A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Colston, Samuel
COLSTON. (Lieutenant, 1825.)
Samuel Colston was born 21 Oct. 1795.
This officer entered the Navy 24 June, 1810; and, while attached, in 1811-12, as a Volunteer, to the Impérieuse 38, Capt. Hon. Henry Duncan, partook of a variety of active operations on the coast of Italy, including the capture and destruction of a battery and convoy at Pisciota, and (with a loss to the British of 5 men killed and 11 wounded) of a tower, two batteries, 10 gun-boats, and 22 richly-laden feluccas, defended, in the harbour of Palinuro, by a force of 700 troops and armed peasantry. During a subsequent servitude in the Caledonia 120, Boyne 98, and Queen Charlotte 100, all flagships of Lord Exmouth, he witnessed the partial skirmish with the French fleet off Toulon, 5 Nov. 1813 – officiated as Clerk to his Lordship’s Secretary during the negotiations with the Barbary Powers for the abolition of Christian slavery – and was present, 27 Aug. 1816, at the bombardment of Algiers, where he was wounded by a splinter in the face and ankle, and by a musket-ball in the thigh. Having been allowed by special order, when in the West Indies, in 1825, to pass his examination for Lieutenant, Mr. Colston was, on 3 Oct. in that year, advanced to the rank he now holds, and appointed, 31 Oct. 1828, to his present command in the Coast Gdard. Among various seizures since effected by Lieut. Colston, we may notice the capture, 21 Oct. 1832, of a noted French smuggler, a sloop of 35 tons, with a cargo of tobacco on board.
He married 1 Sept. 1825, and has issue seven children. Agent – J. Hinxman.