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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 3

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Boat Service 21 Jan 1807, Basque Roads (William Howard.), toned, extremely fine

8 'Boat Service 21 Jan 1807' clasps issued.

William Howard, a native of Nottingham, entered H.M.S. Galatea as a Landsman on 1 July 1803, aged 21. He served aboard this 32-gun fifth rate during her daring capture of the French corvette Lynx, 16 guns, off Les Saintes, Guadeloupe on 21 January 1807. Lynx had broken through the British blockade of Rochefort on 25 September 1806, easily outrunning H.M.S. Windsor Castle, 98 guns, and successfully carrying troops and provisions across the Atlantic to the French garrison of Martinique. At dawn on 21 January, Lynx was sailing towards Caracas when Galatea caught sight of her and gave chase. Lynx, with her sweeps spread, was so much faster than the British frigate that by 2 p.m. only her top-gallants were visible above the horizon. Captain Sayer of Galatea refused to let this prize escape, so he launched six boats containing fifty seamen and twenty Royal Marines under the command of Lieutenant W. Coombe. The men rowed determinedly for seven hours, in the blazing sun, covering a distance of over twelve leagues. Fanning out in two lines, by 9 p.m. the boats were within pistol shot of the Lynx.

After hailing the French vessel, which had a crew of 161 men and boys, the boat crews attempted to board her on both quarters. French grape and musketry took a fearful toll, wounding Lieutenant Coombe and keeping the attack at bay. A second attempt to board met with no more success than the first. With the odds heavily stacked against them, the boat crews dropped astern of Lynx and poured a destructive fire of small arms into her quarter gallery. Their shots ricocheted through the length of the ship, causing severe casualties, and with a great cheer the third attempt began. The fighting was desperate, but this time the boarders drove all before them. Their loss was severe: one officer and eight men killed, three officers and nineteen men wounded. Lynx entered the British service under the name H.M.S. Heureux, though Lieutenant Coombe never lived to receive the Patriotic Sword subsequently voted him. Just eight men of Galatea's company lived to claim the 'Boat Service 21 Jan 1807' clasp.

Howard transferred to the 8-gun bomb vessel H.M.S. Thunder on 3 April 1809, serving as an Ordinary Seaman at the Battle of the Basque Roads. This action, in the Bay of Biscay, foiled another French attempt to resupply the French Caribbean islands. After the French 74-gun Régulus became stranded on a shoal at the entrance to the Charente Estuary, Thunder shelled her mercilessly, but the French gradually towed her into Rochefort. Thunder took part in the Walcheren campaign that year, shelling enemy formations on the banks of the Scheldt. Howard was invalided to England per H.M.S. Colossus on 15 December 1810; sold with copied research.


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Sold for
£6,500

Starting price
£1200