Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/331

 This officer married, in 1834, Frances, youngest daughter of the Hon. Mrs. Pelham, of North Place, Cheltenham. 



a leg while serving as master’s-mate of the Penguin brig-sloop. Captain James Dickinson, in action with the United States’ ship Hornet, Captain James Biddle, near the island of Tristan-d’Acunha, Mar. 23d, 1815. Previous to giving the details of this action, we shall point out a few of the circumstances under which the combatants met.

The Hornet mounted eighteen 32-pounder carronades and two long 18-pounders, and had on board 163 men (officers included) and 2 boys. She had musketoons in all her tops, each piece throwing fifty buck-shot at a discharge, and upon each quarter a brass swivel, three or four pounder, fitted on a chock. Her crew were provided with leather caps, fitted with narrow plates of iron, crossing at the top, and bending upward from the lower edge of the crown, to prevent a cutlass from striking the shoulder after having glanced on the head.

The Penguin, after having been run up by contract, in the usual slight and hurried manner, was commissioned for the first time in Nov. 1813, and ordered to be fitted out for the Cape of Good Hope station. Her armament consisted of sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two long sixes. In respect to captain and officers generally, she might compete with any brig of her class; but as to men, when she did get them all on board, which was not until June 1814, they were, with the exception of not being disaffected, a worse crew than even the Epervier’s. Except a portion of her petty officers, they were either very old or very young; the former discharged ineffectives, the latter recently impressed: among the whole number, twelve only had ever been in battle. On falling in with the Wasp, she mustered only 105 officers and men (including 12 supernumerary marines) and 17 boys.

