Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/1407

Rh adopted, the dangers he braved, the impediments he encountered. After struggling for 14 months with difficulties unparalleled, surrounded often with sickness, and in the midst always of privation and want, the issue of his persevering exertions, and of the consummate mechanical and nautical skill he has called into action, was seen in the triumphant recovery of all the guns and stores, and of about 600,000 dollars. He was then relieved by Capt. Hon. John Fred. Fitzgerald De Ros of the 10, who, availing himself of the machinery already constructed, rescued 150,000 dollars more. With a constitution broken by the fatigue he had undergone, Capt. Dickinson returned to England, and years elapsed before he was restored to comparative health. Short, however, of his promotion to Post-rank, he obtained from the Admiralty not the least token of approbation for the almost superhuman undertaking he had accomplished. In 1842, to mark the sense they entertained of the ingenuity he had evinced at Cape Frio in converting water-tanks into diving-bells, the Society of Arts presented him with a gold medal. The regret we feel at being deprived of the pleasure we should have in entering more at large into a history of Capt. Dickinson’s achievement is somewhat mitigated by his having already published ‘A Narrative of the Operations for the Recovery of the Public Stores and Treasure sunk in H.M.S. ,’ &c.; a volume which should unquestionably be read by those who are disposed to take interest in an account of perhaps the most astonishing performance of the kind ever achieved by the Captain of a British man-of-war. Capt. Dickinson was admitted into the Royal Hospital at Greenwich 26 Aug. 1847.

 DILLON, Kt., K.C.H.

was often during the war employed, as we have already noticed, on the extra-duty of carrying flags of truce, owing in a great measure to the knowledge he possessed of the French language. It was on many of those occasions in his power, by timely concessions – made, indeed, on his own responsibility, but always with a degree of judgment that called forth the warm thanks and approbation of the Commander-in-Chief – to assuage the angry feelings of our enemies, and thereby to facilitate the exchange of prisoners. The attack upon the French frigates at St. Eustatia was made by a British squadron, consisting, with, of the and  74’s and  28. It was not, however, persisted in, inasmuch as the island was Dutch, and it was found impossible to destroy the frigates without inflicting material injury on the town. The expeditious manner in which, although the service was attended with risk, Mr. Dillon, aided by a brother officer, succeeded, when in the, in securing the person of the Irish rebel before alluded to, whose name was Skallion, elicited the thanks of a Court-martial at the time sitting to try such offenders. In July, 1803, as we have stated, he was sent with a flag of truce from Lord Keith to the Dutch Commodore Valterbeck; who, to his surprise, detained him, separated him from his men, and placed him in confinement on board a small armed schooner lying in the outer anchorage. At the end of eight days he received an answer to his despatch from the Hague, and was told that he might depart. As he was in the act of making sail, however, to rejoin his ship, an armed launch belonging to a French frigate came alongside, and, as he had no means of resistance, compelled him, although he was under a flag of truce, to surrender. Ultimately he was ordered to Verdun, where he remained, in spite of a demand made by the British Government for his release through Lords Yarmouth and Lauderdale, until Sept. 1807, when he was at length, through private influence, restored to liberty. In the action with the Lougen Capt. Dillon had 2 men killed and 9 wounded. He was for nearly 30 years Equerry to the Duke of Sussex.

 DORVILLE. 

became First-Lieutenant of the in Nov. 1845, and continued to serve as such in the  50, Capt. Henry Byam Martin, to which ship he was removed 10 July, 1847, until paid off in Oct. 1848.

 DUNN. 

is married and has issue (with one daughter, Frances Emelia, married to Wm. Crofton, Esq., Surgeon R.N.) three sons – the eldest, Richard Marsh, in the Customs in London; the second,, a Lieutenant R.N.; and the youngest, William James, First-Lieutenant R.M. (1848).

 FALCON. 

was at the blockade of the Dutch coast in the Sheerness; and in the at the taking of the Danish and Swedish islands in the West Indies in 1801. He was First-Lieutenant of the when Lord Wellington occupied the lines of Torres Vedras. His promotion to Flag-rank took place 1 Aug. 1848; on which occasion he was superseded in the Superintendentship of Pembroke Dockyard.

 FORDYCE. 

was elected M.P. for the city of Aberdeen in Aug. 1847.

 GRACE. 

and those who had been wrecked with him in the Grethoond were taken from Manilla to Batavia by the French frigates Cannonière and Laurel. When commanding the he was the first who commenced the destruction of barracoons or slave-factories on the coast of Africa. Among the vessels which were captured and detained by the and her boats were the Aurora Dutch schooner, of 144 tons, 4 guns, and 26 men, L’Hypolite schooner (under French colours), of 95 tons, 2 guns, and 19 men, and the Caroline French schooner, of 78 tons, 2 guns, and 20 men.

 HAMOND. 

was much employed in the in the suppression of piracy in the Archipelago, and was present at the capture of a piratical corvette of 18 guns from under the batteries at Hydra. He assisted also at the reduction, by the combined forces of Great Britain and France, of Morea Castle, the last hold of the Turks in the Peloponnesus. When a Lieutenant of the he obtained the thanks of the Royal Humane Society on vellum “for his gallant attempt to save the life of Lieut. John Gore, on the occasion of his jumping overboard in a heavy gale of wind off the Cape of Good Hope to save the life of a seaman.” Lieut. Jas. Lewis Fitzgerald, and several others who united in the vain endeavour to rescue Mr. Gore, were drowned. In 1839, while on his passage home from the West Indies in the packet, Capt. Hamond, at personal risk, and with injury indeed to himself, was the means of preserving that vessel from being burnt at sea, by extinguishing a fire which, through the carelessness of her crew, had broken out in the hold. The he commanded for nearly five years. During that period he proved instrumental, by the valuable assistance he afforded, to the suppression of an alarming conflagration which broke out, and lasted for two days, in the town of Valparaiso, For his conduct he received, as did his officers and ship’s company, many of whom were hurt, the special thanks of the President of Chili, the Governor of Valparaiso, and his own Commander-in-Chief, Rear-Admiral Rich. Thomas. He was also for two years employed at Otaheite; and for several important services which he there performed he was promoted to the rank he now holds, at the particular recommendation of Sir Geo. Fras. Seymour, who had succeeded Rear-Admiral Thomas. Capt. Hamond<section end="Hamond, Andrew Snape" />