Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/192

 The action which followed was one of the most equal and stubborn during the war. By nightfall the Eurotas was completely dismasted; the Clorinde had part of her foremast standing and drifted away. She was not, however, lost sight of. Phillimore had been most dangerously wounded and was below, but by the exertions of the first lieutenant, when morning came the Eurotas was jury-rigged and going five knots and a half towards the enemy, which was still in the same state as on the previous evening. It was a remarkable bit of seamanship, and must have led to a brilliant success; but, unfortunately for Phillimore, the English frigate Dryad and the Achates sloop came in sight, and on their closing the Clorinde she struck to an evident superiority of force. On 4 June 1815 Phillimore was nominated a C.B., but his wounds rendered him for some years incapable of active service. In April 1820 he accepted the command of the William and Mary yacht, at the disposal of the lord lieutenant of Ireland, Earl Talbot, by whom he was knighted. In March 1823 he was appointed to the Thetis frigate, on a roving commission to Mexico and the West Indies, coast of Africa, South America, and the Mediterranean.

On one of Phillimore's short visits to England during this time his attention was called to the account given in James's ‘Naval History’—then newly published—of the action between the Eurotas and Clorinde, which he conceived reflected injuriously on the discipline of the Eurotas. The statement was, in effect, that the 24-pounders did not do as much execution as had been done in other actions by 18-pounders, and that the ship had been long enough in commission for her men ‘to have been taught a few practical rules of gunnery.’ Phillimore got forty-eight hours' leave, went up to London, and, armed with a stout cane, called on James and administered a sound thrashing, in compensation for which he afterwards paid 100l. [see (d. 1827)]. A better known incident, still often told, occurred on the homeward voyage of the Thetis from Cape Coast Castle, where she had taken an effective part against the Ashantees. In August 1824 she put into St. Michael's for supplies for the sick, when the English residents requested Phillimore to have the English burial-ground consecrated. Phillimore at once consented, and sending for the chaplain gave him an order to consecrate it the next day at noon. The chaplain demurred, and explained that only a bishop could consecrate. Thereupon Phillimore gave him an acting order as bishop of St. Michael's, and the ground was consecrated. In the following year the Thetis went up the Mediterranean, carrying the English ambassador to Naples, and on the homeward voyage put into Gibraltar, just in time to establish a claim to the jurisdiction of the port, in its widest sense. Seventeen English merchant ships, blown from their anchors in a violent gale, had been driven on shore at the head of the bay, on Spanish territory, and were claimed by the Spanish commandant at Algeziras as coming under his authority. This claim Phillimore refused to allow, and leading in the Thetis's boats, manned and armed, drove off the Spanish troops who had fired on the salving party. For this service in salving the cargoes Phillimore received a letter of thanks from the merchants of Gibraltar, and afterwards from Lloyd's; but its principal importance is as a precedent, which has been recorded for the guidance of the senior officer at Gibraltar. It was during this commission of the Thetis that Phillimore, with the consent of the admiralty, tentatively reduced the ration of rum from half a pint to one gill, paying the men savings-price for the other gill. The good effects of this reduction, which was, in the first instance, perfectly voluntary on the part of the men, were so evident that it was permanently adopted by the admiralty in July 1824. To Phillimore were also due other changes for the comfort and improvement of the seamen, among which may be counted the payment of a monthly advance, actually adopted on board the Thetis. Captain Drew, who served with him in every ship he commanded, has recorded that ‘his mind was constantly employed in endeavouring to ameliorate the condition of his fellow-creatures, but particularly British seamen;’ that he was ‘a kind protector to those over whom he was placed in authority … but less agreeable to those under whom he served.’ The Thetis was paid off in November 1826, and Phillimore had no further service.

He settled in a cottage on the Thames near Maidenhead. The wound which he had received in the action with the Clorinde had never ceased to cause him uneasiness, and of the effects of it he eventually died on 21 March 1840. He was buried in Bray churchyard.

In 1830 he married Catherine Harriet, daughter of Rear-admiral Raigersfeld. She survived him a few months, and was buried beside him. He left issue, besides four daughters, two sons, of whom the younger, Henry Bouchier, died an admiral and C.B. in 1893.