Diary of Alan Breck Stewart

These notes are part of the re-discovered campaign dairies of the Jacobite sympathiser -Alan Breck Stewart, (Not to be confused with Robert Louis Stevenson's hero of the same neame!) who worked to promote the Jacobite rebels in the club's campaign that ran around 2002/3. Hope they are of interest and view these in conjunction with the diaries of William Smythers Esq - also published here. The two accounts are contemporary...

3rd July 1745
With a glad heart and a bold spirit the adventure began setting sail from the Brittany ports. Prince Charles and his advisers, the Duke of Athol and Col. O’Sullivan aboard the privateer ‘Le Dolpine’. Accompanying the Prince was a squadron of three French Frigates – ‘Lyons’, ‘Monpellier’ and ‘Dunkirque’. Aboard the frigates are detachments from all of the Irish regiments in French service, under the command of the good colonel O’Sullivan and to be known as the ‘Irish Piquets’ additionally there is a detachment of the ‘Regiment Maupas’.

Weather in the English Channel was good, visibility was excellent and it was with great fortune that a sailor of the ‘Monpellier’ did spy the sails of  an English vessel just over the horizon, the fleet tacked east and out ran what was most likely a Royal Navy squadron.

4th July 1745
The fleet passed without event into the Irish Sea, many of the common men in the hold were feeling decidedly sea-sick and by the end of the day the smell from below decks was enough to make even the strongest man cry.

5th July 1745
The weather gets worse as we move north towards home. There is constant concern about being discovered by the Hanoverians and the lookouts spend many long hours in the masts spying the horizon for the enemy. The stench from the holds is worse – if that is at all possible, the men are now being allowed onto the deck for an hour at a time to keep up their spirits.

6th July 1745
The fleet passes into the Atlantic Ocean and the seas get rougher, we skirt around the coast of Ireland without detection. The strain of this journey is starting to effect all on board for at any moment we may be discovered and attacked by the Hanoverian fleet. The Prince, however, is in good spirits as he talks at length of his plans for the future of his new kingdom.

7th July 1745
The weather eases as we sail into the shelter of the Western Isles, at a ‘Council of War’ the Prince elects that we should land at the Island of Mull, O’Sullivan had suggested the mainland Port of Oban but with the Duke of Athol supporting the Prince’s view the decision is made.

8th July 1745
The die is cast, mid morning the fleet finds safe harbour at Mull, the Prince and his officers disembark and immediately head to the house of the local clan leader, Sir Hector MacLaren. The chieftain welcomes the Prince cordially and by manner of his enthusiasm and his good spirit the Prince did gain word from MacLaren of his support for the Princes cause.

By way of good will the chieftain is promised a role in the future affairs of the government of Scotland and the Prince pays MacLaren a bounty of gold to help in the recruiting of men to his cause.

The meeting is brought to a swift close when work is brought to the Prince and his officers of a lone Royal Naval frigate standing off the island. The command group hastily moved back to the port accompanied by Sir Hector. After a period of about one hour the Hanoverian vessel now spied as ‘HMS Nepture’ hove-to and sailed north around the headland.

A council of war was called and it was determined that overnight there should be put into place a daring and cunning plan. Sir Hector organised the local fishing vessels to transport the members of the French troops from Mull to the port of Oban – a clan homeland for the Stewarts – where the prince expected a warm welcome and where I, this  humble diarist, would meet my kinsmen for the first time in 3 years. The Artillery and the arms supplied by the King of France would be transported to Oban by ‘Le Dolphine’ along with the Prince and his officers.

The Duke of Athol  then did make his cunning plan, the French frigates would sail on the morning first to Coll and then onwards north to navigate around the north of Scotland to return to the Brittany ports. On these vessels the captain of the ‘Lyons’ shall carry two letters. The first, a rouse, should be surrendered in a secretive manner to the Hanoverians if the vessels should be captured or destroyed, it details false plans of invasion in East Anglia and Ireland. The second, true letter, requests additional troops from the French King and announces our daring landing.

9th July 1745
Over night the French troops are transported from Mull across the waters to Oban, helped by the good weather the task goes well. By daylight ‘Le Dolphine’ has landed her cargo of Artillery and Arms at the port, the French troops are nearly all landed and the Prince makes a stirring speech on the dockside.

At dawn the French squadron sets sail from Mull heading as planned to Coll, the journey passes uneventfully and they anchor off the coast of Coll to await ‘Le Dolphine’ for the journey north. A shore party lands to tell the local population the news of the arrival of the Prince in Scotland and there is much joy.

Mid afternoon ‘Le Dolphine’ sets sail from Oban to rendez-vous with the rest of the fleet, by three o’clock the vessel is approaching Coll and as it does so it notices three other vessels rapidly approaching from the south west. It is the ‘Neptune’ and two of her sister ships ‘HMS Apollo’ and ‘HMS Venus’ and a mighty battle did commence.