Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/212

 the capture of the French frigate Melpoméne, intercepted on her passage from Elba to Naples, during the 100 days war. In the short but spirited action which took place on this occasion, Lieutenant Keele, who invariably performed the duty of a commissioned officer, received a severe blow from one of the gun-breechings giving way. The Rivoli brought her prize to Portsmouth in Feb. 1810; and was soon afterwards paid off.

Mr. Keele remained on half-pay from this period until Nov. 1823, when, after repeated solicitations for employment, he was applied for by his friend Captain H. D. Chads, and accordingly appointed first lieutenant of the Arachne sloop, fitting out for the East India station. The manner in which he acquitted himself while serving under that officer will be seen by the following outline of the operations in which he was engaged during the Burmese war.

After touching at Lisbon, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Trincomalee, and Madras, the Arachne proceeded to co-operate with the expedition under Sir Archibald Campbell, K.C.B., at Rangoon, where she arrived, and her commander assumed the direction of the naval force attached to the invading army, Sept. 15th, 1824.

On the 21st and 24th of the same month. Lieutenant Keele, then commanding a division of gun-vessels and row-boats, assisted at the destruction of eight stockades on the Panlang river. He subsequently commanded the naval part of an expedition sent to reduce and occupy the city of Martaban, situated at the bottom of the gulf of that name, and about 100 miles to the eastward of Rangoon. The force under his orders consisted of six gun-vessels, one mortar-boat, seven row-gun-boats, (and an armed transport; the latter having on board four hundred and fifty troops, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Godwin.

On the 27th Oct. this little armament entered Martaban river, and succeeded in destroying about thirty of the enemy’s war-boats, two of them pulling fifty oars each, and the whole