A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Trotter, Robert
TROTTER. (Retired Commander, 1844. f-p., 1 6; h-p., 42.)
Robert Trotter entered the Navy, 16 Oct. 1789, as an Officer’s Servant, on board the Edgar 74, in which ship and the Royal William he was for nearly two years employed at Portsmouth under the flag of Admiral Roddam. He joined next, in June, 1795, the Charon 44, Capts. Walter Locke and Jas. Stevenson, attached to the Channel fleet; and from the following Dec. until Nov. 1799, he served, on the Home and Mediterranean stations, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, in the Prince George 98, Capt. Theophilus Jones, Adamant 50, Capts. Henry D’Esterre Darby, Henry Warre, and Wm. Hotham, Europa 50, Capt. J. Stevenson, and Foudroyant 80, Barfleur 98, and Queen Charlotte 100, flag-ships of Lord Keith. In the Adamant he was present, under Capt. Hotham, in the action off Camperdown 11 Oct. 1797. He was also present on shore, and praised by Lieut. Rich. Bourne, his senior officer, for the manner in which he assisted, and the readiness he showed in obeying the orders he received, at the successful defence of the small island of St. Marcouf, when attacked, 7 May, 1798, by a considerable division of the French flotilla.[1] He was made Lieutenant, 15 Nov. 1799, into the Tisiphone sloop, Capt. Chas. Grant, on the West India station; and he was subsequently appointed – 14 June, 1800, to the Solebay 32, Capts. Stephen Poyntz and Thos. Dundas, in which frigate he returned to England and then again visited the North Sea and Mediterranean – 5 July, 1804, after nearly two years of half-pay, to the Albacore sloop, Capt. Major Jacob Henneker, on the Guernsey station – 7 Dec. 1805, to the command of a prison-ship at Portsmouth – and in 1807, to the charge of a Signal-station at Jersey, where he remained until 1811. On 9 Oct. 1804 the Albacore attacked five armed luggers (whom she had compelled the day before to anchor under the cover of a battery near Grosnez de Flamanville) and drove the whole of them on shore in the midst of a very heavy surf that broke with great violence over them. Although herself exposed to a galling fire, and within a few hundred yards only of the coast, she maintained a discharge of round and grape shot until the vessels were abandoned by their crews. Several of the latter appear to have been killed and wounded; but the Albacore, although she was hulled in several places and had her main and maintop masts wounded, escaped without loss. The support afforded by Mr. Trotter on the occasion was spoken of in terms of high approbation.[2] He was placed on the Junior list of Retired Commanders 30 Nov. 1841; and on the Senior 14 May, 1844.