By that excellent judge of merit, he was in a short time promoted, and appointed to command the St. Lucia schooner (rated as a sloop of war), in which vessel he captured several of the enemy’s privateers, and rendered such other service to the British trade as obtained him the public thanks of his Commodore, by whom he was subsequently appointed to the Hippomenes, formerly a Dutch corvette, pierced for 18 guns, but mounting only 14, with a complement of 90 officers, men, and boys.
On Captain Shipley’s removal from the St. Lucia, the whole of that vessel’s crew were so desirous of following their youthful commander, that scarcely a dry eye was to be seen among them, as he descended the side. If there was any one part of his character as an officer more remarkable for its merit than another, it was the peculiar art of gaining the affection and respect of all under his command.
On the third day after his appointment to the Hippomenes, Captain Shipley captured a French frigate-built privateer, of 36 guns and 240 men. This exploit, which, considering the enemy’s vast superiority, reflects the greatest possible credit on him for his zeal and gallantry in pursuing her, cannot be better described than in his own modest letter to Commodore Hood; wherein he carefully abstains from attaching the least praise to himself, but at the same time reports the spirited conduct of a brother-officer in a manner becoming an ingenuous British sailor:–
