On the renewal of the war in 1803, Captain Dacres was appointed to the Sea Fencible service at Dartmouth; and in 1805, when his friend Sir W. Sidney Smith hoisted his flag in the Pompée, he proceeded with him, as his Captain, to the Mediterranean, where he was engaged in a great variety of services, particularly on the coast of Calabria, and at the forcing of the passage of the Dardanelles, and destruction of a Turkish squadron off Point Pesquies[1].
The Pompée, as already mentioned in our memoir of Sir W. Sidney Smith, returned to England from Alexandria in June 1807, and soon after received the flag of Vice-Admiral Stanhope, whom Captain Dacres accompanied to Copenhagen, where he displayed very great activity, zeal, and presence of mind, in his exertions to subdue an alarming fire which unfortunately broke out in the dock-yard, on the night of Sept. 22, for which he received a very deserved tribute of praise from Sir Samuel Hood, under whose orders he was at that time superintending the equipment of the Danish fleet, and was presented by Admiral Gambier and Lord Cathcart, the naval and military Commanders-in-Chief, with a handsome piece of plate, as a token of their approbation.
On the 2d Feb. 1808, Captain Dacres was appointed Governor of the Royal Naval Asylum, where he continued until August 1816, highly respected by every individual connected with, or participating in the benefits of that admirable institution[2]. He was superannuated with the rank of Rear Admiral, March 29, 1817.
Our officer married, in 1788, Miss Martha Phillips Milligan, by whom he has several children, one of whom is the lady of Captain W. F. Carrol, R.N. C.B. and another has recently been united to Captain H. S. Olivier, of the 32d regiment.
Residence.– Bathford, co. Somerset.
- ↑ See Vol. I. pp. 315, et seq. 799, et seq. and 809.
- ↑ The Royal Naval Asylum was firsc instituted by two philanthropic chiefs of the Hebrew nation, (Messrs. Benjamin and Abraham Goldsmid) aided by the public and professional skill of the gallant Sir W. Sidney Smith. The object of the institution is the education of children, whose fathers are, or have been, engaged in the naval service of their country. The number of pupils was originally intended to be 1000; but at present it is, we believe, restricted to a smaller number.
