A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Roberts, Duncan
ROBERTS. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 10; h-p., 31.)
Duncan Roberts entered the Navy (into which he was impressed from the Merchant Service, wherein he held a very promising position), 25 Jan. 1806, as A.B., on board the Spencer 74, Capt. Hon. Robt. Stopford; and on 6 Feb. following was present in the action off St. Domingo. Removing, in July of the same year, to the Captain 74, Capts. Geo. Cockburn, Isaac Wolley, and Jas. Athol Wood, he assisted soon afterwards at the capture, by a squadron under Sir Thos. Louis, of the French frigate Le Président. While in escort, with one or two other ships-of-the-line, of a convoy of transports bound to Buenos Ayres, the Captain, towards the close of 1806, fell in with a French squadron, and was obliged to put into St. Jago, in the Cape de Verde Islands, where together with her consorts and charge she lay for four weeks blockaded. During that period one of the enemy’s vessels, a corvette of 26 guns, was attacked and captured by the British boats, in which Mr. Roberts, who held the rating of Quartermaster, was one of the persons present. In 1807 he accompanied, under Capt. Wolley, the expedition against Copenhagen. Pending the siege he landed with a party of seamen and assisted a few troops belonging to the 79th Regt. in capturing a small Danish battery. His conduct on this occasion was gallant and was reported as such by the conducting military officer, Capt. Cameron. Continuing in the Captain, Mr. Roberts further witnessed the surrender of Madeira, the reduction of Marie-Galante, Martinique, and other French islands, and the capture of the French 74-gun ship D’Haupoult. For special services rendered several months prior to the taking of Martinique he had been awarded the rating of Master’s Mate. He continued employed with Capt. Wood in that capacity on board the Neptune 98 and Pompée 74 in the West Indies and Bay of Biscay, and also in the Mediterranean (where he took part in several skirmishes with the French fleet and beheld the fall of Genoa), until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, 15 Feb. 1815. He has since been on half-pay.