Naval battles of the world : $b Great and decisive contests on the sea ... with an account of the Japan-China war and the recent battle of the Yalu; the growth, power, and management of our new Navy.Shippen, Edward
History
Naval battles of the world : $b Great and decisive contests on the sea ... with an account of the Japan-China war and the recent battle of the Yalu; the growth, power, and management of our new Navy.
Shippen, Edward
Naval battles; Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895; United States. Navy
Always noted for deeds of daring, one of the most remarkable of these
was his boarding the wrecked transport Sutton, shipwrecked on the
coast of England. He took charge, and by his personal influence and
great exertions, saved the lives of all on board.
In 1798, in command of the Impetueux, of the Channel fleet, he
participated in several actions. He then entered Parliament, and was
known as a strenuous supporter of the policy of William Pitt.
In 1804 he was made a Rear-Admiral, and appointed Commander-in-Chief in
the East Indies, when he succeeded in nearly clearing those seas of the
French cruisers, which had done so much damage to English commerce.
He returned to England in 1809, and was immediately appointed to the
Command in the North Sea. After this he served as Commander-in-Chief in
the Mediterranean, and in 1814 was raised to the peerage.
The atrocities committed by the Algerines, and the barbarous massacre
of the crews of more than three hundred small vessels, at Bona, on
the 23d of May, 1816, induced the British Government to prepare an
expedition to act against the forts and shipping of Algiers. This
piratical city had often been attacked and bombarded before, notably by
the celebrated French Admiral Duquesne, in the latter part of the 17th
century; but it was reserved for Lord Exmouth and an English fleet to
give it a final blow.
On the 28th of July, 1816, Lord Exmouth sailed from Plymouth Sound,
in command of a fleet bound to Algiers. His flag-ship was the Queen
Charlotte, of 100 guns, and Rear-Admiral Milne, his second in command,
was in the Impregnable, 98. There were also three 74s, one 50, two 40s,
two 36s, five brigs, and four bomb-vessels.
Upon reaching Gibraltar, on the 9th of August, Lord Exmouth was joined
by the Minden, 74, and also received offers of co-operation from
Vice-Admiral Baron Van de Cappellen, of the Dutch navy, which Exmouth
very cordially received. The Dutch had four forty-gun ships, a thirty,
and a sloop of eighteen guns.
On the 13th of August each captain received a plan of the
fortifications they were to attack, and definite instructions, and the
whole fleet, amounting to twenty-three sail, with five gun-boats, and a
sloop, fitted as an explosion vessel, weighed anchor, and proceeded for
their destination.
On the passage they were joined by a sloop-of-war, which had taken
off the wife and children of the British Consul at Algiers. But the
Consul himself had been most arbitrarily detained by the Dey, together
with the Surgeon, three Midshipmen, and eighteen men belonging to
the sloop-of-war. (Any one curious in regard to these remarkable
transactions cannot do better than read the book upon Algiers, by Mr.
Shaler, American Consul there at the time of the bombardment. Mr.
Shaler, in his work, points out the true way to take Algiers, and his
advice was afterwards followed by the French, when they took the place.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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