“I herewith enclose a list of the killed and wounded; and it is with much regret I add the name of Captain Stopford, who had his right arm carried off by a cannon-shot, whilst actively employed in the batteries; he is, however, doing well, and I hope soon to get him removed to a better climate.”
When Captain Stopford lost his arm, the seamen seeing him knocked backwards, and lying senseless, conjectured that he had been killed outright; but as they were bearing him off the field, he recovered his senses, and feeling the hot beams of a vertical sun striking directly on his head, his hat having rolled off when he fell, he immediately exclaimed to one of his men, “Damme, Sir! fetch me my hat.”
Captain Stopford was promoted to post rank on the second day after his arrival in London, from which period we lose sight of him until his appointment to the Rosamond 20, in the spring of 1814.
That ship was then under orders to convoy three merchantmen to the coast of Labrador. On her arrival there. Captain Stopford’s amputated arm arrested the attention of the Esquimaux. They satisfied themselves, by feeling the stump, that the limb was actually deficient, and then appeared to wonder how it could have been lost: but when one of his officers made signs to them that it had been severed with a saw, commiseration was depicted in every countenance.
The Rosamond returned to the Nore, Nov. 17, 1814; when she was surveyed, and found to be totally unfit for sea, in consequence of the damage she had sustained amongst the ice of Hudson’s Straits. She was accordingly put out of commission, and immediately advertised to be sold. Captain Stopford enjoys a pension of 300l. per annum for the loss of his arm.
Agent.– Sir F. M. Ommanney.
