A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hope, David
HOPE. (Captain, 1830. f-p., 20; h-p., 31.)
David Hope, born 9 July, 1787, in Edinburgh, ia third son of Wm. Hope, Esq., of Newton, near that city, and descends from Sir Thos. Hope, Bart., of Edminstone and Cauld Coats, in co. Mid Lothian. One of his brothers, James, a Lieutenant in H.M. 1st Regt. of Foot, was severely wounded in Holland, and died from extreme fatigue during the campaign in Egypt; and another, William, an officer in the 19th Regt. of Foot, was massacred at Candy, in the island of Ceylon. A third brother of Capt. Hope was in the 89th.
This officer entered the Navy, 25 May, 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Kite sloop, Capt. Wm. Brown, and in May, 1798, accompanied, as Midshipman, an expedition under Sir Home Popham, having for its object the destruction of the locks and sluice-gates of the Bruges Canal, during the operations connected with which he was employed on shore. After witnessing, in the Tisiphone sloop, Capt. Chas. Grant, the surrender to Sir Andrew Mitchell of the Dutch fleet under Rear-Admiral Story, Mr. Hope proceeded to the West Indies, where he successively followed Capt. Grant, as Master’s Mate, into the Abergavenny 54, and Quebec 32. Between Nov. 1802 and June, 1803, we find him employed on the Irish station in the Dryad frigate, Capts. Robt. Williams and Wm. Domett; and on his removal to the Prince of Wales 98, flag-ship of Sir Robt. Calder, sharing in the action with the combined squadrons of France and Spain, off Cape Finisterre, 22 July, 1805. Being confirmed a Lieutenant, 30 Aug. 1806, in the Sir Francis Drake 36, Capts. Jas. Haldane Tait and Pownoll Bastard Pellew, on the East India station, he continued in that frigate until March, 1807, when he joined the Wilhelmina, Capt. Chas. Foote, whom, it appears, he accompanied, as his First-Lieutenant, into the Piedmontaise. Towards the close of 1808 he invalided home on board the Powerful, 74, Capt. Chas. Jas. Johnstone. In Sept. 1809, a few months after his arrival, he had the fortune to be appointed to the Freija frigate, Capt. John Hayes, fitting for the West Indies, where, in the next Dec. and Feb., he witnessed the destruction of the French 44-gun frigates Loire and Seine, in L’Ance-la-Barque, and the surrender of Guadeloupe. During the operations which led to the latter event Lieut. Hope commanded the boats of a small squadron at the capture and destruction of all the sea batteries on the N.W. side of the island; and on the night of 20 Jan. 1810,[1] with four of the ship’s boats, and 83 officers, seamen, and marines under his orders, he entered Bay Mahaut under a most galling fire from the enemy in every direction, and, besides making prize, by boarding, of a brig mounting 6 guns, and setting fire to two other vessels, one of them a fine national schooner, pierced for 16, but carrying only 12 guns, stormed and took two batteries. The first of these was found to consist of 1 24-pounder, in addition to 6 howitzers, which had been dragged to the beach to oppose the landing of the British; and the second, of 3 24-pounders. To add to the lustre of this valorous exploit, successful in its every detail, it was effected with no greater loss than 3 persons wounded. Among them, however, was the gallant leader, whose conduct impressed the Commander-in-Chief with so high a sense of his bravery and merit as to elicit from him a declaration that he was deserving the notice of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. On 24 Nov. 1810 Lieut. Hope was appointed First of the Macedonian, of 48 guns and 254 men, Capts. Lord Wm. FitzRoy, Hon. Wm. Waldegrave, and John Surman Carden, in which frigate he was very actively employed on the coasts of Portugal and France, and came often into contact with the batteries in the neighbourhood of Ile d’Aix. On 25 Oct. 1812 it was his lot to be on board the Macedonian, when, after a glorious resistance of 2 hours and 10 minutes, in which she had been reduced to a perfect wreck, with a loss of 36 of her crew killed and 68 wounded, she was forced to strike to the American ship United States, of 56 guns and 474 men, of whom the killed and severely wounded do not appear to have exceeded the united amount of 12. At the commencement of the conflict Lieut. Hope was severely wounded in the leg, and towards the close he was still more seriously injured in the head, and taken below; but he was soon again upon deck, displaying that greatness of mind and exertion which, though it may be equalled, can never be surpassed.[2] At the subsequent trial, indeed, of the surviving officers and crew of the Macedonian, the Court declared itself unable to dismiss Lieut. Hope without expressing its highest approbation of the support given by him to his Captain, and of his courage and steadiness during the contest. In June, 1813, within a few days of this honourable acquittal, he was appointed by Sir John Borlase Warren to the command of the Shelburne schooner, of 14 guns. In the course of the next 12 months he drove on shore and destroyed a number of the enemy’s small privateers and merchantmen; and on 20 April, 1814, he was the instrument, through great exertion, of rendering the U.S. sloop-of-war Frolic a captive to the British frigate Orpheus. Continuing in the same vessel until Dec. 1814, Capt. Hope, whose commission as Commander was at length signed on 15 June in that year, was for about four months employed in blockading New Orleans, and in occasionally affording assistance to our allies, the Creek Indians, on the Apalachicola river. In Oct. 1814 we find him, with a zeal for the service highly honourable to him, voluntarily relanding a large sum of money which had been consigned to him for conveyance from New Providence to the Havana, for the sole purpose of affording to a newly-arrived squadron under Sir Jas. Alex. Gordon the benefit of his experience in navigating the Gulf of Florida. On leaving the Shelburne he assumed the duties of aide-de-camp to Sir Alex. Cochrane on board the Tonnant 80, and proved of much assistance to him throughout the arduous campaign against New Orleans. On one occasion, while so employed, he was near losing his hfe by jumping into the Pearl river to save a soldier of the 95th Regt., who would have been drowned but for his humane efforts. Capt. Hope, who left the Tonnant in March, 1815, did not again go afloat until 12 Jan. 1828, when he obtained an appointment to the Terror bomb, in which he sailed with stores for the Mediterranean, but was wrecked on his passage out, under very awful circumstances, on the coast of Portugal, near Villa-Nova-de-mille-fuentes, 19 Feb. following. Although a survey held by the officers of a frigate and brig sent to the assistance of the Terror announced it as impossible for her to be saved, and recommended her being sold, she was nevertheless got off by the extraordinary exertions of her officers and crew, and placed in a condition to return to England. On her arrival the Senior Lieutenant, Chas. Hotham, and Midshipman Robt. Cleugh, were rewarded for their labours by immediate promotion, and Capt. Hope himself, to whom every prospect of early advancement was held out by the Lord High Admiral, was at once, 26 July, appointed to the Meteor, another bomb. In that vessel he was at first employed in blockading the port of Tangier, for the purpose of obtaining the restoration of two merchantmen captured by Barbary cruizers. He returned home from the Mediterranean, on attaining his present rank, 4 Feb. 1830, and has since been on half-pay.