a potentially ignominious defeat

I'm failed; come undone. Alas, awoe and all that!

I can't find anything on one Captain Jeremy Roch RN other than a few snippets. The internet has either failed me or I am looking in wrong place.

So what do I have

an image.......here it is ....make of it what you will....I think it is him in his small open boat sailing between Plymouth and London with one dog and a boy

please don't ask me what the copyright is or where the image came from. It just popped up on a google images search with little acknowledgement. I think it is from one of his journals

 

I also have a couple of quotes from him:

 

Of sailing with a boy and a dog in a 10' boat from Plymouth to London and back again.......

"one as good company as the other to me for any help I may have need of"

 

He was aboard HMS Cambridge during the Anglo dutch wars at the battle between the English and the Dutch on St James Day in July 1666: it seemed to be a fearsome battle out in the English channel and his comment was

 

'Here was a glorious prospect of 2 fleets, drawn up in such order as perhaps never observed on the sea before, for here every ship fought single so that valour was not oppressed, nor could cowards well avoid fighting. The English shouted for joy that they had…. the opportunity to try it out with the Hogens (the Dutch) on equal terms'

 

He is mentioned briefly in a book 'The Island Nation: A history of Britain and the sea' for his sailing to London and back exploit. It clearly caught the public imagination and attention at that time.  He also voyaged on HMS Antelope

 

And well that is it. Slim pickings indeed.  I haven't given up hope yet but it isn't looking good at the moment. Still, a mystery, an enigma to solve and I like that.

 

Steve