Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Plampin, Robert
PLAMPIN, ROBERT (1762–1834), vice-admiral, born in 1762, son of John Plampin, of Chadacre Hall, Suffolk, where his family had been settled for more than two centuries, entered the navy in September 1775 on board the Renown, with Captain Francis Banks, and in her was actively engaged on the coast of North America during the opening years of the American war. On the death of Banks he was, in January 1778, discharged into the Chatham for a passage to England, whence, in July, he was sent out to join the Panther at Gibraltar [see Duff, Robert]. In February 1780 he was taken by Sir George Rodney into the Sandwich, and in her was present in the actions of 17 April, 15 and 19 May [see Rodney, George Brydges, Lord]. On 4 July 1780 he was appointed by Rodney acting-lieutenant of the Grafton, and, returning to England in the autumn of 1781, passed his examination on 15 Nov., and was confirmed in the rank of lieutenant on 3 Dec. During the rest of the war he was on the Newfoundland station in the Leocadia, which was paid off at the peace, and Plampin was placed on half-pay. In 1786 he went to France in order to study the language; and in 1787 to Holland to learn Dutch. During the armament of 1790 he was second lieutenant of the Brunswick with Sir Hyde Parker; at whose recommendation, based on his knowledge of the language and country, he was appointed in 1793 to a command in the squadron of gunboats equipping at Rotterdam for the defence of Willemstad, then besieged by the French under Dumouriez. When the siege was raised and the enemy retired from the country, the gunboats were dismantled, and Plampin, returning to England, joined the Princess Royal, on whose books he had been borne while with the Dutch gunboats. For this service he received from the States-General a gold medal and chain, transmitted to him by the ambassador at The Hague on 30 April 1793.
In the Princess Royal Plampin went out to the Mediterranean, and on the occupation of Toulon was appointed interpreter to the governor, Rear-admiral Samuel Granston Goodall [q. v.], and afterwards to Lord Hood, the commander-in-chief. On the evacuation of the port, Hood promoted him to the rank of commander, dating his commission back to 30 Aug., the day of his landing at Toulon, and sending him home with despatches. In February 1794 Plampin was appointed to the Albion sloop for service in the Scheldt; and in the summer was moved to the Firm gun-vessel, in command of a flotilla of gunboats in the Scheldt till driven out by the ice. On 21 April 1795 he was posted to the Ariadne frigate, then in the Mediterranean, where he joined her in June, and in the beginning of July was ordered to join the squadron under Nelson in the Gulf of Genoa. On the way he fell in with the French fleet, and, returning at once, brought the admiral the news of the enemy being at sea [see Hotham, William, Lord]. In September he was moved into the Lowestoft of 32 guns, which, on 7 Feb. 1796, off Toulon, was struck by lightning and dismasted. After a partial refit she was sent home with convoy and paid off. In November 1798 he again commissioned the Lowestoft and went to the West Indies in charge of a large convoy. In July 1801 he was ordered to convoy the trade to England, but, going through the Windward passage, was cast away on the Great Inagua, on the night of 10 Aug. The next morning he ordered the convoy to proceed in charge of the Acasta, leaving the Bonetta to assist in saving the crew of the Lowestoft and two of the merchant ships, lost at the same time. After three or four days' great exertion, every one was got safely on board the Bonetta, together with a quantity of specie which was in the Lowestoft. The merchants acknowledged the service by paying the freight for the treasure as if it had been carried to England. A court-martial acquitted Plampin of all blame for the loss of the ship, and he returned to England in the Endymion.
On the renewal of the war in 1803 he was appointed to the Antelope of 50 guns, from which, in the autumn of 1805, he was moved into the 74-gun-ship Powerful, and sailed under the orders of Sir John Thomas Duckworth [q. v.], too late to take part in the battle of Trafalgar. Duckworth detached the Powerful as a reinforcement to the East Indian squadron, and she had scarcely come on the station before, on 13 June 1806, she captured the French privateer Henriette off Trincomalee. Learning from her that a very fast-sailing and successful cruiser, the Bellone, was also on the coast, Plampin disguised the Powerful like an East Indiaman, and, in company with the Rattlesnake sloop, succeeded in capturing her also on 9 July. ‘I reflect with much pleasure,’ wrote Sir Edward Pellew, afterwards Viscount Exmouth [q. v.], the commander-in-chief, ‘on the capture of La Bellone, as well from her superior sailing as her uncommon success in the present and preceding war against the British commerce. … The commercial interests of this country are particularly secured by her capture, which could not have been expected but under very favourable circumstances.’ The vessel had, in fact, won such a reputation in the former war, that the merchants at Lloyd's had offered a reward of 10,000l. for her capture, though, unfortunately for Plampin and the crew of the Powerful, the offer had lapsed at the peace of Amiens and had not been renewed.
In the autumn the Powerful was with Pellew on the coast of Java, and, after an independent cruise to the eastward, returned to Trincomalee very sickly; Plampin himself so ill that he was compelled to invalid. In 1809 he commanded the Courageux in the Walcheren expedition [see Strachan, Sir Richard John]; in 1810, the Gibraltar, as senior officer in Basque roads; and from 1812 to 1814, the Ocean off Toulon, under the orders of Sir Edward Pellew. On 4 June 1814 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral; and in November 1816 was appointed commander-in-chief on the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena station, where he relieved Sir Pulteney Malcolm [q. v.] Some interesting notices of his conversations with Bonaparte are given by Ralfe (Naval Biography, iii. 384–5).
On his return to England in September 1820, Plampin made direct application—a method long since forbidden—for the K.C.B. in acknowledgment of his services at St. Helena; but was told, in reply, by Lord Melville that, creditable as his conduct had been, and satisfactory to the government, the K.C.B. could not be given except for services against the enemy. In March 1825 he was appointed commander-in-chief on the Irish station, a post he was specially allowed to retain for the customary term of three years notwithstanding his promotion, on 27 May 1825, to the rank of vice-admiral. He died at Florence on 14 Feb. 1834, aged 72. His body was brought to England and buried at Wanstead in Essex. He was married, but left no issue. [Ralfe's Nav. Biogr. iii. 372; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biogr. ii. (vol. i. pt. ii.) 640; Gent. Mag. 1834, i. 655; United Service Journal, 1834, pt. i. p. 516, pt. ii. p. 386; Passing Certificate and Service-book in the Public Record Office.]