Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/283

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commanders.

opened a fire from his only gun, loaded with round and grape, supported by musketry; and after six rounds, the slaughter on the pirate’s deck must have been great, as the cries of the wounded were hideous. A felucca now bore down between the schooner and the Eliza, with the evident intention of running alongside the latter, but which she frustrated by getting under her bow, and instantly boarding. The defence of the freebooters was desperate: the captain and nine men were killed, and the remaining part of her crew, with the exception of four men, two of whom were severely wounded, jumped overboard. She appeared to have been fully prepared for action. Shot were heating, and the men armed with cutlasses, each having a long knife in his left hand. On our side two seamen were killed, and Mr. Nurse and six men severely wounded. Perhaps in few actions of the kind has a greater degree of cool and determined gallantry been displayed.”

On this occasion, Mr. Nurse was shot through the right arm, and received a sabre cut in the left. The former wound has been reported by Drs. Weir and Burnett equal to the loss of a limb, the shoulder joint having no power of motion: his name, however, does not appear in the pension list. On the 5th Dec. 1822, Mr. Nurse was promoted, by Sir Charles Rowley, “for services independent of the above,” into the Pyramus frigate. Captain Francis Newcombe, C.B. He obtained the rank of commander Jan. 26th, 1828; and married, Nov. 15th following, Amelia, only child of the late Colonel William Bulkeley.



ROBERT HENRY STANHOPE, Esq.
[Commander.]

Was made a lieutenant in, Mar. 1824; and commander on the 30th Jan. 1828.



JAMES WILKINSON, Esq.
[Commander.]

We first find serving as masters’ mate of the Thames frigate. Captain Charles Napier, at the capture of the island of Ponza, Feb. 26th, 1813[1]. He was made lieutenant into