when we remember that even the name of Captain Dunn, his old and faithful follower, did not appear in either of the public letters which he wrote concerning that abortive expedition; although an officer of the same rank, who volunteered to serve in the Royal George, after the accidental destruction of his own ship, is highly praised “for his able assistance in regulating the fire of the middle and lower decks,” when first passing the Dardanelles[1].
To prevent any misconception on the part of the future historian, we must here add, that Lieutenant Willoughby was the only officer that landed at Constantinople, after the flight of the British Ambassador and merchants; and that, if he had failed in obtaining an interview with the Grand Vizier, it is more than likely that the Turkish government would not have deigned to communicate with the British authorities, after contemptuously neglecting to notice, either their former threats or persuasions. The situation in which Lieutenant Willoughby was so unexpectedly placed, appears to us to have been one of the most extraordinary and dangerous nature: no one but a man of the strongest nerve could possibly have acquitted himself as he did; and no officer could have more acutely felt the official neglect which he experienced. On the day previous to Sir John T. Duckworth’s retreat from before Constantinople, he addressed a letter to Lord Collingwood, of which the following is an extract:–
“My Lord,– I have to inform your Lordship, that it was perceived at nine o’clock yesterday morning, that the Turks had landed on the island of Prota, near which the squadron was anchored, and were erecting a battery in a position to annoy us: I immediately ordered the marines of the squadron to be prepared for landing, and the boats to be manned and armed; the Repulse, with the Lucifer, having been directed to cover them, they proceeded towards the island. The Turks, on the ships firing a few grape to scour the beach, quitted the island in their boats, when all but one boat with eleven men escaped; the which, with two guns they had intended to mount, fell into our possession.”
On this occasion. Lieutenant Willoughby commanded a
- ↑ See Vol. I. p. 649 et seq; – and make the following correction in the note * at p. 803, for the name of each of the Captains, read the names of several Captains.
