ceived the ship had gone to pieces, and that if we had staid aboard, all of us by this time must have perished. On the beach, the people with whom we had been conversing were plundering every article of the wreck as it floated ashore.”
On the 11th of the following month, Captain Hunter, his officers, and crew, were tried by a court-martial, at Plymouth, for the loss of the Venerable, and the whole of them fully acquitted of all blame, with the exception of one man, who was found guilty of drunkenness, disobedience, &c. and sentenced accordingly.
Lieutenant Thompson was next appointed first of the Namur 74, Captain (now Sir Lawrence William) Halsted, under whom he served at the capture of four French line-of-battle ships, by Sir Richard J. Strachan’s squadron, Nov. 4, 1805[1]. His promotion to the rank of Commander took place Dec. 24 following.
We subsequently find Captain Thompson commanding the Bonne Citoyenne sloop, on the north coast of Spain; Brune troop ship, employed in conveying reinforcements to the army under Lord Wellington; and Bristol 64, on the Lisbon station. He was advanced to post rank Aug. 12, 1812; and superseded in the command of the latter ship in 1813.
GEORGE MOUBRAY, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1812.]
Son of George Moubray, Esq. a junior branch of the very ancient and once potent family seated at Cockairny, in Fifeshire[2], by Elizabeth, daughter of the late Captain Richard Toby, R.N.
This officer commenced his naval career, June 4, 1789, as a midshipman on board the Adamant 50, bearing the flag of Sir Richard Hughes, Bart, commander-in-chief at Halifax. In 1792, he successively joined the Hannibal 74, Captain John Colpoys, and Juno 32, Captain Samuel Hood, the latter ship then employed in attendance upon the royal family at Weymouth.
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part I. pp. 289 and 431.
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part II. p. 804, and the addenda to Rear-Admiral Moubray’s memoirs.
