I have an impossible mission for you. Should you decide to accept it, if successful you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams. But fail
and, if you are lucky enough to live, you will spend the rest of
your life in the deepest darkest prison on earth. The object of this
mission is a 48 year old male, being held prisoner on a remote
volcanic island (above). It has no port and only one beach. The nearest land
is another island, 800 miles to the northwest. The nearest port is
1,200 miles to the east. Your mission must be accomplished without
using aircraft or balloons, motorboats, radio, or electricity of any
kind, or high explosives. You see, it is 1817, and the mission is to
rescue Napoleon Bonaparte.
It is hard to imagine today the terror
Napoleon inspired in the British ruling class. He had not a drop of
royal blood in his veins, and no privileged education. Yet as a
lowly general the "Corsican Ogre" humiliated an Austrian Army in
northern Italy. Then like a new Pharaoh, he conquered Egypt. He was
elected Emperor of France in 1804, and six months later crowned King
of Italy. For almost two years his Grand Army threatened an invasion
of England, and then suddenly "Le petit Corporal" spun about and
almost without firing a shot, captured Vienna and an Austrian army of
30,000 men. A month later he was cornered in Czechoslovakia by a
combined Russian and Austrian army of 85,000 men. He crushed them in
a few hours. After surrendering, Czar Alexander was forced to admit,
“We are babies in the hands of a giant.”
The famous quatrains of Nostradamus
were quoted as predicting Napoleon's rise: “An Emperor will be born
near Italy”. Everywhere he went Kings were overthrown, kingdom's
collapsed, and fortunes evaporated. Napoleon closed Europe to all
English trade, and cost English bankers vast treasure, not even
counting the wealth they had to spend on ships and men of their own.
He was the “bogeyman of Europe.” In 1814, after fifteen years and
five million dead, Napoleon was finally cornered, forced to abdicate, and
exiled to the tiny island of Elba, 12 miles off the coast of Italy.
A year later he escaped, and in the famous 100 days reconquered
France, recruited a new army of 72,000 men, invaded Belgium, beat a
Prussian army of 84,000 men, and finally, at the “very close”
battle of Waterloo, was stopped by sacrificing another 45,000 lives.
This time the British were determined to lock “Boney” away where
he could never escape.
The prison they picked in 1816 was St
Helena, a wind swept tropical volcanic island rising 2,000 feet out
of the south Atlantic, a third of the way between Africa and South
America. Its arid coastal cliffs were cleaved by a half dozen V
shaped canyons where rivers fell from the humid forested interior. The British Prime Minister assured his cabinet,
“At such a distance and in such a place, all intrigue would be
impossible.” But they were still taking no chances.
Ensconced in a single story mansion
called Longwood (above) near the center of the island, Napoleon and his
small retinue were watched round the clock by a battalion of 2,800
soldiers and 500 cannon. A British officer was required to set eyes
upon Napoleon twice a day. He was not allowed out side after sunset,
nor if there was an unidentified sail on the horizon. Eleven warships
patrolled the seas around the island, and at sunset every boat was
secured under guard and every bridge and gate was locked. Residents
of the island's only village, Jamestown, were allowed out after 9 pm
only with a signed pass. Escape seemed impossible.
But, of course, from the moment of his
imprisonment there were those who wanted to set “The Thief of
Europe” free again. A group of retired French officers, who had
emigrated to Texas in America, were raising funds and plotting
Napoleon's escape. His brother Joseph, one time King of Spain, had
escaped to America with 20 million francs. And there were others,
more surprising, such as the legendary British Admiral Thomas
Cochrane, AKA “the Sea Wolf”. Two years after this brilliant
officer commanded the naval squadron that burned Washington D.C. in 1814, Cochrane was convicted of stock fraud, and forced to resign from the
British Navy. Bitter, he sold his skills to Chile, where he founded
their navy and helped win their independence from Spain. And word was
that Cochrane was planning to free Napoleon to lead the
revolutionaries in South America.
But the man all the would-be rescuers
sought out was a common smuggler named Tom Johnson (above). He'd been born to
Irish parents living in southern England, and had become a successful
smuggler by the age of 12. The revenue agents caught him twice, but
after his second escape he somehow managed to reach France.Using his
knowledge of the English coast Tom Johnson quickly again became such a
successful smuggler that while Napoleon was planning his invasion of
England, he met with Tom and offered him a command in the French
navy. Tom said no, so Napoleon threw the smuggler into prison. After
nine months Tom escaped yet again, and was later caught by a
British warship almost within sight of America. But this time the
Admiralty was desperate enough to grant Tom a pardon and put him on
the payroll. And one of the first jobs they gave him was to review a
new invention being offered to save England from Napoleon's invasion
fleet - a submarine.
In 1800 American Robert Fulton (above) built a
working prototype for the French revolutionaries. The four man crew of
the Nautilus were supplied with air up to 25 feet under the surface
via a snorkel. Underwater she was faster than a row boat on the
surface, and while on the surface the Nautilus was powered by a sail
which ingeniously popped up from a deck hanger. But Napoleon took one
look at the leaky thing and decided Fulton was a fraud. He ordered
the prototype destroyed. That was when the British offered Fulton the
modern equivalent of $10 million if he could build one for England.
Maybe the Admiralty never thought it
would work, and they hired Fulton just to keep him occupied.
But the inventor still brought his experience and plans for an even
bigger submarine. The Nautilus II would be 35 feet long, with a crew
of six, two snorkels, a bigger sail and could remain at sea for 20
days. Tom Johnson went over the plans with Fulton at Dover, and they
discussed them in detail. But after the British Navy destroyed the
French and Spanish fleets at the battle of Trafalgar, they had no
need of Fulton's submarine. Discouraged, Fulton took the offer to
build a commercial steam boat in New York. But somebody knew the smuggler Tom
Johnson was still interested in the idea. That, plus Johnson's
reputation for audacity, convinced some body that the old smuggler
should be offered the equivalent of $3 million to rescue Napoleon.
The plan conceived by Johnson involved
two submarines. The larger one would approach St. Helena at night
from the leeward side, and then submerge at dawn. The next evening,
she would surface and launch the smaller sub, which would land Johnson and another man at the foot of the cliffs on the north side
of the island (above). Johnson would ascend the cliff, where he would install
a bosun's chair. Then he would make his way to Longwood, where he
would slip through the British cordon. The next evening, Johnson and
Napoleon would sneak out and make for the cliff. Napoleon would be
lowered in the chair, and be spirited away before dawn.
In 1818 the Times of London reported on
rumors of a plot to rescue Napoleon, and ex-Admiral Cochrane's wife assured several people that such a plan existed. Cochrane was still working with
the Chilean Navy. It might all be a fantasy, except we
know from British Admiralty records that early in 1820 a commission
of senior naval officers reviewed expense accounts for a submarine,
built by Johnson. And leading that commission was Sir George
Cockburn, the soldier who burned down the White House in 1814, while
under orders from Admiral Thomas Cochrane. The records show Johnson
was asking for 100,000 pounds, and the sailors gave him just 4,735
pounds. But clearly there was at least one submarine in existence in
1820, and Johnson had control of it.
What does not seem clear is that
Johnson’s submarine could have accomplished the rescue mission. More than likely, Johnson's plot was a scam to obtain money from
Napoleon's supporters. But if Johnson had not intended upon trying, why, late
one night in November of 1820, did Tom Johnson try to steal his
submarine?He got as far as London Bridge, when the navy caught up
with him. And according to a Thames boatman who witnessed the scene,
“Captain Johnson...(was) threatening to shoot them. But they paid
no attention to his threats, seized her (the submarine) and taking her to Blackwall,
burned her.” Thus ended the impossible mission.
Was any of it possible? Were there really far flung plots to rescue Napoleon? Well, remember
the island 800 miles to the northwest of St. Helena? Its name is
Ascension Island, and in 1815 British marines were sent ashore to
occupy it, in the unlikely event that some one would try to use it as
a base to rescue Napoleon. And as they splashed ashore they reported
some one had left a written a message in the beach sand; “Le mai
l'Empereur Napoleon vit pour toujours” It translated as, “May the
Emperor Napoleon live forever!”
He did not. Napoleon Bonaparte died on
St. Helena in May of 1821, possibly of stomach cancer, or possibly
from arsenic poisoning: by whom is any one's guess. Tom Johnson was
sent to debtors prison, and while there seems to have contributed to
a fanciful retelling of his plan to rescue Napoleon. Upon his release
Johnson was granted a comfortable pension, and retired to Southern
England. In 1832 Admiral Thomas Cochrane was restored to his full
rank in the British Navy, and was later even promoted to Real
Admiral. He died in 1860.
Considering the entire tale from
beginning to end, I have to say, it it had not involved Napoleon, I would have called it impossible. But with Napoleon, nothing was impossible.
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