LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE COMMANDER OF THE GLOUCESTER.'
[To THZ EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR:] SIR,—The 'Gloucester' officer has more reason to be proud of his ancestor (Crosse, the Somersetshire "sea-dog ") than the notice of him in the Spectator of August 6th would indicate. Though, like so many famous soldiers and sailors of his time, entirely neglected by biographers, Sir Robert Crosse was one of the most distinguished and continuously employed naval officers of Elizabeth. He says himself,. in 1596, that he had served in the wars "since the time of Newhaven (Havre, 1562), and sometimes in Ireland and Scotland, being at the winning of Edinburgh Castle?' He commanded a ship in Drake's Indies Expedition in 1585-86, and in the Cadiz Expedition of 1587, when he- was sent home with despatches to endeavour to get reinforce- ments for the continuance of the blockade. In 1588 he com- manded the 'Hope' of the Queen's, not a little ship, but. tactically equivalent to a "74" of Nelson's time; and was Rear- Admiral of Drake's fleet till it was combined with Howard's.. In the Portugal Expedition of 1589 he was given the highly responsible task of organising and bringing on the reserve- squadrons of store. ships. After the failure at Lisbon he- and Fenner were the only men who reached the original rendezvous for intercepting the East India carracks. Finding they had missed them, they sacked and burnt Puerto Santo in the Madeiras. In 1591 he commanded the Bonaventure,' the fleet of Lord Thomas Howard and Grenville when the- ' llevenge ' was lost. In 1592 he was Vice-Admiral of Raleigh's- cruising squadron, and with Sir John Borough destroyed one great carrack and captured another, the 'Madre de Dios,' one of the richest prizes ever brought to England.. In 1595, in command of a small Royal squadron, he again cruised for the carracke, but this time unsuccessfully. In 1596, in the expedition against Cadiz, he commanded the Swiftsure,' and was Vice-Admiral of Raleigh's squadron. For his brilliant conduct on this occasion he was knighted by Essex (not by the Queen). In Essex's Island Voyage of 1597 be was again charged with the care of the reserve squadron.. He was afloat again as Captain of the 'Nonpareil' in Lord Thomas Howard's fleet in 1599. In 1601 he was invited to. join a conspiracy for seizing the Queen's person in order to secure the release of Essex, but he immediately reported the plot. Many other notices of him exist, and several letters. A. portrait of him was engraved by Pine amongst the Armada
heroes in his volume on the House of Lords' tapestries.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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