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ROYAL

NAVAL BIOGRAPHY;

OR,

Memoirs of the Services

OF ALL THE

FLAG-OFFICERS,

SUPERANNUATED REAR-ADMIRALS,

RETIRED-CAPTAINS,
POST-CAPTAINS,

AND COMMANDERS,

Whose Names appeared on the Admiralty List of Sea-Officers at the commence-
ment of the year 1823, or who have since been promoted;

Illustrated by a Series of

HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES,

Which will be found to contain an account of all the

NAV AL ACTIONS, AND OTHER IMPORTANT EVENTS,
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE LATE REIGN, IN 1760,

TO THE PRESENT PERIOD.

WITH COPIOUS ADDENDA.

By JOHN MARSHALL (B),

LIEUTENANT IN THE ROYAL NAVY.

"Failures, however frequent, may admit of extenuation and apology. To have attempted
"much is always laudable, even when the enterprise is above the strength that undertakes it.
"To deliberate whenever I doubted, to enquire whenever I was ignorant, would have protracted
"the undertaking without end, and perhaps without improvement. I saw that one enquiry only
"gave occasion to another, that book referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and
"to find was not always to be informed; and that thus to pursue perfection, was, like the first
' inhabitants of Arcadia, to chase the sun, which, when they had reached the hill where he
"seemed to rest, was still beheld at the same distance from them." Johnson.

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PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN AND GREEN,

PATERNOSTER ROW:

1828.

210. l. 48.

W. Pople, Printer, 67, Chancery Lane.

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ROYAL NAVAL BIOGRAPHY.

POST-CAPTAINS OF 1809, continued.

CHARLES NAPIER, Esq.

A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.

This officer was made a Lieutenant Nov. 30, 1805; and promoted to the rank of Commander Nov. 30, 1807. On the 17th July, 1808, we find him assisting in cutting out a Spanish merchant schooner, from under two batteries at the N. E. end of Porto Rico; which service was conducted by Lieutenant James Robertson, of the Fawn sloop *, Captain Napier, then commanding the Pultusk brig, merely accompanying him in order to acquire a knowledge of the coast, and agreeing that whatever was done should be attributed to that gentleman. After capturing the schooner, they both landed, spiked the guns in one of the batteries, and rendered the carriages unserviceable.

Captain Napier was shortly afterwards appointed to the Recruit brig, of 18 guns; in which vessel he fought a smart action with the Diligente French corvette, of 22 guns and 140 men, Sept. 6, 1808. On this occasion, the Recruit had her main-mast shot away, many of her carronades dismounted, one man killed, and several persons, including her commander, wounded. The extent of the loss sustained by the enemy's ship has not been made public, but we must suppose it to have been very heavy, to excuse her captain for having fled from the field of battle after he had so effectually crippled his antagonist. Her stern-boat, filled with small-arm men, was cut away by the Recruit's last fire.

*Now Commander James R. Walker.

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