Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/129

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commanders.
113

the Mediterranean station. He obtained the rank of commander on the 10th Oct. 1822; and married, in 1826, Jane Anne, youngest daughter of the late Rev. Archdeacon Thomas, of Bath.



WILLIAM MORIARTY, Esq.
[Commander.]

Was wounded while serving as midshipman of the Nymphe frigate, Captain Conway Shipley, and employed in one of her boats, commanded by Lieutenant Richard Standish Haly, in an attempt to board a French brig of war lying near Belem castle, in the river Tagus, April 23d, 1808[1]. He passed his examination, at Sheerness, in the summer of 1811; and was made a lieutenant into the Revenge 74, Captain Sir John Gore, on the Mediterranean station, Oct. 23d, 1813. His subsequent appointments were, – Sept. 19th, 1814, to the Tyrian sloop. Commander Augustus Baldwin; and, April 15th, 1818, to the Topaze frigate, Captain John Richard Lumley, fitting out for the East India station.

In 1820, the Topaze was sent to the Persian Gulph, for the purpose of obtaining redress for injuries which the British interests had suffered from the officers of the Imaun of Senna. She arrived off Mocha accompanied by several of the Hon. East India Company’s cruisers, and a bomb vessel, on the 3d Dec, and Captain Lumley, finding that the agent on the part of the British Government had previously used every means in his power without effect, immediately resolved on bombarding the place. On the 4th, the north fort appearing to be abandoned, boats were sent to take possession of and destroy it. This enterprise, however, failed, as it proved to be still occupied, and the detachment was obliged to retreat with considerable loss. On the subsequent morning, a parley took place; and the following day two hostages were sent off to the squadron, with a promise that every demand should be acceded to in the course of a fortnight.

“It would seem,” says the Vice-President in Council of