Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 6, 2025
Some years after the events I have just described, Mr W.R. Smith, having reached the rank of lieutenant, belonged to HMS Endymion. On the 4th of February 1847, she was at anchor off Sacraficios Island, near Vera Cruz.
Mr Fosset, or some of the hands who accompanied him, must have taken down the yarn to the stoke-hold, only just before the unfortunate man met with his terrible accident, though I had no doubt that he must have seen the man-of-war through the port hole of the cabin, which was right opposite his bunk, as she brought up under our stern to speak to us earlier in the afternoon, and the sight of HMS Aurora had, somehow or other, amid the wanderings of his unconscious brain, got mixed up with the remembrance of what he had previously heard concerning the vessel I had seen at sunset the two days prior.
He was the same Tom Finch who had chaffed and larked and talked confidence with me in the gunroom, now that he trod the quarter-deck "in all his war paint," as I told him somewhat impudently, the "skipper" of HMS Porpoise, "paddle sloop, 6 guns," as she was described in the Navy List the same unaffected, jovial, good-natured sailor whom everybody liked, men and messmates alike.
That was all shoreward, while out to sea, a couple of miles or so away, smart and business-like, with her tall spars and carefully squared yards and rigging, cobweb-like in texture at that distance, lay at anchor in the open road-stead HMS Nautilus waiting to gather "blackberries" at the first opportunity, and toward which smart little vessel the cutter was being steadily propelled.
The following account is given in the words of Admiral Castle: "In the year 1837, I commanded HMS Pylades, on the East India station. We were on our return home, by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, when, on the 8th of May of that year, we were off Cape L'Agulhus.
In consequence of this request, the admiral despatched HMS Alarm, Captain Granville G. Loch, and HMS Vixen, Commander Ryder, to Bluefields. They reached the mouth of the river the following day, where the ships came to an anchor.
The next day, after repairing the line, the force advanced to Langfang, but beyond this the line was found to be cut up and bridges destroyed; and, as the necessary repairs would occupy some time, Lieutenant Smith, RN, of HMS Aurora, was sent forward with 3 officers and 44 men to prevent further damage if possible.
As HMS Wasp, Captain Usherwood, was cruising in the Bight of Benin, near Lagos, on the 27th of February 1845, a strange sail was seen, and Lieutenant Stupart was immediately ordered in pursuit.
HMS Pantaloon, ten-gun sloop, Commander Wilson, had been for two days in chase of a large slave-ship, and succeeded in coming up with her becalmed, about two miles off Lagos, on the 26th May 1845.
The Zulus, who had a keen appreciation of gallantry, tell many tales of how our men stood fighting till the last. "How few they were and how hard they fought," they said; "they fell like stones, each man in his place." There was only one sailor in the camp. He belonged to HMS Active, and throughout the terrible fight displayed the utmost courage.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking