Royal Naval Biography/Reynolds, Barrington
BARRINGTON REYNOLDS, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1812.]
Son of the late Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, who unfortunately perished in the St. George 98, on his return from the Baltic, Dec. 24, 1811[1].
This officer was made a Lieutenant in Sept. 1801; and we first find him serving as such on board the Niobe frigate. Captain, now Lieutenant-Governor, Loring, at the capture of le Néarque French corvette. Mar. 28, 1806[2]. His promotion to the rank of commander took place on the East India station, Oct. 3, 1810. By reference to pp. 354–356 of Vol. II. Part I. it will be seen that he highly distinguished himself at the reduction of Java, in 1811. He subsequently commanded the Bucephalus frigate. Post commission dated Jan. 22, 1812.
Agent.– J. Hinxman, Esq.
- ↑ On the 1st Nov. 1811, the St. George, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Reynolds, accompanied by several other men of war and the homeward hound trade, sailed from Hano Sound for England, but was obliged by heavy gales to put back three times, and could not finally leave that anchorage till the 9th of the same month. On the 15th, when in the Belt, the convoy experienced another violent storm, in which about thirty merchant vessels perished, and the St. George drove on shore, but eventually got off with the loss of all her masts and rudder. The convoy then proceeded to Wingo Sound, where the St. George was fitted with jury-masts and a temporary rudder, after which, in the opinion of the officers, she was quite capable of prosecuting her voyage.
On the 17th Dec, the fleet, consisting of eight sail of the line, several frigates and smaller vessels, and about 100 merchantmen, sailed from Wingo Sound; the St. George closely attended by two 74’s, the Cressy and Defence. Scarcely had they cleared the Cattegat, when a tremendous gale came on, which blew successively from the W.N.W. the W. and the S., and then shifted, with greater violence than ever, to the N.W. On the 24th, after combating with the gale for five days, the St. George and Defence were wrecked on the western coast of Jutland, in the district of Ringkoobing; and the whole of their united crews, except 12 men of the one, and 6 of the other, perished. The Cressy saved herself by wearing and standing to the southward; but Captain David Atkins, of the Defence, could not be persuaded to quit the Rear-Admiral without orders, and therefore shared his melancholy fate.
On the next day, the Hero 74, Captain James Newman Newman, met a similar fate on the Haak sand, near the Texel, with the loss of all her crew, except 12 men; making a total of nearly 2000 officers and men thus entombed in a watery grave. The Grasshopper brig, of 18 guns. Captain Henry Fanshawe, was in company with the Hero, and struck also, but drove over the bank close in with Texel island, where, having no other alternative, she surrendered to the Dutch Admiral.
- ↑ See Vol. II. Part II. p. 547.