Sir Andrew Wood
Provided by Dennis Bell of British Columbia

Sir Andrew Wood of Upper Largo, the Scottish admiral who hated dry land. Here's a bit of what I have on him: Nearby is Sir Andrew Wood’s Tower, built in the early 1500s. It’s all that remains of a once palatial home, replete with moat and canal, originally built for Largo’s greatest naval hero, Admiral Sir Andrew Wood. He began as a merchant and sea captain sailing out of Leith during the reign of James III.

Wood played a major role in events leading up to the Battle of Sauchieburn, ferrying the king, his soldiers and supplies across the Firth as required in 1488. But the king lost the battle, even though he had armed himself with a sword that once belonged to Robert the Bruce. Retreating from the battlefield, he was brutally stabbed to death near Beaton’s Mill by a man he thought was a priest as he asked for absolution. After the king’s murder, Andrew Wood quickly adjusted to supporting James IV. He was given command of two ships -- the Flower and a frigate, the Yellow Caravel, which was state-of-the-art at the time, with a crew of 500 sailors and 50 guns firing 48-pound shells. Henry VII of England was fond of sending English privateers -- pirates is a better term -- north into Scottish waters to harass trade between Scotland and the continent.

In late 1488, five such ships were busily harrassing Scottish vessels along the east coast when Wood surprised them off Dunbar and engaged them in a prolonged battle. His cannons pulverized the lightly armed privateers, and all five vessels surrendered. The Scottish seaman brought the five captured ships into Leith and became an instant national hero, much loved by James, and given the title of admiral. However, the newly knighted Sir Andrew Wood was not one of Henry VII’s favorite sailors. The English monarch wanted to obliterate the shame of defeat, and issued proclamations offering £1,000 annually for life to anyone who captured Sir Andrew and brought him in chains to London. Most English skippers thought better of the idea, but a pompous Emglish naval commander named Sir Stephen Bull decided to go after the Scottish naval hero. Bull sailed three powerful ships into the Firth of Forth and took up station behind the Isle of May, awaiting the return of Sir Andrew from a voyage across the North Sea to Flanders.

When the Flower and the Caravel came into view, Bull had a cask of wine tapped on deck for his sailors and celebrated the impending battle. After killing the cask, the sailors wobbled off to their battle stations to await the Scots. Sir Andrew responded by giving his men a more prudent single glass of wine each, telling them: "There are your enemies from England who have sworn and vowed that they shall make us prisoners to their king. But, please God, they shall fail of their purpose. Therefore, set yourselves in order, every man in his own place. Let the gunners charge their artillery and let the crossbows make them ready. Have the lime-pots and fireballs in our tops, and the two-handed sword in your fore-rooms. Let every man be stout and diligent for his own part -- and for the honour of the realm!"

Sir Andrew easily outmaneuvred the English ships, getting windward of them and closing in for an artillery battle at very close quarters. After shattering the English topdecks, his sailors fought the English hand to hand, deck to deck. The bloody fight lasted from sunrise into early evening. The combatants finally parted in the dark, only to resume the fighting as trumpets sounded at first light. Thousands of Scottish civilians watched the battle from shore, cheering wildly at the smallest sign of a Scottish triumph. And they had a lot to cheer about. Unnoticed by Bull, the English vessels drifted toward Inchcape, across from the mouth of the Tay, boxed in by the Flower and Yellow Caravel. But Sir Andrew noticed, and ordered an all-out attack. The English recoiled in defeat and surrendered.

The three captured ships were brought into the port of Dundee and Stephen Bull was presented by Sir Andrew as a prisoner of the king of Scotland -- the exact opposite of what the Englishman had in mind. James responded by showering the victors with honors, titles, and rich rewards. He was feeling so magnanimous that he released Bull and sent him home with the remnants of his naval force aboard the three wrecked ships. James told Sir Andrew he wanted to sent Henry a present, and a message: “There are as many manly men in Scotland as there are in England.” Henry got that message and the naval attacks came to a halt.

Sir Andrew Wood was promoted to admiral and went into history as the “Scottish Nelson.” In1498 he was again engaged in naval operations, this time in the Firth of Clyde and the rebellious Western Isles. He may later have been commander of the Great Michael, another state-of-the-art Scottish warship commissioned by James IV. In 1505 the Isles were again invaded from a fleet under Sir Andrew’s command. This time, the king went with his men, wading ashore on Mull, where Sir Andrew’s soldiers and sailors reduced the small fortress of Carniburg, capturing the Lords of the Isles. The Macleans and Macleods submitted to the king and Donald Dubh was hauled off to the dungeons of Edinburgh Castle, where he spent the next 40 years as an almost forgotten prisoner.

The barony of Largo was conferred on Wood by a grateful James in the form of a charter under the Great Seal. Sir Andrew retired to Largo and built his estate on the crumbling foundations of a much older castle rumored to have dominated Largo many centuries earlier. But he had a nautical phobia. Sir Andrew hated travelling on land. He had a quarter-mile-long canal constructed between his moat-ringed castle, now in ruins except for the tower, and the nearby parish church. Each Sunday, he had himself rowed back and forth to church on a small barge usually crewed by English prisoners of war from one conflict or another. It was used to transport Sir Andrew to his burial in the church chancel following his death in 1521. He probably would have preferred burial at sea. The remnants of Sir Andrew Wood’s Canal are still there, one of Upper Largo’s many interesting sights.

Several of Sir Andrew’s descendants followed him into his final resting place in the parish church, though by land -- a son, grandson, great-grandson and great-great-grandson. A gravestone dated 1657 reads: “Sir Andrew Wood Largo His Youngest Son Thomas Lyeth here Buried with his wife Margeret Logie and Their Sonne John Wood Esquire.” Today there is a meticulously built wooden model of the Yellow Caravel residing in a place of honour in the Largo parish church, where the nave and transept meet, in memory of a gallant Scottish admiral who hated dry land.

dennis bell in british columbia

Return to Lower Largo