It appears, from other accounts, that l’Armide, previous to her being supported by the Rose, was exposed to the undivided fire of no less than five of the enemy’s ships; and that Commander Davies received some personal injury by the explosion of a Turco-Egyptian brûlot. On the day after the action, he was promoted to the vacancy caused by the death of Captain Bathurst, of the Genoa; but ordered to continue in the command of the Rose, and sent with despatches to Smyrna. “If times had been chivalrous,” says Sir Edward Codrington, “and I had had chivalrous power, I should have knighted him on the field of battle.” The other rewards bestowed upon Commander Davies were a Companionship of the Bath, the Cross of St. Louis, and the Order of St. Anne. Among the wounded on this occasion were Lieutenant Maine Lyons, Messrs. Douglas Curry (third son of Captain Richard Curry, R.N.,) and M. Williams, midshipmen, of the Rose. The former officer lost his leg, and only survived four days: – we have a melancholy satisfaction in transcribing a letter subsequently addressed to his nearest male relative, whose own gallant services are already known to our readers:–
H.M.S. Rose, Malta, Nov. 29th, 1827.
“Dear Sir,– Your brother’s loss is deplored by all who knew him, for his kindness of heart and evenness of temper; but he was chiefly admired for his cool self-possession in danger; he was often under fire from pirates, when in command of the Rose’s boats, and was always successful; but it was at the battle of Navarin that he pre-eminently distinguished himself, in command of the boats, by towing a fire-vessel clear of u French line-of-battle ship, under a dreadful fire of grape, which must have insured his promotion had he survived. Yours,
(Signed)“L. Davies.”
“To Captain Edmund Lyons, R.N.”
Captain Davies subsequently commanded the Ariadne 28, which ship he brought home from the Mediterranean, and paid off at Plymouth, in May 1828.
