Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp2.djvu/436

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416
POST-CAPTAINS OF 1811.

ever after was honored with. From Nov. 1800, until the peace of Amiens, we find him serving in the Belleisle 74, commanded, except for two short periods, by Captain William Domett[1]. He subsequently proceeded to the Leeward Islands, as master’s-mate, in the Ulysses 44, fitted for the broad pendant of Commodore Samuel Hood, in which ship he was present at the capture of Tobago, July 1, 1803[2].

After that event Mr. Henderson returned home, for the purpose of passing his examination at the Navy Office; and he had no sooner done so, than he proceeded to rejoin Commodore Hood, by whom he was made Lieutenant into the Alligator 28, armed en flute, by commission dated Jan. 28, 1804. In that ship, commanded by Captain Charles Richardson, he assisted at the reduction of Surinam, May 5, 1804[3].

Lieutenant Henderson was next appointed to the Centaur 74, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Samuel Hood, who had just before been created a K.B. for his numerous gallant and valuable services, but whose naval rank did not admit of his being much longer continued as commander-in-chief at the Leeward Islands.

After Sir Samuel’s departure for England, the Centaur accompanied Rear-Admiral Cochrane to Jamaica, in pursuit of the celebrated Rochefort squadron[4]; a circumstance not noticed in our memoir of her captain, the present Sir Murray Maxwell.

Early in 1806, Lieutenant Henderson had the happiness to find himself again under the command of Sir Samuel Hood, who was at that period appointed captain of the Centaur, then at Plymouth, and placed under the orders of Earl St. Vincent, who sent him with a squadron of seven sail of the line, and some small vessels, to watch the motions of the enemy at Rochefort. The capture of four heavy French frigates (full of troops, stores, arms, ammunition, and provisions) by the Centaur, Monarch, and Mars, Sept. 25, in the same year, have been described at p. 570 et seq. of Vol. I. Part II. On