Royal Naval Biography/Lloyd, Robert
ROBERT LLOYD Esq
[Post-Captain of 1799.]
This officer was made a Lieutenant about the year 1790; and, commanded the Racoon sloop of war on the North Sea Station, in 1797. On the llth Jan. 1798, he captured, after a short running fight, le Policrate, French privateer of 16, guns, and 72 men; the Racoon on this occasion had 1 killed -and 4 wounded. Eleven, days iafter, Captain Lloyd also intercepted la Peruke of 2 guns and 32 men; he, had some time previously taken les Amis, of similar force. On the 20th Oct. following, he destroyed le Vigilante, of 14 guns and 50 men.
Early in July 1799, during a dark and foggy night, the Benjamin and Elizabeth, West Indiaman, being about twelve miles from Dungeness, was suddenly boarded on the quarter by a French lugger. Mr. White, the master, with his mate and two men, defended their vessel with all the gallantry that characterises British seamen, and had actually beaten the enemy from their deck, when they were boarded on the beam by a second lugger, the crew of which behaved in a most inhuman manner[1]. Fortunately, Captain Lloyd, who was at that time stretching out from under the land, heard the firing, and re-captured the ship a few minutes after the luggers had hauled off. In a short time he also got sight of them, and immediately opened his broadside upon the nearest. On the smoke clearing away, not a vestige of her was to be seen, she having gone to the bottom with all on board. The other, though at a much greater distance, was still plainly to be seen; but the fog increasing, she succeeded in effecting her escape.
On the 2d Dec. in the same year, Captain Lloyd captured le Vrai Decide, privateer, of 14 guns and 41 men. The next day, after a running fight of about forty minutes, he succeeded in coming up with a lugger, which he had discovered in the act of boarding an English merchant brig; and after a short action, compelled her to surrender. She proved to be l’Intrepide of 16 guns and 60 men, 13 of whom were killed and wounded. The Racoon had her commander and 1 seaman wounded.
Captain Lloyd was promoted to post rank Dec. 6, 1799; and in 1801, commanded the Mars, a third rate, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Thornbrough, in the Channel fleet. During the late war with the United States, we find him commanding the Plantagenet 74, on the American station, where he captured a great number of coasting vessels. He has not been employed since the peace.
Agent.– Harry Cook, Esq.
- ↑ The remainder of the West Indiaman’s crew consisted of 8 foreigners, who did not feel themselves bound to fight, and consequently kept aloof.