Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/361

 Cape of Good Hope, was deserted by a great part of the crew, Pitt was one of those who remained and succeeded in bringing the wreck into Table Bay. In March 1791 he joined the Discovery, with Captain George Vancouver [q. v.], and continued in her for nearly three years, in the survey of North-west America. On 7 Feb. 1794 Pitt, who by the death of his father on 19 Jan. 1793 had become Lord Camelford, was, for some act of insubordination, discharged to the shore at Hawaii. During the following months he reached Malacca, apparently in a trading vessel, and on 8 Dec. was entered as an able seaman on board the Resistance. Three weeks later he was appointed acting-lieutenant of the Resistance, but on 24 Nov. 1795 was summarily discharged and left to find his own way to England. He took a passage in a country ship named the Union, which was cast away on the coast of Ceylon in December. In September 1796 he joined the Tisiphone in the North Sea, and a fortnight later was moved to the London in the Channel fleet. On 5 April 1797 he passed his examination, and about the same time challenged Vancouver, who expressed his willingness to go out if any flag-officer to whom the case might be referred should decide that he owed Camelford satisfaction. Camelford refused any such reference, and, meeting Vancouver in the street, was only prevented from caning him by the bystanders.

On 7 April 1797 Camelford was promoted to the rank of lieutenant; on 2 Aug. he joined the Vengeance with Captain Thomas Macnamara Russell [q. v.], on the Leeward Islands station; and on 13 Sept. was appointed by Russell, then senior officer at St. Kitts, to command the Favourite sloop, whose captain had been invalided. Russell, who had no authority to give any promotion, made out the order of appointment as that of ‘acting commander.’ On 16 Sept. the appointment was repeated by Rear-admiral Henry Harvey, the commander-in-chief, then at Martinique, who, having full authority to give an acting commission, appointed Camelford ‘lieutenant commanding’ of the Favourite.

Charles Peterson, the first lieutenant of the Favourite at the time, was Camelford's senior by nearly two years, and his practical supersession by Camelford caused him much indignation. He contrived to transfer himself to the Perdrix frigate, then commanded by Captain William Charles Fahie [q. v.] On 13 Jan. 1798 the two ships, Perdrix and Favourite, were alone in English Harbour, Antigua, both alongside the dockyard, refitting. Fahie was on leave, and Peterson claimed to be senior officer in the port, both as the representative of Fahie and as Camelford's senior on the lieutenants' list. Camelford, repudiating such a pretension, sent in writing to Peterson a formal order, describing himself as ‘commanding his Majesty's sloop Favourite and senior officer.’ Peterson addressed a counter-order to Camelford, describing himself as ‘commander of his Majesty's ship Perdrix and senior officer.’ Camelford on this sent a lieutenant of the Favourite with a party of marines to repeat the order and to arrest Peterson if he refused to obey. Peterson prepared to defend himself, and the lieutenant, not caring to use force, withdrew. Camelford himself then went to the wharf alongside of which the Perdrix was lying, and Peterson, calling to the men of the Perdrix to come on shore and fall in, went out to meet him. As the Favourite's marines formed up behind Camelford, Peterson gave his men the order to load with ball cartridge. Camelford, advancing, inquired if Peterson refused to obey his orders. ‘I do,’ replied Peterson. Camelford snatched a pistol from one of his officers, presented it at Peterson, putting the same question a second and a third time, and receiving the same answer. At the third refusal he fired, and Peterson fell dead.

On 20 Jan. Camelford was brought to trial before a court-martial at Martinique. According to naval law, Peterson was the senior officer, and Camelford was the mutineer. But, without entering into the facts of his appointment, the court assumed the truth of Camelford's statement that he was senior officer and that Peterson was guilty of mutiny, and he was honourably acquitted. This decision can only be explained by the supposition that, with the knowledge of the occurrences at Spithead and the Nore, of the disturbed state of the fleet off Cadiz, and of the recent loss of the Hermione [see, 1769–1797], the court was panic-stricken at the very name of mutiny (Minutes of the Court Martial, in the Public Record Office; they have been printed, 1799, 8vo).

Meanwhile Camelford was promoted by the admiralty on 12 Dec. 1797, and on 4 May 1798 exchanged into the Terror bomb, which he took to England. In October 1798 he was appointed to the Charon, and, while fitting her out, resolved to go to Paris in order to get a set of French charts. At Dover he obtained from M. Bompard, then a prisoner of war [see ], a letter of introduction to Barras. He was described as a man willing to render important service to France. The boatmen whom he hired to take him to Calais, how-