Royal Naval Biography/Honyman, Robert
ROBERT HONYMAN, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1798.]
This officer was made a Lieutenant in 1790; commanded the Tisiphone sloop of war, and captured the French privateers le Prospere of 14 guns and 73 men, and le Cerf Volant of 14 guns and 63 men, on the North Sea station, in 1797; and obtained the rank of Post-Captain Dec. 10, 1798. In Oct. 1800, he was appointed to the Garland of 28 guns, employed on Channel service; and in June 1801, we find him conveying Rear-Admiral Robert Montague to Jamaica, where he removed into the Topaze frigate, in which he returned to England Oct. 12, 1802. At the general election, in the same year, he was chosen to represent the shires of Orkney and Shetland.
Early in 1803, Captain Honyman obtained the command of the Leda frigate; and at the renewal of the war was stationed on the coast of France, with a small squadron under his orders, to obstruct the progress of the enemy’s flotilla from the eastward, towards Boulogne. On the 29th Sept. he attacked a division of gun-boats, and drove two on shore, where they were bilged. Whilst performing this service, a shell fell on board the Leda and exploded in her hold, doing but little injury to the ship, and without hurting a man.
At the latter end of July 1804, the boats of the Leda, commanded by Lieutenant M‘Lean, boarded a French gun-vessel in Boulogne roads, and after a smart conflict, succeeded in cutting her adrift; but, in consequence of the flood-tide running very strong, were unable to bring her out. Of 38 men engaged in this affair, only 14 returned to the Leda. The gallant commander of the party was among the slain.
On the 24th April, 1805, Captain Honyman discovered twenty-six of the enemy’s vessels rounding Cape Grisnez: he immediately made the signal for his squadron to weigh; and after engaging them about two hours, succeeded in cutting off seven schuyts, carrying altogether 18 guns, 1 howitzer, and 168 men, from Dunkirk, bound to Ambleteuse. The British on this occasion had only 1 man wounded.
In the course of the same year, the Leda appears to have narrowly escaped the fate which befel two ships under her convoy from England to the Cape of Good Hope; these vessels, the King George transport and Britannia East Indiaman, having been totally wrecked on some rocks near the coast of Brazil. The particulars of their loss will be found in the Nav. Chron. v. 23, p. 483, et seq.
In Jan. 1806, the Leda formed part of Sir Home Popham’s squadron at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope; after which he accompanied the same officer on an expedition to the Rio de la Plata[1], where she continued until the final evacuation of Spanish America by the British forces, about Sept. 1807. Towards the conclusion of that year, Captain Honyman captured l’Adolphe, a French privateer of 16 guns, on the coast of France. The Leda was wrecked near the entrance of Milford Haven, on the 31st Jan. 1809, but her commander was fully acquitted by a court-martial of all blame on the occasion.
Captain Honyman has since commanded the Ardent of 64 guns, Sceptre 74, and Marlborough of the same force. In the autumn of 1814, we find him superintending the payment of ships afloat at Portsmouth.
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