the Cape of Good Hope and China, about the end of 1799. The Madras had previously been attached to the North Sea fleet, under Admiral Lord Duncan[1].
We next find Mr. Henry Byng serving as master’s-mate of the Galatea 32, under the command of his eldest brother[2]; in which active and well disciplined frigate he continued from Jan. 13, 1801, until April 26, 1802. During the peace of Amiens, he successively joined the Centaur 74, flag-ship at Plymouth; and the Imogene 18, Captain Henry Vaughan; with whom he again visited the Cape of Good Hope. On ihe 7th April, 1803, he was discharged from that sloop into the Texel 64, Captain George Byng, who, as we have before stated, was then the senior officer of all the block-ships stationed in the river Medway.
The subject of this memoir was one of the master’s-mates of the Texel, whom we have also mentioned, as having been promoted by Earl St. Vincent, on his retirement from the Admiralty[3]. His first commission bears date May 6, 1804; from which period, he was almost constantly employed, in different ships abroad, until appointed by Sir John B. Warren, to command the Bream schooner, on the Halifax station, in July, 1809.
In Oct. following. Lieutenant Byng received an order from the same officer to act as commander of the Goree sloop; which appointment was confirmed by the Admiralty, Dec. 12, 1809.
At the commencement of the war between Great Britain and the United States, Captain Henry Byng captured the Ranger, an American ship from the Pacific Ocean bound to Nantucket, with a cargo of considerable value.
The Goree being converted into a prison-ship at Bermuda, in Mar. 1813, he was then removed to the Mohawk brig, which vessel formed part of a detachment sent by Sir J. B. Warren, to penetrate the rivers at the head of the Chesapeake, for the purpose of cutting off the enemy’s supplies, and destroying their foundries, stores, and public works.
