Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v2p1.djvu/472

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460
POST-CAPTAINS OF 1802.

years. He was born in 1772, and placed on the books of the Amphitrite frigate, Mar. 22, 1780, but did not go afloat till Aug. 12, 1786, when he joined the Goliah 74, stationed as a guard-ship at Portsmouth. On the 21st Nov. following, he was removed into the Phaeton frigate, commanded by Capt. George Dawson (the officer alluded to at p. 22), with whom he served about two years on the Mediterranean station.

Mr. Curry rejoined the late Admiral Sir Archibald Dickson in the Goliah, Dec. 3, 1788; and subsequently accompanied Lieutenant (now Vice-Admiral) Han well, to Cork, Halifax, and Jamaica, in the Actaeon troop-ship. During the Spanish and Russian armaments, we find him serving on board the Royal George and Barfleur, three-deckers, bearing the flags of the Hon. Samuel Barrington and Rear-Admiral Jonathan Faulknor, the latter of whom had married his father’s sister. In July 1792, he joined the Iphigenia frigate, Captain Patrick Sinclair, employed on the Milford and Irish stations.

Towards the close of 1792, the French having opened the Scheldt, and declared the navigation of that river free, in violation of the treaties of Munster and Westphalia, which had been guaranteed by the British monarch, the Stadtholder of Holland claimed the assistance of England; and a small squadron, of which the Iphigenia formed a part, was accordingly sent thither, under the orders of Commodore Murray, to assist the Dutch in repelling their invaders; but soon obliged to return, in consequence of the rapid accumulation of ice. The Iphigenia afterwards cruised off Cherbourgh, and on the 16th Feb. 1793, captured l’Elizabeth French privateer, which proved to be the second armed vessel taken by the British in the revolutionary war. She was conducted to Portsmouth by the subject of this memoir.

On the 18th May following, Mr. Curry was removed into the Venus of 32 guns, commanded by his cousin, Captain Jonathan Faulknor, with whom he served as Midshipman, Master’s-Mate, and Lieutenant in that frigate and the Diana, till May 1795, during which period he assisted at the capture of the Sans Culottes French privateer, of 22 guns and 90 men; bore a part in the third action fought with the repub-