A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Forbes, James Hodder
FORBES. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 9; h-p., 31.)
James Hodder Forbes is nephew of Capt. Edw. Hodder, R.N. (1814), who died in the early part of 1829. Another uncle was a Captain in the Army.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Jan. 1807, as Midshipman, on board the Agincourt 64, Capt. Henry Hill, and after an intermediate servitude in that ship, the Warspite 74, Capt. Hon. Henry Blackwood, and Inflexible 64, Capt. Thos. Brown, chiefly on the Home station, became Master’s Mate, in 1809, of the Owen Glendower 36, Capts. Wm. Selby, Edw. Henry A’Court, and Brian Hodgson. During the five years of his continuance in that frigate, Mr. Forbes assisted at the capture of the island of Anholt in May, 1809; was in frequent skirmishes with the Danish and Russian gun-boats in the Baltic; took a prize on one occasion to Oporto; and, independently of escorting a Convoy to and from the Cape of Good Hope, conveyed Sir Sam. Hood to Madras. On his return home, in 1814, on board the Cornwallis 74, Capt. Stephen Thos. Digby, he immediately joined the Impregnable 98, bearing the flag of H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence;. and, on the occasion of the grand naval review at Spithead, he received from his Captain, Chas. Adam, a high testimonial of his meritorious conduct. Not long after that event (the Impregnable being at the time at the mouth of the Garonne) Mr. Forbes’ health sustained a very severe shock in consequence of his intrepid exertions in descending into the water at midnight for the purpose of rescuing a boat’s crew belonging to H.M.S. Bedford, all but one of whom were, through his instrumentality, happily saved. For this service he had the satisfaction of receiving the public thanks of the Bedford’s commander, Capt. Jas. Walker. He afterwards, in the Vengeur 74, Capt. Tristram Robt. Ricketts, attended the expedition to New Orleans, and, while engaged in the operations against it, was for nine weeks exposed, day and night, in an open boat. During that period he assisted in storming and destroying the guns of a very strong fort on the banks of the Mississippi; and he also, by the capture of an American schooner laden with supplies, which he had the good fortune to accomplish while in command of the Vengeur’s barge, materially hastened the surrender of Fort Bowyer, near the entrance of Mobile Bay, Ever since the paying off of the Vengeur, in Aug. 181.5, Mr. Forbes, owing to the severe hardships he underwent in the service, has been more or less affected with derangement of mind, and he is now confined in Haslar Hospital.
He is married, and has issue.