Royal Naval Biography/Plampin, Robert
ROBERT PLAMPLIN, Esq
Rear-Admiral of the Red.
At the commencement of the war with the French republic, in 1793, we find this officer serving as a Lieutenant on board the Syren frigate, in which ship H.R.H. the Duke of York went over to Holland.
As a mark of the high sense entertained by the Prince of Orange of the eminent services performed by Lieutenant Plamplin, when employed in a gun-boat at the defence of Williamstadt (at that time besieged by the French), and the attack of the enemy’s batteries on the Moordyke, March 21, 1793[1], H.S.H. ordered him to be presented with a medal, with a suitable inscription, value 500 guilders; and on his return to England, he was promoted to the rank of Commander.
Captain Plamplin’s post commission bears date April 21, 1795; and in the same year we find him commanding the Ariadne, of 20 guns, in the Mediterranean, under the orders of the gallant Nelson. From that ship he was removed into the Lowestoffe frigate, and sent to England with the homeward-bound trade. He afterwards proceeded to the West Indies; but nothing of moment appears to have occurred during his continuance on that station.
On her return to Europe, in company with a fleet of merchantmen, the Lowestoffe, in working through the windward passage, went on shore upon the Great Heneaga, in the night of the 10th Aug. 1801, and was totally wrecked, but fortunately only a few lives were lost. On the 3d of the following month, Captain Plamplin was tried by a court-martial at Port Royal, for the loss of his ship; when it appeared on the clearest evidence, that his conduct had been judicious in every respect; and that but for the sudden change of the current after dark, the whole of the vessels under his charge, several of which were likewise wrecked, would have proceeded in safety through the passage. The court, therefore, after mature consideration, fully acquitted him of all blame in respect to their loss.
Our officer appears subsequently to have commanded the Antelope, of 50 guns, from which ship he removed about the autumn of 1805, into the Powerful, 74, and accompanied Sir John T. Duckworth to the Leeward Islands. From thence he was despatched to the East Indies with the intelligence of a French squadron being at sea, and the uncertainty of its destination.
On the 13th June, 1806, Captain Plamplin captured la Henrietta, of 20 guns and 124 men; and in the following month, la Bellone, of 30 guns and 194 men, both privateers, off Trincomalee. The latter vessel fired a broadside at the Powerful, and kept up a running fire within gun-shot, for a considerable time, by which 2 men were killed and 1 1 wounded on board that ship. La Bellone had 1 man killed and 6 or 7 wounded. She was a very superior sailer, and had cruized for several years with uncommon success against the British commerce in the Indian and European seas.
In the summer of 1809, our officer was appointed to the Courageux, another 74-gun ship, and commanded a division of the fleet under Sir Richard J. Strachan, in the expedition to the Scheldt. His next appointment was in 1812, to the Ocean, a second rate, in which he served on the Mediterranean station during the remainder of the war.
At the general promotion, June 4, 1814, Captain Plamplin was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral; and in 1817 he hoisted his flag in the Conqueror, 74, as Commander-in-Chief at St. Helena, where he continued during the customary period of three years. He arrived at Portsmouth on his return from thence, Sept. 9, 1820.