SIR CHARLES VINICOMBE PENROSE.
Vice-Admiral of the Blue; Knight Commander of the most honorable Military Order of the Bath; and of the Neapolitan Order of St. Ferdinand and of Merit.
This officer was made a Commander into the Lynx sloop, on the Halifax station, where he assisted at the capture of l’Esperance, French corvette, of 12 guns and 80 men. He obtained the rank of Post-Captain, Oct. 7, 1794; and in the following year, commanded the Cleopatra frigate. On the 3d March, 1796, he took l’Aurore privateer, of 10 guns, on the coast of America.
In July, 1799, we find him commanding the Sans Pareil, of 80 guns, bearing the flag of Lord Hugh Seymour, in the West Indies; and after his Lordship’s demise, the Carnatic, 74. Whilst in the former ship he captured two privateers; la Pensée, of 4 guns and 65 men, and the Sapajon, 6 guns, 48 men.
During the summer of 1810, a flotilla establishment was formed at Gibraltar, for the defence of Cadiz, and our officer appointed to the principal command; on which occasion he hoisted a broad pendant on board the San Juan, at the former place. On the 12th Aug. 1812, he was nominated a Colonel of Royal Marines; and on the 4th Dec. in the following year, advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral; from which time, until the conclusion of the war, he commanded the naval force employed in co-operation with the British army under the orders of Lord Wellington[1].
The exploits of the Rear-Admiral’s squadron, in the Gironde, will be read with lively interest in future ages. He pursued the flying enemy up that river, as far as Fort Talmont, and was preparing to attack them at their moorings, when at midnight on the 6th April, 1814, the French vessels were discovered in flames, and before day the whole were totally consumed. They consisted of the Regulus, a 74-gun ship, three brigs[errata 1] of war, and several smaller vessels. The bat-
- ↑ See Captain D. O’Reilly, in our next volume.
Errata: for Captain D. O’Reilly, &c. &c. read Suppl. Part II. pp. 276–286.
- ↑ Correction: three brigs should be amended to one corvette, two brigs
