Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/1211

Rh  it, and bringing the guard away.” The tower referred to mounted two guns; and so great was the danger attendant upon the enterprise, that it was with considerable hesitation that Mr. Travers was allowed by Capt. Duncan to undertake it. On a descent being made, in Dec. 1813, upon the coast of Italy, near Via Reggio, he again landed, and after driving the enemy from a battery close to the beach, brought off 2 long brass 12-pounders. He obtained the thanks of Capt. Hon. G. H. L. Dundas, in the course of the same month, for his conduct on shore in the unsuccessful operations against Leghorn; and in April, 1814, he was present at the reduction of Genoa and its dependencies. On 15 June, in the latter year, Lieut. Travers was at length advanced to the rank of Commander. He had then, it appears, been upwards of 100 times engaged with the enemy; had been in command at the blowing up and destruction of eight batteries and three martello-towers, and at the capture of about 60 sail of vessels (18 or 20 of them armed, and several cut out of harbours and from under batteries); and had been, as we have shown, frequently gazetted. He continued in the until paid off in Sept. 1814. His next appointment was to the sloop; but that vessel being found defective he was removed, 23 July, 1828, to the  18. In her he conveyed Commodore Chas. Marsh Schomberg to Teneriffe, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope. He afterwards proceeded to the Bay of Fundy, in order to afford protection to the fishery, and to ascertain the longitude of the different headlands. On this service he was for five months employed. In the summer of 1829, being still on the North American station, he rendered assistance to one or two vessels in distress; and, by towing down with his boats and securing the pier, intended as the foundation of a lighthouse to be built as the at St. John’s, greatly facilitated that undertaking. On being appointed to the Capt. Travers had been assured by the Lord High Admiral at his own table on board one of the royal yachts, that, as soon as he had served the one year necessary, he should receive further promotion. As H.R.H., however, went out of office before the expiration of the period, the boon was not conferred until 19 Nov. 1829. Capt. Travers then returned to England on board a Halifax packet, bringing with him a testimonial from Sir Chas. Ogle, the Commander-in-Chief, extolling highly the zeal and attention he had shown in carrying on the public service, and the state of efficacy and good order in which, without severity, he had kept his sloop. He has since been on half-pay.

In an autograph letter addressed to Capt. Travers by the late King four months only before his accession to the throne, we read the following passage: “Your merits as an officer were the cause of my being interested in your promotion, and your fame in the service makes me agree with satisfaction to your request of wearing the uniform of my household.” His Majesty afterwards, 4 Feb. 1834, nominated him a K.H.; and on 5 March following conferred upon him the honour of Knighthood. Sir Eaton married, in April, 1815, Ann, eldest daughter of Wm. Steward, Esq., of Great Yarmouth, co. Norfolk, by whom he has issue five sons and two daughters. – Messrs. Stilwell.

 TRAVERS. 

was born 10 Oct. 1796.

This officer entered the Navy, 23 Dec. 1811, as a Volunteer, on board the 40, Capt. Sir Wm, Bolton, employed on the Irish station, where he removed, in May, 1812, to the  20, Capt. Spelman Swaine, and became, in the following Sept., Midshipman of the  sloop, Capt. Henry Montresor. In May, 1814, he was received as a Supemumerary on board the, Capt. Robt. Hall, lying at Plymouth; and in the following July, he joined the brig of 18 guns, 104 men and 13 boys, Capt. Hon. Jas. Arbuthnot; which vessel, on 1 Sept. in the same year, was compelled to strike her colours to the American ship-sloop Wasp of 22 guns and 173 men, after an action so gallant that within a few hours she went down; barely allowing time for her surviving officers and crew to be saved by the boats of the 18 who, having arrived at the close of the conflict, had put the Wasp to flight, and had then hastened back to her assistance. The enemy on this occasion had 2 men killed and 1 wounded; the British, their First-Lieutenant and 9 seamen and marines killed and mortally wounded, and their Commander, Second-Lieutenant, and 30 others severely and slightly wounded. Among the latter was Mr. Travers, who was sent in consequence to the Hospital at Plymouth. In the ensuing Dec, although not yet recovered, he again embarked, on board the 18, commanded by his former Captain, Arbuthnot, with whom he served for three years on the coast of Ireland. The was then, 8 Dec. 1817, driven on shore in a violent gale in a bay of the co. Clare. Providentially the upper works, soon after she struck, parted from the bottom, and the officers and crew, with the exception of 5 who were drowned, being carried further in were enabled to land; in a state, however, of great exhaustion, most of them too being much bruised and half naked. Having completed his time on board the 74, Capt. Wm. Robt. Broughton, lying at Plymouth, Mr. Travers was allowed, 6 March, 1818, to pass his examination. From that period he remained unsuccessful in his efforts to procure employment until appointed, in Oct. 1819, to the Coast Blockade. After spending four years in that service as Admiralty-Midshipman of the 50 and  74, both commanded by Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch, he joined, in Nov. 1823, in a similar capacity, the 82, Capt. Thos. Jas. Maling, and sailed for South America. On 24 Dec. 1824, being then in the Pacific, he received from Capt. Maling, at the time Senior Officer, an order to act as Lieutenant of the ; and in Aug. 1826 he was nominated by Sir Geo. Eyre, the Commander-in-Chief, Acting- Lieutenant of his own flag-ship the 74, at that period at Rio de Janeiro. Before the intelligence was received in the Pacific he had been compelled, from the effects of his wound and the nature of the climate, to invalid in a state of utter debility. He heard on reaching Rio of his appointment, but found that the had returned home; and on his arrival in England in the early part of 1827 he was presented with a commission bearing date 12 of the preceding Oct. Unfit, from the state of his health, to accept of employment afloat, he at length, 2 June, 1846, obtained an appointment, which he still holds, in the Coast Guard.

 TREACY. 

died 15 April, 1845, at Whitehaven. This officer entered the Navy, 21 Nov. 1778, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the, Capt. Allen, employed at Deptford and Spithead. Five months after he had been discharged from that vessel he joined the 74, Capt. Philip Affleck, attached to the force in the Channel. Her he left in July, 1780; from which period he did not again go afloat until received, as A.B., in Jan. 1793, on board the 74, Capts. Skeffington Lutwidge, Geo. Campbell, John Miller, and Sir Rich. Bickerton. Attaining the rating of Midshipman in the following April, he served in that capacity in a gun-boat, and on shore in the batteries, at the occupation, in the course of the same year, of Toulon. He was afterwards, 14 March and 13 July, 1795, present in Hotham’s partial actions with the French fleet off Genoa and the Hyères Islands. He continued in the, part of the time as Master’s Mate,