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Auction: 25002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 2

The Naval General Service Medal awarded to Landsman J. Peebles, Royal Navy, who served at the Battle of Trafalgar with H.M.S. Achille

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Trafalgar (James Peebles.), light contact marks, very fine

A unique name upon the published rolls.

James Peebles was born in London and volunteered for service in the Royal Navy, with whom he first served as a Landsman. He may have initially seen a length of service aboard H.M.S. Touterelle before joining H.M.S. Salvador del Mundo - originally a Spanish ship that was captured by the British at the Battle of Cape St Vincent - for a brief time in early April 1805. Then, on 11 April, Landsman Peebles joined H.M.S. Achille with whom he would serve for the next decade and would soon participate in that great naval battle off the coast of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

Achille was built at Gravesend where she was launched on 16 April 1798, a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line based on the design of the captured French vessel Pompee. The Battle of Trafalgar represented her first major military engagement, where she was under the command of Captain Richard King. She was positioned directly in the middle of Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood's leeward column, being the seventh in the line in between fellow 74-gun ships of the line Colossus and Revenge.

Achille was an active player in the ensuing naval battle, during which she found herself engaged with a number of enemy ships. At around 12:15 in the afternoon, she opened fire on the French Montanes before moving on to join the fighting against the 80-gun Argonauta. Thus ensued an exchange of fire that lasted for some hours, but just as her enemy was tiring and about to strike her colours they were interrupted by the 80-gun French Achille firing upon her British counterpart. The two Achilles exchanged broadsides, with the French ship fated to suffer a fiery end before the close of the battle.

The British Achille next met the 74-gun Berwick, upon which she inflicted such a harsh pounding over the next hour that Berwick was forced to surrender after Achille's guns rendered half of her crew casualties. Over the course of the long and bloody day, Achille sustained losses of only 13 men killed and 59 wounded, a number light in comparison to those she inflicted upon the enemy.

After the battle, Achille continued in active service until she was decommissioned at Chatham in 1815. Peebles served with her until that time, being promoted Ordinary Seaman on 2 August 1807 and later to Able Seaman on 2 July 1811. It was in this rank that Peebles was discharged from the Royal Navy on 9 August 1815, at which time Achille was paid off at Chatham. It is possible that he settled in Stirling following the end of his naval career; sold together with copied research.

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Estimate
£4,000 to £6,000

Starting price
£3200