|
BRUNE
|
(38) |
|
The French LA THETIS taken by AMETHYST on 10 November 1808 off L'Orient.
Sold in 1838. |
|
|
- 1810 (armed en flute) Cdr. Hon. George DOUGLAS, 07/1810, Lisbon.
He was promoted to post rank in February 1812. - 1812 Cdr. William Stanhope BADCOCK, 08/1812.
He was ordered to act as commander of BRUNE on 11 June at Lisbon and subsequently visited Cadiz, Gibraltar, Majorca and Oran to obtain supplies for the British forces at Alicante. - BRUNE then took station in Altea Bay, 25 miles north of Alicante to protect the town and was able to repel a party of some 200 Frenchmen on a foraging expedition.
Capt. BADCOCK also drove a small privateer on shore near Deia, 25 miles to the north. - In April 1813 Lieut. Gen. Sir John Murray was ordered to embark his multi-national force of 18,000 men to attack Suchet at Tarragona.
- At the beginning of June 1813 BRUNE as a troopship, together with THAMES, VOLCANO, STROMBOLO and eight gun boats, was taken under the orders of Capt. Charles ADAM of INVINCIBLE. They were to assist Lieut. Col. PREVOST in the siege of the fort guarding the Col de Balageur, the pass through which ran the high road from Tortosa to Tarragona, the only route for cannon into the province without going 60 miles north to Lerida. Because of its importance it was armed by 12 pieces of ordnance, including two 10" mortars and two howitzers. The troops were landed on 3 June and they immediately invested the fort.
The following evening two 6-pounder field guns and a howitzer were landed and dragged up to a mountain ridge. Two 12-pounders were taken up on the 4th. and five 24-pounders landed. Three of the latter were heaved up the side of a hill under Capt. CARROLL of VOLCANO on the 5th. and two mortars brought up to the bottom of the hill. The latter part of the operation was carried out during the day under heavy fire from the fort and at night during a violent thunder storm with rain falling in torrents.
The mortars opened fire at daylight on the 7th. and, at seven o'clock, just before the breaching battery was about to open, a white flag was seen on the fort and the garrison surrendered.
Murray was a poor general and his unaccountable retreat from before Tarragona resulted in a court martial.
BRUNE took him to Palermo and brought the 44th. regiment from there back to Spain. She returned to Portsmouth with Lord Mahon and his family. - BRUNE next took 700 troops to Holland before sailing to America with 300 royal marines. She arrived at the end of May 1814 and was next employed in the Patuxent river where her people had frequent skirmishes with with the local militia during expeditions ashore.
- In August Capt. Badcock was absent from his ship for 18 days and nights while he and Capt. Thomas SULIVAN commanded the first of three division of boats and tenders which Sir Alexander COCHRANE took up the Patuxent to Nottingham. The flotilla was left there under Capt. NOURSE while the troops pressed on to Washington and burned the White House. After the failure of the expedition against Baltimore in September BRUNE remained in the Chesapeake under the orders of Capt. Robert BARRIE of DRAGON.
- In November Capt. BADCOCK accompanied Capt. BARRIE and the boats of the squadron up the Rappahanock River and on the 29th. they landed at Tappahanock and brought off flour and tobacco and some arms and ammunition abandoned by the militia. They landed at the town again on the 4 December and attacked a body of 600 militia at Farham Church, about 7 miles away, without loss. The Americans lost several killed and wounded an a large field gun was captured and several negroes released.
- DRAGON, REGULUS and BRUNE were ordered to the coast of Georgia. They were joined by ALBION and PRIMROSE and, with two companies of the 2nd West India regiment, captured Cumberland Is. on 11 January 1815.
On the 13th. they landed near Point Petre on the mainland and took possession of the fort there before going on to St Mary's. The vessels in the river, including the COUNTESS OF HARCOURT, an Indiaman taken by a privateer, were collected and brought away. - BRUNE was ordered to the Bahamas at the end of February and brought home a body of troops in June.
Capt. BADCOCK was appointed to post rank in August. - 1816 Out of commission at Sheerness.
|
|
|
