master's mate, on the Newfoundland station. He was made a lieutenant on the 16th of June, 1789, and served in that capacity on board the Adamant, Thisbe, and Victory. In the following year, he was elected member of parliament for Reigate, in Surrey. Having continued in the Victory during the Spanish and Russian armaments, he, in February, 1791, commanded the Rattlesnake; in which he continued to cruise in the channel till he was made postcaptain of the Circe, and was employed in the soundings at the commencement of the war with the French republic. He captured several large privateers and merchantmen, as well as a large corvette, close to Brest, in sight of a very superior French squadron. In 1794, he joined the North Sea fleet, under Lord Duncan, in the Stag; which captured, in the August of the following year, the Alliance, a large Batavian frigate. Having cruised, with success, in the same vessel, till 1800, he was, in that year, appointed to the Jason; and served, subsequently, in the Canada, Prince George, Barfleur, and Christian, until the 22nd of June, 1810, when he was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty. On this occasion, he vacated, but was re-elected to, his seat in parliament; and he had also, on the 21st of April, 1805, been knighted, on receiving a blue riband, as proxy, for his brother, the Earl of Hardwicke, lord-lieutenant of Ireland.

Sir Joseph Yorke was, on the 31st of July, 1810, made rear-admiral of the blue; and, in the January following,

having his flag on board the Vengeur, seventy-four, proceeded to the reinforcement of Lord Wellington's army in Portugal. He afterwards went to the Western Isles, for the protection of the homeward-bound East India fleet, which reached England in safety. He was elected member of parliament for Sandwich, in 1812; was made a vice-admiral in July, 1814; nominated a knight commander of the Bath, in January, 1815; and, in the same year, was presented with the freedom of the borough of Plymouth. He resigned his seat at the admiralty in 1818, and was returned member of parliament for Reigate. Sir Joseph has been twice married; first, on the 29th of March, 1798, to Miss Elizabeth Rattray, by whom he had six sons and one daughter; and, secondly, on the 22nd of May, 1813, to the Honourable Uriana Anne, Dowager Marchioness of Clanricarde, by whom he had no issue.

Though his opportunities of distinction were few, his naval career was highly useful and honourable. At the board of admiralty, his nautical skill and zeal for his profession were the means of introducing into the service many valuable improvements. He was always held in high estimation by his fellow seamen, and was universally looked upon as the sailor's friend. As a member of the house of commons, he was distinguished more for his good-humour and jocularity, than for his political ability, though he had always a zealous regard to the interests of the naval profession.

ROBERT WALTER OTWAY, son of an officer in the army, entered the navy in the Elizabeth, seventy-four, and became, in due time, a lieutenant in the Impregnable, ninety-eight, which took part in the engagement of the 1st of June, 1794, as the flag-ship of Rear-admiral Caldwell. Having, on this occasion, displayed singular gallantry, by going aloft, during the action, to rectify an accident that had occurred to the top-sail-yard, he was offered the post of first lieutenant,

which he modestly declined, observing "that he was on the happiest terins possible with his messmates, and that being placed so suddenly over the heads of several old officers might probably create jealousies, and prove detrimental to the service." Caldwell acquiesced in the justice of his remark; but on his flag being removed to the Majestic, insisted that Otway should be his first lieutenant, and he accordingly accompanied his commander to the West Indies. Not

long after his arrival at Martinique, he was appointed commander of the Thorn sloop, described as a wretched little vessel, in which he took, in April, 1795, La Belle Creole, intended for the destruction of Martinique; the inhabitants of which island presented him with a sword worth two hundred guineas. In May following, the Thorn, having only eighty of her crew on board, captured Le Courier Nationale, of one hundred and nineteen men, after an action of thirty-five minutes. He was wounded in the engagement, and subsequently took part in the Carib war, in the island of St. Vincent. Being made post-captain on the 30th of October, he proceeded in the Mermaid, of thirty-two guns, to Grenada, and while attacking the combined force of the slaves and French inhabitants, refused to act on the suggestion of the English general to reimbark, on perceiving that two ships had arrived with reinforcements for the enemy. By ascending to a height, from which he fired some field-pieces on the vessels, he compelled them to retire, and thus gained for the English a decided victory. On his passage afterwards from Grenada to Guadaloupe, he was attacked, on the 8th of August, 1796, by a large French frigate, La Vengeance, which had orders to sink or take the Mermaid, but the enemy was compelled to return, with loss, to her anchorage. Captain Otway subsequently assisted in cutting out twelve sail of merchantmen, protected by forts; and, in 1797, removed into the Ceres, in which he destroyed one ship, at Porto Rico, and captured another. On one of these occasions, he nearly escaped being shot, and was in similar peril while boarding the vessel of a commodore of a flotilla, near Havannah. He was shortly after appointed to the Trent, of thirty-six guns, and while off St. Juan, in 1799, he brought out schooner, by night, from under a battery. In the same quarter, in company with the Sparrow cutter, he attacked two French privateers and a Spanish brig, and some other vessels lying at anchor near a small battery. On the approach of the English, the enemy made a signal of no quarter, and, after a short action, were compelled to surrender.

a

Towards the close of the year 1800, Captain Otway returned to England,

having on board Sir Hyde Parker, and afterwards, in that commander's flagship, the London, proceeded to the Baltic. In the battle of Copenhagen, he was sent, in an open boat, with instructions for Lord Nelson, with whom he continued until the cessation of the action. After the victory he was sent home with the despatches, but again returned to the North Seas, where he remained for a short period. On quitting this station, he removed into the Edgar, which, however, in July, 1802, was put out of commission.

From 1803 till 1810, he was employed, with credit, on various services; and, in July of the latter year, served in the Ajax, of seventy-four guns, as part of a squadron off Toulon, under the orders of Blackwood. The enemy being desirous of liberating one of their own frigates then in Bandol, came out for the purpose, when they were immediately opposed by the British force, and, by the judicious proceedings of Otway, the Sheerwater, of eighteen guns, was saved from capture. His conduct on the occasion was the subject of praise in the official reports of the transaction. He continued to command the Ajax until late in 1811, when the state of his health compelled him to quit active service for a time, having, however, before his return home, been present at the destruction of a French convoy on the coast of Catalonia, and at the taking of La Dromedaire, which had on board a large quantity of ammunition. In 1813, he resumed the command of the Ajax, in which he made many prizes, and was employed in cooperating with the land forces at the siege of St. Sebastian, and escorting a reinforcement of troops for the army in Canada.

Captain Otway was promoted to a flag on the 4th of January, 1814, and subsequently became rear-admiral of the red. In 1818, he was nominated commander-in-chief on the Scottish coast; and, while on that station, where he remained until 1821, was presented with the freedom of the city of Edinburgh.

He was married, in 1801, to a daughter of Admiral Holloway, by whom he had issue several children.

Admiral Otway, though his services have been numerous and eminently

successful, has received few of those distinctions usually awarded to naval officers; many of whom, possessing less merit, have received greater encouragement. His zeal was such, that during eighteen years, he slept on shore only for one night; and the value of his services may be estimated by the fact,

that he took armed vessels, mounting, on an aggregate, one thousand guns, from the enemy. He was a strict disciplinarian, and acted as such equally with regard to men and officers. Such was his vigilance, that he was humorously said, by one of his crew, always to sleep with one eye open.

THIS officer, the fourth son of Viceadmiral Sir Joshua Rowley, obtained his rank of post-captain on the 1st of August, 1795; and, in the ensuing year, was chief officer of the Cleopatra, of thirty-two guns; while serving in which, on the American station, he made prize of a French corvette, called the Aurore. He next commanded L'Unité; in which he captured a vessel mounting ten guns, and assisted at the taking of the Indian, of sixteen. Early in 1801, he was appointed to the Boadicea frigate, whose boats, in company with those of the Fisgard and Diamond, brought out, and took possession of, from under the batteries of Corunna, El Neptuno, of twenty guns, together with a gun-boat. He was afterwards successively commissioned to the Ruby, sixty-four, and the Eagle, in which he served, under Sir Sidney Smith, off the coasts of Naples and Sicily; and, in May of that year, was actively employed in the reduction of the island of Capri, where his services were very effective.

Captain Rowley being off Brisindi, in the month of November, 1811, made prize of La Corcyre, of forty-four guns, and having on board one hundred and thirty soldiers, with a cargo of wheat and military stores. This success was soon followed by the storming and destruction of the battery of Cape Ceste, in the Adriatic; which was effected by the marines of the Eagle and a detachment of soldiers. At the taking of Fiume, in the Adriatic, on the 3rd of July, 1813, Captain Rowley bore a very distinguished and prominent part. On directions being given to storm, he led the first division of marines to the attack, and hoisted the British colours

on the battery; while Hoste, at the head of the marines, spiked the guns of another fort that had been already silenced by two of the ships. Rowley having now given orders for the guns of the battery he had taken to be turned against those not yet reduced, entered the town; which, after some severe fighting, was taken: the loss to the squadron employed on the occasion being only one killed and six wounded. Ninety vessels thus fell into the hands of the English, besides a large store of ordnance, ammunition, and provisions, which were brought away or destroyed. But a few days after this achievement, the fortress of Farasina was taken by a storming party, in pursuance of orders from Captain Rowley, who, on the 2nd of August following, in company with Captain Hoste, took Rovigno, destroyed the forts, and burnt, sank, or brought away, the twenty-one vessels that were lying at anchor in the harbour.

At the attack upon Trieste, in the following month, by Admiral Fremantle, and the Austrian general, Count Nugent, Captain Rowley again signalized himself. "He had advanced,' says Brenton, "a long thirty-two pounder to within two hundred yards of the Spanza, a strong building with one gun, and loop-holes for musketry, which stood upon a hill, with a wall fourteen feet high surrounding it. On firing the first shot from the thirtytwo pounder, the ground gave way, and the gun fell six feet below the platform. It was fine to see, (says the admiral in his despatch,) Captain Rowley and his people immediately get a triangle above the work, and the heavy gun, with its carriage, run up to its place again, in the midst of a shower of grape

put into execution, the vessel blew up, and killed Lieutenant Geddes and ten men. The American merchants at New York, having heard that the Ramillies was short of provisions, had placed some in the hatchway; but in the hold were many barrels of gunpowder, and trains laid, so that, by means of clock-work, an explosion might take place at a stated time. This contrivance was the work of the merchants-sanctioned, as many imagined, by the American government, and contrived for the destruction of the Ramillies and her crew. In the year 1814, our officer, assisted by Lieutenant-colonel Pilkington, captured all the islands in Pass Macquady Bay, and he likewise bombarded the town of Stonington, the inhabitants of which place had aided in the attempt to destroy the Ramillies.

On the 2nd of January, 1815, Sir Thomas Hardy was made a K. C. B; in July, 1816, appointed to a royal yacht; on the 30th of November, 1818, commissioned to the Superb, of seventyeight guns; and, in 1819, sailed in that ship for South America, where he acted as commodore of the British squadron. He continued on this station for about three years; and was subsequently advanced to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue.

Sir Thomas Hardy was honoured by the particular friendship of Lord Nelson, and was mentioned by him to his present majesty, when Duke of Clarence, as an officer of the most distinguished merit.

Sir Thomas married a daughter of Sir George Berkeley, and niece of the Duke of Richmond.

HENRY, youngest son of Sir John Blackwood, entered the navy at an early age; and, having served in the Mediterranean for a short period, acted, in 1790, as signal-midshipman, in the Royal Charlotte, under Lord Howe, during the time of the Spanish armament. Being promoted by his lordship to the rank of lieutenant, he served, on the 1st of June, 1794, in the Invincible, which captured an eighty-four gunship, called Le Juste, after a closely fought action of two hours. On his return to Portsmouth, he was appointed commander of the Megara, in the channel fleet; and having been, on the 2nd of January, 1795, advanced to the rank of post-captain, he, soon after, in the Brilliant, of twenty-eight guns, while giving chase to a Spanish vessel, off Teneriffe, was brought to action by two French frigates; from both of which, having maintained with each a spirited encounter, he succeeded in escaping. Being afterwards appointed chief officer of the Penelope frigate, attached to Lord Nelson's fleet, he formed part of a squadron employed in the blockade of Malta. Whilst stationed to watch for the Guillaume Tell, on her expected passage from the harbour of

Valette to Toulon, he descried her on the 30th of March, 1802, and instantly giving chase, an action ensued; in which two other ships of the English squadron having joined, the French vessel, after a valiant resistance, was compelled to strike her colours. The French admiral, Decrès, ascribed his misfortune to the heroism of Captain Blackwood, in having been the first to engage; and our officer having towed the prize into Syracuse, proceeded to assist in the blockade of Malta; where he remained till the 5th of September, 1800, when it capitulated to the English. Having, in January, 1801, received permission to accept the Sicilian order of St. Ferdinand, and having also signalized himself in Lord Keith's expedition against the French in Egypt, he returned home in 1802; and, on the renewal of war, in the ensuing year, was appointed to the Euryalus, of thirty-six guns. In this frigate he served, successively, under Lords Gardner, Keith, and Nelson, on the coast of Ireland, at Boulogne, and at Cadiz.

In the battle of Trafalgar, on the 21st of October, 1805, he acted with great bravery, and was distinguished by the notice of Lord Nelson, who con