HENRY HOPE, Esq.
Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1808.]
This officer is a son of the late Commissioner Charles Hope, R.N., and a cousin to the present Vice-Admiral Sir W. Johnstone Hope, G.C.B., M.P., &c. &c.
He received his first commission, May 3, 1804; obtained the rank of Commander, Jan. 22, 1806; and was made a Post-Captain, May 24, 1808. In Oct. 1809, we find him commanding the Topaze frigate, and assisting Captain (now Sir Benjamin) Hallowell in making arrangements for the capture and destruction of a French convoy, near Rosas; the particulars of which service will be given in our memoir of the officer by whom it was conducted[1].
Captain Hope’s next appointment was to the Salsette 36; and in her he appears to have captured two French privateers, one of which carried 16 guns and 70 men. His removal to the Endymion frigate, fitting at Plymouth for the purpose of coping with the American forty-fours, took place May 18, 1813. On the 3d Dec. following, he captured the Perry letter of marque, a remarkably fine schooner, of 230 tons measurement.
At this latter period, the Endymion was proceeding to join the squadron employed in the blockade of New London; on which station she continued, under the orders of Sir Thomas M. Hardy, until the enemy’s ships in that port were moved up the river, and dismantled. She subsequently accompanied an expedition to the Penobscot, and assisted at the capture of Castine, Sept. 1, 1814[2].
Captain Hope’s action with Commodore Decatur has already been noticed, under the head of Captain John Hayes, C.B.: his own official letter, written on that occasion, is a very short one – and as modest as it is brief – he contents himself with saying:
