18-19 ғасырдағы британдық теңізшісі Роберт Кальдер

18/19th century British naval officer

Admiral Sir Robert Calder, 1st Baronet, (2 July 174531 August 1818) was a British naval officer who served in the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. For much of his career he was regarded as a dependable officer, and spent several years as Captain of the Fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis. However, he is chiefly remembered for his controversial actions following the Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1805 which resulted in his court martial. Though he was removed from his sea command, he was retained in the Navy and later served as Commander in Chief of the base at Plymouth.

Robert Calder was born in Elgin, Scotland on 2 July 1745, second son to Sir James Calder and Alice Hughes, daughter of Rear Admiral Robert Hughes. His father was the 3rd Baronet Calder of Muirton, who had been appointed Gentleman Usher of the Privy chamber to the queen by Lord Bute in 1761. Calder was educated in Maidstone, before joining the Royal Navy in December 1758 at the age of thirteen. Parliament voted to award him an annum of £1,200, which he declined.

In the War of the Third Coalition (1805–1806), he was in command of the squadrons blockading the ports of Rochefort and Ferrol, in which (among others) ships were being prepared for the invasion of England by Napoleon I. Calder held his position with a force greatly inferior to that of the enemy, and refused to be enticed out to sea. On it becoming known that Napoleon intended to break the blockade of Ferrol as a prelude to his invasion, the Admiralty ordered Rear Admiral Charles Stirling to join Calder and intercept the Franco Spanish fleet on their passage to Brest. The approach of the enemy was concealed by fog. Finally, on 22 July 1805, the fleets came into sight. The allies outnumbered the British, but Calder ordered his fleet into action. In the ensuing Battle of Cape Finisterre, fifteen British ships engaged twenty French and Spanish ships and captured two. The British losses were 39 officers and men killed and 159 wounded; the allies lost 158 dead and 320 wounded. After four hours, as night fell, Calder gave orders to discontinue the action. Over the following two days, the fleets remained close to one another, but did not re engage. Calder focused on protecting his newly won prizes, while the French Admiral Villeneuve declined to force another engagement. Villeneuve left on 24 July, sailing to Ferrol, and eventually Cádiz, instead of resuming his course to Brest. Villeneuve had failed in all his objectives: he had landed no troops in Ireland, and the plan of linking with the fleet at Brest, driving off the British Channel squadrons, and supporting Napoleon's invasion of Britain came to nothing: the Armée d'Angleterre waited uselessly at Boulogne as before. In the judgment of Napoleon, his scheme of invasion was baffled by this day's action; but much indignation was felt in England at the failure of Calder to win a complete victory. However, Calder's superior, Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, Commander of the Channel Fleet, found no complaint with his performance: Calder was shortly thereafter given command of a twenty ship force to continue in the effort to bring the Franco Spanish fleet to battle. These twenty ships would later form the nucleus of the British fleet at Trafalgar, when they were absorbed into the smaller squadron commanded by Lord Nelson.

In May 1779 he married Amelia Mitchell only daughter of John Mitchell, esq., of Bayfield Hall, Norfolk. They had no children and his baronetcy accordingly became extinct upon his death.