Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/936

922 PREEDY. 

entered the Navy, 12 Nov. 1828, as a Volunteer, on board the 28, Capt. Wm. Walpole, fitting for the West Indies, where he followed the same officer, as Midshipman, in the early part of 1832, into the 42, and continued employed until May, 1834. During that period he was constantly engaged in the suppression of the slave-trade; and pn one occasion, while lent to the schooner, of 5 guns, Lieut.-Commander Chas. Bolton, was for a long time, prior to the surrender of the enemy, exposed to the fire of the Joaquina, a large slaver, mounting one heavy gun upon a pivot. From May, 1834, until Nov. 1842, he served on the Mediterranean station in the 52, Capt. David Price,  46, Capt. Edm. Lyons, 92, Capt. Hyde Parker, and  84, Capt. Sir Sam. Roberts. He then (he had passed his examination, while in the, 27 Aug. 1836) joined the gunnery-ship at Portsmouth, Capt. Sir Thos. Hastings; and on 10 June, 1844, four months after he had been removed to the 104, flag-ship of Sir John Chambers White at the Nore,he was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant. His appointments have since been – 13 Sept. 1844, to the 110, Capt. Wm. Fanshawe Martin, lying at Plymouth – 30 Jan. 1845, to the 120, Capts. W. F. Martin and John Neale Nott, under the latter of whom he cruized with the Channel squadron – and 7 July, 1846, to the 50, Capts. Sir Baldwin Wake Walker and Geo. Wm. Conway Courtenay, now in the Pacific.

 PRESCOTT, C.B.

, born 4 May, 1783, at Kew Green, co. Surrey, is only surviving son of Admiral Isaac Prescott, by a daughter of the late Rev. Rich. Walter, Chaplain of the, with Commodore Anson, during his expedition to the South Seas, and author of ‘Anson’s Voyage.’ His only brother, an officer in the Hon.E.I.Co.’s service, was drowned on his passage home in 1806.

This officer entered the Navy, 16 Feb. 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the 98, Capts. Hon. Geo. Cranfield Berkeley and John Irwin, stationed in the Channel, where he attained the rating of Midshipman in April, 1797, and in the spring of 1798 followed Sir Chas. Thompson (whose flag had been latterly flying on board the ) into the 100. Proceeding, in 1799, to the Mediterranean, in the 36, Capt. Hon. Henry Blackwood, he there, while at the blockade of Malta, assisted, 31 March, 1800, at the hardwrought capture of Le Guillaume Tell of 84 guns and 1000 men. He afterwards took part in the operations of 1801 in Egypt; and on 17 Feb. 1802, at which period he was serving with Lord Keith in the 80, was nominated Acting Lieutenant of the  brig, Capt. Jas. Prevost. Being confirmed a Lieutenant by commission dated 28 April, 1802, he was subsequently appointed, in that capacity – 26 April, 1803, to the 32, Capt. Lucius Ferdinand Hardyman, in the North Sea – 14 Dec. 1804, to the  32, Capt. Lord Wm. FitzRoy, under whom he fought in Sir Rich. Strachan’s action with the four line-of-battle ships escaped from Trafalgar 4 Nov. 1805 – and, in the course of 1805, to the Lord Eldon, Capt. Whinyates, 74, Capt. Hon. H. Blackwood, and  98, flag-ship of Lord Collingwood, all in the Mediterranean. On 4 Feb. 1808 he was made Commander into the brig, of 18 guns. On 1 April following, being off Sardinia, he fell in with a French fleet, consisting of 10 sail of the line, three frigates, one brig, and a store-ship, and on the next day, having closely reconnoitred it, proceeded with the intelligence to Lord Collingwood, who was at the time cruizing, with a more powerful force, near Sicily. Adverse winds, unfortunately, however, deprived the Admiral of an opportunity of preventing the enemy from effecting their arrival at Toulon. While employed, subsequently, on the coast of Naples, Capt. Prescott proved of material obstruction to the trade passing along shore. In one instance he obliged a French brig of 20 guns to seek refuge under the land batteries; and although he adopted every manoenvre that gallantry could suggest to entice her out, his efforts were of no avail, notwithstanding that 11 Neapolitan gun-boats were in readiness to support her. On 8 Sept. 1808 we find him contributing to the capture of four large gunboats and 34 coasting-vessels, assembled at Diamante, near the Gulf of Policastro, which place he had blockaded with much perseverance until the arrival from Sicily of a force sufficient to attack them. On 27 Oct. 1809 he made prize of Le Veloce, French letter of marque, of 4 guns and 83 men; and on 25 Dec. in the same year he enforced the surrender, after a chase of nine hours and a brave resistance of an hour and a-half, of L’Eol, polacre-rigged privateer, of 14 guns, pierced for 20, and 140 men, 5 of whom were killed and 9 wounded, with a loss to the British of only 1 man killed and 1 wounded. Between the date last mentioned and June, 1810, the was employed cruizing off Sardinia, on which station she took and re-captured 17 vessels, including, among the former, L’Ippolite French schooner privateer, of 5 guns and 78 men. She next aided in the defence of Sicily, and while on that service came into frequent contact with the flotilla equipped by Murat for the invasion of the island. On 25 July, 1810, having, in company with the 32 and  18, induced a convoy of 31 vessels, protected by seven large gunboats and five scampavias, to haul themselves on the beach close to the town of Amantea, in a position that caused them to be flanked by two small batteries, Capt. Prescott, after the crews had been put to flight, pushed off with his boats, and, sustained by those of the two other ships, captured and destroyed the whole. In the execution of this service he was exposed to a very galling fire from the enemy, who had not only thrown up an embankment outside the vessels to prevent their being got off, but also within them to afford shelter to the numerous troops collected, who, when driven from their entrenchments, still afforded great annoyance from the walls of the town. Two days subsequently to this achievement Capt. Prescott again landed at Amantea, supported by a detachment of marines from the 74; and after destroying several vessels, succeeded in bringing off a gun, under a heavy fire of musketry, by which three of his men were wounded. In the course of the following month he was twice engaged with convoys passing alongshore, and captured six vessels, two of which, an armed xebec and a gunboat, he was obliged to abandon in consequence of a sudden shift of wind, and of the ’s mainyard being shot away, whereby it became impossible for her to tow them out from under a battery, in which a large body of French troops had assembled for their protection. The on this occasion had 6 of her people wounded, one of them mortally. In Feb. 1811, having been rewarded for his conduct at Amantea by a commission dated 25 July, 1810, Capt. Prescott left the. His next appointments were – 7 Aug. 1811, to the 20, on the Guernsey and Jersey station – 3 June, 1813, to the  36, employed in the Bay of Biscay, where he cruized until April, 1815 – and 6 April, 1821, to the  46. In the latter frigate he was at first stationed as senior officer on the coast of Brazil; and afterwards for 18 months in a similar capacity in the Pacific. While there in 1822 the