Office, Somerset Place, and a Director of Greenwich Hospital.
The subject of this sketch was born at Blackheath, co. Kent, July 22d, 1779; and embarked as midshipman on board the Diomede 44, Captain Matthew Smith, in May, 1793. On the 2d Aug. 1795, he suffered shipwreck, near Trincomalee[1]; and we subsequently find him serving under Captain Alan Hyde (afterwards Lord) Gardner, in the Heroine frigate, at the reduction of the Dutch settlements in Ceylon. On the 18th June, 1799, he was promoted from the flag-ship of Vice-Admiral Rainier, commander-in-chief on the East India station, into the Victorious 74, Captain William Clark, with whom he returned home in 1803[2]. His next appointment was to the Spencer 74, Captain the Hon. Robert Stopford; which ship he was obliged to leave, in consequence of receiving a severe injury, which rendered him incapable of serving afloat for upwards of two years. In Jan. 1806, he was appointed to the signal station at Selsea; and in the ensuing autumn, to the Thetis frigate. Captain (now Rear-Admiral) Gage, then employed as a cruiser in the North Sea. From Aug. 1807 until Sept. 1808, he was again on half-pay, owing to a violent attack of rheumatism; and from the latter period until his advancement to the rank of commander, he served under the flag of Lord Gardner, in the Bellerophon 74, Captain Samuel Warren, on the Baltic station. The service for which he was promoted is officially detailed at p. 369 et seq. of Suppl. Part III.; the thanks of his commander-in-chief were conveyed to him and his gallant companions, in a general memorandum of which the following is a copy:
“H.M.S. Victory,July 9th, 1809.
- ↑ See Vol. II. Part I. p. 74.
- ↑ On her arrival in the chops of the channel, the Victorious encountered a severe gale of wind, and was obliged to bear up for Lisbon, where she was condemned and broken up.
