Standing at the fence I found myself asking what a Cochrane would do now, and the answer is uncomfortable, because the need for one is so plain. Our age has its Basque Roads, victories thrown away by commanders unwilling to close. It has its prize-court corruption in the procurement billions that vanish without a ship, a road or a reactor to show for them. Above all it has its Stock Exchange trials. Ask the sub-postmasters. Ask the infected blood families. The machine that ruined Cochrane, the machine that would rather destroy the innocent than admit error, has never been better fed. His modern heir would fight it as the original did, by knowing it better than its own officers. Cochrane was an engineer’s son and an inventor to his fingertips, and his heir would read a procurement database the way Cochrane read Spanish gunnery, as a system with a blind spot waiting to be boarded. He would use parliamentary privilege to name names. He would be unclubbable, immune to honours, indifferent to the lobby. And he would accept the price, to be ruined at least once, publicly and with relish, by the people he had frightened, and to come back over the prison wall.
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Samizdata quote of the day – Ask “what would Cochrane do?”August 10th, 2026 |
 8 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – Ask “what would Cochrane do?”Leave a Reply |
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Cochrane! Possibly the greatest example of improbable-yet-true who ever lived.
Yes indeed, Cochrane was a great man.
As for Mr Towler’s wider point about getting good things done in spite of a bureaucratic establishment – Mr Musk springs to mind.
As does, in a different way, President Trump – gloomy people whose minds naturally concentrate on the negative (people such as myself) often overlook the fact (and it is a fact) that he has achieved notable victories over the establishment – securing the border was supposed to be “impossible” (President Bush said so – let alone President Obama or President Biden) yet it has been done, reversing Roe V Wade (abortion on demand – in every State) was supposed to be “impossible” but it has been done, ending the drive for “Net Zero” was supposed to be “impossible” but it has been done, bringing back basic industries was supposed to be impossible (Americans were supposed to “inevitably” be the SERFS of the International Community – led by the People’s Republic of China) – but, to some extent, this is also being done. Even cleaning up Washington D.C. the statures, the fountains, and so on, was supposed to be “impossible” – “you can not go back to the 1950s – Washington D.C. is in the hands of the mob now” – yet it has been done, with a massive reduction of crime.
The decline and death of the United States, and the Western world in general, may still happen – but at least President Trump is trying prevent it.
Whether there will be a British version of President Trump remains to be seen.
Point of information, Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, during the Biden ‘presidency’.
llater,
llamas
Cochrane is a hero of naval history so extraordinary that you cannot believe what he did was real, and several biographies have been written about him. He was the inspiration, so it is said, for the Hornblower character as written by C S Forester.
His autobiography is amazing.
Cochrane the Dauntless is a good biography.
Peter Moore, the journalist, has a new book out about him. I have pre-ordered it.
Several of these naval commanders – Edward Pellew, Sidney Smith, James Saumarez, were men of action, daring and considerable skill. Nelson understandably tends to dominate the narrative of this period, but they deserve a lot of attention of their own. They also tended to treat their men relatively decently by the standards of the time. Cochrane disapproved of flogging, and was indefatigable in ensuring his men got paid on time. No wonder the establishment came to hate him.
He was also a bit of a radical in politics, but in a generally benign way. Among his achievements was founding the navy of Chile and getting involved in liberating that country from Spain. Many former Napoleonic War soldiers and sailors went to South America and got involved as mercenaries. It is a history that deserves more attention.
Cochrane needs a blockbuster docu-drama movie, except that no-one would believe it happened.
Also the inspiration for Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey. Many incidents from Cochrane’s life fictionalised in the Aubrey-Maturin books.
He would have to be played by Russell Crowe.
llamas – thanks to the Justices appointed by President Trump, not Joseph Biden or Barack Obama.
The credit for returning this matter to local (not Federal) control, goes to President Trump.