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Auction: 8016 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 58

Naval General Service 1793-1840, three clasps, 12 Octr 1798, London 13 March 1806, Off Mardoe 6 July 1812 (B. Hooper, Lieut. R.N.), minor edge bruise, good very fine Estimate £ 10,000-12,000 Benjamin Hooper served as Midshipman in H.M.S. Foudroyant for the capture of the French 74 gun ship-of-the-line Hoche and three frigates by Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren´´s squadron off the north-west coast of Ireland, 12.10.1798; he served as the same appointment in H.M.S. London for the capture of the French ship-of-the-line Marengo and the frigate Belle Poule, after a running fight lasting five hours, approaching the Azores, 13.3.1806; Hooper served as Lieutenant in H.M.S. Calypso for the action with a Danish squadron, which included the destruction of the 40 gun frigate Nayaden, off Mardoe on the coast of Norway, 6.7.1812. Approximately 27 ´´London 13 March 1806´´ clasps claimed. Approximately 47 ´´Off Mardoe 6 July 1812´´ clasps claimed. Lieutenant Benjamin Hooper born Torpoint, Cornwall, 1879; entered the Royal Navy as First Class Volunteer, May 1798; after taking part in Sir John Borlase Warren´´s capture of the French squadron destined for the invasion of Ireland, 1798, Hooper sailed with the flag of Lord Keith for the Mediterranean; where on Lord Nelson shifting his flag to the Foudroyant he was employed escorting King Fedinand and the Neapolitan Court, ´´and, in particular, in personally ministering, with Messrs. Walpole and Smith, Midshipmen, to the entertainment of the young princes on board´´ (O´´Byrne refers); Hooper continued his service in the latter under Captain Sir Edward Berry at the blockade of Malta, where he assisted at the capture of Le Genereux and the Ville de Marseilles, 18.2.1800; he was also present when the Foudroyant in company with the Lion and the Penelope captured the French flag-ship Guillame Tell, with Rear Admiral Decres and 1,000 men on board; after a brief period in the U.K., he returned to the Mediterranean with the renewal of hostilities for service in the Canopus (bearing the flag of Rear Admiral George Campbell), 1803; he was engaged at the blockade of Toulon, ´´off which port he once participated in a brush with a powerful division of the enemy´´s fleet´´ (O´´Byrne refers); appointed for service in H.M.S. London, 1805, and after participating in the capture of the Marengo and the Belle Poule, during which action his ship suffered 10 men killed and 22 wounded, Hooper accompanied the Portuguese Royal Family to Brazil, September 1808; he saw further service as Sub-Lieutenant in H.M.S. Alban (Lieutenant Commander Henry Weir), in the Baltic, ´´where he appears to have seen a good deal of boat service, and to have carried into Prussia secret despatches from the Commander-in-Chief, Sir James Saumarez´´ (O´´Byrne refers); Lieutenant December 1809; served in H.M.S. Princess Caroline (Captains Charles Dudley Pater and Hugh Downman), ´´in 1810, during a cruize in the Gulf of Finland, he was intrusted with the command of the boats employed among the rocks and small islands inshore; and in 1811 we again discover him serving in the boats, and sharing in a cutting-out affair off the island of Zealand, in which they endured a loss of 1 man killed and 1 severely wounded´´ (O´´Byrne refers); Hooper rejoined H.M.S. Calypso as Senior Lieutenant for service off Mardoe (6.7.1812) against a Danish squadron, for which he was mentioned in Vice Admiral Sir James Saumarez´´s despatch (London Gazette 18.7.1812); during this action, in which the Nayaden was destroyed, H.M.S. Calypso lost 3 men killed and 1 wounded, with the enemy suffering an estimated 300 killed or wounded; he continued to be borne on the ship´´s books and was further employed in conveying Lord Walpole to St. Petersburg, and in co-operating in the siege of Danzig; he was still Senior Lieutenant on the occasion of the Grand Naval Review held at Portsmouth, 1814; Hooper´´s last appointment afloat was in the Penelope (Captain James Galloway), the latter vessel was lost with part of her crew in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 30.4.1816. Provenance: Baldwin 5.9.1972

Sold for
£17,000