re-elected unopposed. Anyway you're thrown
out of the Navy but you're still independently wealthy with a title to inherit what would you do?
That's right, you'd become a Latin American Freedom Fighter. I know I would. The detail will have to wait
for another video, but you almost single-handedly won independence for Chile from the Spanish.
Well done sir! Oh could you do that with Peru as well? Nae bother. Lord Cochrane we've got
Brazil holding on line two. I'll be there in a minute. Now it goes without saying that all the
way along he rubbed important people up the wrong way, but he did get things done.
In Brazil he took control of the Brazilian Navy, drove the Portuguese out and harried the retreating .
ships all the way across Atlantic. He then went back to two remaining Portuguese strongholds
and bluffed the garrisons into surrender. The next year he put down a rebellion, then he got
in an argument with the authorities over the rewards and the prize money he was due, and he ended up
compensating himself from the public funds in Sao Luis do Maranhao. He looted the ships in the
harbour, stole one of them and headed back to Europe. Brazilians must hate him. Actually they
still celebrate him. After setting up the fledgling Greek Navy to fight for independence against the
Ottoman Empire, he came back to Britain where Queen Victoria pardoned him for the whole fraud thing
and they asked them to become an Admiral, but he said no, no until you give me my Knighthood back.
Arise Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, oh did I forget to mention that he registered several patents,
invented improvements to gas lighting, convoy lanterns, tubular boilers, steam turbines and
screw propellers for ships. Sorry how could I have forgotten? I know it was because I was too
busy thinking about his literary career and the two best-selling biographies that he published.
Lord Nelson, the second best seaman in the British Navy might have a column in London,
but our guy has a bust in Culross! Oh and a monument in Santiago, Chile
and Valparaiso, Chile, Nova Scotia, Canada. He's also remembered in Peru, Brazil
and Greece and I tell you what they won't forget him in France or Spain in a hurry either.
The Chilean Navy lay a wreath at his resting place in the nave of Westminster Abbey in May each
year. Working as a tour guide, Brazilians have asked me to bring them here to Culross so they can see this
bust, yet how many Scottish people even know his name? If you have any patriotism in your soul,
then you'll tell the world by sharing this video with everyone that you know,
and when you've done that you need to click the link at the end for a playlist on
other under recognized men and women in Scotland's past. I'll leave you to do that
shall I? I'll see you in those videos. Tha mi an dochas bum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.