Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp2.djvu/471

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
POST-CAPTAINS OF 1811.
451

and unknown rock, off the island of Skaitho, carried away the greater part of her false keel, and the whole of the gripe and forefoot, in consequence of which accident she was obliged to be hove down at Malta.

On the 27th July, 1826, Captain Hamilton’s boats, under the orders of Lieutenant Thomas Gregory, captured a piratical bombard, and burnt a mistico, at the island of Tino, on which occasion five of the Greeks were killed and several wounded. In Sept. following, another vessel was destroyed and a bombard taken, at the island of Andros, by a party of marines, under the command of Lieutenant Parker. About the same period the Cambrian and Rose sloop captured two other pirates; one laden with gunpowder, the other having on board 80,000 piastres, 30 bales of raw silk, 30 packages of saffron, a bag of pearls, and various other valuable articles of merchandize.

The Cambrian formed part of the squadron under Sir Edward Codrington at the battle of Navarin; but in consequence of her having previously been detached, she was prevented from taking any very great share in that extraordinary conflict: her loss consisted of only one man killed and another wounded[1]. The Emperor of Russia has since conferred upon Captain Hamilton the order of St. Anne, of the second class, with the medal set with diamonds; he is also decorated with the cross of the French Order of St. Louis.

On the 31st Jan. 1828, the Cambrian anchored within pistol-shot of the fort of Carabusa, in company with the Isis 50, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Thomas Staines, K.C.B. the Rattlesnake 28, Zebra 18, Cameleon 10, and two French corvettes. At this period there were 14 Greek vessels lying in that port, also an Austrian ship, and an Ionian merchantman, both of which the pirates had carried there. No satisfactory answer having been received to the commodore’s demand, that the marauding vessels and their crews should be given up to him, they were immediately fired upon and several of them totally destroyed, without the smallest opposition. When retiring from this scene of de-