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Updated: June 21, 2025
Helen's for America in April. The admiral had on board six thousand two hundred effective men, exclusive of officers, under the command of general Hopson, assisted by lord Charles Hay. In May, admiral Osborne, who had been forced back to Plymouth with his squadron by stress of weather, set sail for the Mediterranean, as did two ships of war sent to convoy the American trade.
I may also remark that I called the attention of Colonel Bisset and the lighthouse keeper Hopson to the distance of the vessels at the time of the capture, as it was probable we should be called upon to give our evidence respecting the affair, and we took a note of the time it occurred. Statement of John Roe.
Helen's with eight sail of the line, one frigate, four bomb-ketches, and a fleet of transports, having on board six regiments of infantry, and a detachment of artillery, besides eight hundred marines distributed among the ships of war; this whole force being under the command of major-general Hopson, an old experienced officer, assisted by major-general Barrington, the colonels Armigerand Haldane, the lieutenant-colonels Trapaud and Clavering, acting in the capacity of brigadiers.
Whatever basis of truth the story may have, its being told and believed attests the fact of the humble birth and origin of Admiral Benbow. Another sailor boy, Hopson, in the early part of last century, rose to be Admiral in the British Navy. Born at Bonchurch in the Isle of Wight, of humblest parentage, he was left an orphan, and apprenticed by the parish to a tailor.
A strong wind, however, soon afterwards springing up, Admiral Hopson cutting his cables clapped on all sail, and, amidst a hot fire from the enemy, bore up directly for the boom, which he at once broke through, receiving broadsides from the two ships at either end.
* The commodore offered to land the cannon on the other side of Point-Negro, at a place equally near the road from the English army to Port-Royal, and even cause them to be drawn up by the seamen, without giving the troops the least trouble. But this offer was not accepted. General Hopson afterwards declared, that he did not understand Mr. Moore's message in the sense which it was meant to imply.
The Major put his hand on the back of the chair offered him, but stood chafing and beating the floor with his polished boot. The next moment an inner glass door was opened, and a fair, weedy, young man, in a frock-coat, entered from within. "Mr Hopson," said Northover, "this is Major Brown. Will you please finish that thing for him I gave you this morning and bring it in?"
The Admiral being told of the exploit, sent for Hopson and thus addressed him, "My lad, I believe you to be a brave youth. From this day I order you to walk the quarter-deck, and if your future conduct is equally meritorious, you shall have my patronage and protection."
Joseph Hopson, keeper of the Green Point Lighthouse, states: I was on the look-out on Wednesday afternoon when the Alabama and Sea Bride were coming in. When I first saw them the steamer was coming round the north-west of Robben Island, and the barque bore from or about five miles west-northwest.
About the latter end of October he set sail from Saint Helen's, and in January arrived at Cadiz with the ships under his convoy. There leaving rear-admiral Hopson, he proceeded for the Mediterranean. In the bay of Gibraltar he was overtaken by a dreadful tempest, under a lee-shore, which he could not possibly weather, and where the ground was so foul that no anchor would hold.
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