Rovigno. Captain Rowley conceiving the capture of them practicable, communicated his intentions to Captain Hoste, who led in, and a firing was commenced on the batteries. After some resistance they were abandoned, when the boats of each ship, with parties of royal marines, under the command of Captain Hoste, landed, and drove the enemy out of the town, took possession of the batteries, disabled the guns, and demolished the different works, without sustaining any other loss than one man wounded. The enemy scuttled the greater part of the vessels previous to the approach of the boats; but by the active exertions of the officers and men employed, the whole were completely destroyed or brought off, and the ships and other vessels burnt that were building on the stocks.
Captain Rowley subsequently distinguished himself in the most conspicuous manner at the reduction of Trieste by the squadron under Rear-Admiral Freemantle, acting in concert with 1500 Austrian troops, commanded by Count Nugent; and continued to serve in the Adriatic, until the fall of Ragusa made the allies masters of every place in Dalmatia, Croatia, Istria, and the Frioul, with all the islands in that sea.
On the 23d May, 1814, our officer received the royal permission to accept and wear the insignia of a Knight of the Imperial Military Order of Maria Theresa, conferred upon him by his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, in testimony of the high sense entertained by that sovereign of his distinguished gallantry and services, in co-operation with the Imperial troops, on the coast of the Adriatic. He was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral on the 4th of the following month; nominated a K.C.B. Jan. 2, 1815; and at the latter end of the same year hoisted his flag on board the Bulwark, as Commander-in-Chief in the river Medway, where he remained during the customary period of three years. In the autumn of 1820 he was appointed to the chief command at Jamaica, on which station he still continues, with his flag in the Sybille, of 44 guns.
Sir Charles Rowley married Elizabeth, youngest daughter of the late Admiral Sir Richard King, Bart. His eldest son married, Aug. 31, 1822, Frances, only daughter of John Evelyn, of Wotton, Surrey, Esq. His eldest daughter is the wife of Peter Longford Brooke, of Moore Hall, Cheshire, Esq.
