A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Aitkin, Alexander

1624293A Naval Biographical Dictionary — Aitkin, AlexanderWilliam Richard O'Byrne

AITKIN. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 11; h-p., 32.)

Alexander Aitkin entered the Navy, 10 Dec. 1804, on board the Roebuck 44, Capt. Geo. M‘Kinley, bearing the flag in Yarmouth Roads of Admiral Billy Douglas. He afterwards served for nine years (including a short period as Acting-Lieutenant), in the Nassau 64, Orion 74, Tremendous 74, Orlando 36, and Tremendous again, flag-ships, in the North Sea, Baltic, and Mediterranean, of Admirals Thos. Macnamara Russell, Sir Jas. Saumarez, Sir Edw. Pellew, Sir John Gore, and Sir Chas. Vinicombe Penrose. In the Nassau, commanded at the time by Capt. Robt. Campbell, he attended the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807; and (on that ship’s hard-wrought extrication from a mass of ice in which she had been blocked up during the whole winter) was present, in company with the Stately 64, at the capture and destruction, 22 March, 1808, of the Danish 74-gun ship Prindts Christian Frederic, after a running fight of great length and obstinacy, in which the Nassau sustained a loss of two men killed and 16 wounded. He obtained his commission 11 Feb. 1815, and has not since been employed.