Cumberland, Esq.; and grandson of the late Rev. Robert Mounsey, Vicar of Ravenstonedale, in Westmoreland[1].
This distinguished officer commenced his naval career Feb. 23, 1780, at the age of thirteen years, as a midshipman on board the Royal Oak 74, Captain Sir Digby Dent, which ship formed part of a squadron sent out, in May following, to reinforce Vice-Admiral Arbuthnot, on the North American station; it being known that M. de Ternay and the Count de Rochambeau had recently sailed from Brest with a formidable naval and military force, bound to Rhode Island. In the course of his first voyage across the Atlantic, Mr. Mounsey witnessed the capture of a valuable French East Indiaman.
The Royal Oak and her consorts arrived off Sandy Hook on the 13th July, only two days after the French commanders had reached the anchorage to which they were destined, and where they secured themselves so completely as to put it out of the power of the British to make an attack with any other prospect than that of discomfiture.
From the Royal Oak, Mr. Mounsey removed with Sir Digby Dent to the Raisonable 64; the commander-in-chief having selected the former ship to bear his flag.
Returning home with despatches, the Raisonable encountered the tail of a hurricane, and was so much shattered that it became necessary to frap her sides together: she was consequently paid off immediately after her arrival.
We next find Mr. Mounsey serving under Sir Digby Dent in the Repulse, a new 64, forming part of the squadron detached from Vice-Admiral Darby’s fleet to cover the landing of provisions and stores at Gibraltar, in April 1781. While on that service she was frequently engaged with the Spanish flotilla, and previous to her departure from the bay the greater part of the besieged town was totally destroyed by the enemy’s land batteries[2].
Towards the close of the same year, Mr. Mounsey follow-
- ↑ George Mounsey, Esq. had fourteen children, twelve of whom were still living in Dec. 1827.
- ↑ See Vol. I, Part I. p. 4, and note ‡ at p. 33.
