Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp2.djvu/383

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366
POST-CAPTAINS OF 1811.

36, Captain John William Spranger; Amaranthe sloop, Captain Edward Pelham Brenton; and Intrepid 64, Captain the Hon. Philip Wodehouse. His promotion to the rank of commander took place Jan. 8, 1808, on which occasion he was appointed to the Cephalus, a fine 18-gun brig, on the Mediterranean station, where he captured four of the enemy’s privateers and several merchant vessels. His post commission bears date April 18, 1811, at which period he was acting as Captain of the Cumberland 74. He subsequently commanded the Topaze 36, and was employed off Corfu till the month of Dec. following. That frigate being then in a very defective state, he returned to England with the homeward bound trade under his protection, and paid her off at Portsmouth in Feb. 1812.

Captain Harvey married Miss Cannon, of Sandwich.

Agent.– Sir F. M. Ommanney.



ROBERT MERRICK FOWLER, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1811.]

This officer was made a Lieutenant early in 1800; and appointed first of the Investigator sloop, Captain Matthew Flinders, at the commencement of 1801.

The Investigator (formerly Xenophon) was a north-country-built ship, of 334 tons; and, in form, she nearly resembled the description of vessel recommended by Captain Cook as best calculated for voyages of discovery. She had been purchased some years before into his Majesty’s service; and having been newly coppered and repaired, was considered to be the best vessel which could, at the time of Mr. Fowler’s appointment to her, be spared for the purpose of making a complete examination and survey of the coast of New Holland.

In this sloop. Lieutenant Fowler accompanied Captain Flinders to Terra Australis, and continued until she was laid up at Port Jackson, when he was appointed to command the Porpoise colonial store-ship, formerly the Infanta Amelia Spanish packet[1], and ordered to convey Captain Flinders