Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/353

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
BENJAMIN WILLIAM PAGE, ESQ.
769

pierced for 18, bound to India with despatches from Buonaparte. Captain Page, by sending this vessel to St. Helena, caused the detention of some Dutch ships lying there, and prevented those belonging to English merchants from sailing without convoy.

Early in 1804, the Caroline, after escorting the homewardbound trade through the Bay of Bengal, had the good fortune to intercept les Freres Unis, of 16 guns and 185 men, and le General de Caen, of 26 guns and 240 men. The capture of those vessels immediately on their arrival from France, and before they had been able to commit any depredations on our commerce, was considered of so much importance, that the merchants of Bombay and Madras each voted Captain Page 500 guineas, for the service he had thus afforded them.

We next find Captain Page entrusted with the command of a squadron sent to protect the trade to and from China. On his return to India with the homeward-bound ships, he was selected by Admiral Rainier to command the Trident, of 64 guns, bearing the flag of that officer, with whom he came to England in Sept. 1805. On the safe arrival of the convoy in the Downs, the Court of Directors voted him 500 guineas, for his continued attention to their interests.

Captain Page, whose health had been greatly impaired through long and active services on foreign stations, was now induced to accept the command of a district of Sea Fencibles, which he retained till the breaking up of that corps. His last appointment was, in 1812, to the Puissant, a guard-ship, stationed at Spithead, where he continued until Oct. 1815, at which period she was put out of commission. He became a Rear-Admiral Aug. 12, 1819.

Residence.– Ipswich.




HON. PHILIP WODEHOUSE,
Rear-Admiral of the Blue.

The family of Wodehouse is of great antiquity, one of them hearing received knighthood in the time of Henry I.; from whom descended John Wodehouse, who attended Henry V. in 1415, to the battle of Agincourt, and for his valour,