mer ship the Fly, Capt. Fras. Price Blackwood, fitting at Plymouth for a surveying expedition to the East Indies. The Thalia made prize of two slave-vessels; the Buzzard suffered severely from fever at Fernando Po; and the Bonetta, which vessel Mr. Stoll joined while she was in quarantine at Ascension, had half her officers and crew carried off. In her he succeeded in capturing as many as nine slavers, three of which, of superior force, were taken 50 miles up the Congo River, and one cut out, after a sharp resistance, from the river Pongos, by two boats under his own direction. He was advanced to his present rank, soon after he had joined the Fly, 23 Nov. 1841; and since 30 June, 1847, has been employed as an Inspecting-Commander in the Coast Guard. Agents – Messrs. Chard.
STONE. (Lieut., 1800. f-p., 13; h-p., 40.)
James Stone (a), born 26 Sept. 1775, is one of the 12 children of the late Isaac and Mary Stone, of Sidbury, co. Devon.
This officer entered the Navy, 26 Feb. 1794, as Ordinary, on board the Impregnable 98, Capt. Geo. Blagden Westcott; in which ship, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Benj. Caldwell, he fought and was wounded in Lord Howe’s action 1 June following. He was next, from 28 March, 1795, until 1 March, 1799, employed under the flag of the late Lord Keith, as A.B., Acting Clerk, and Midshipman, in the Monarch 74 and Queen Charlotte 100. While attached to the former ship he landed, as a Volunteer, in the attack upon the Cape of Good Hope in 1795, and was present at the surrender of the Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay 17 Aug. 1796. During his sojourn on shore, and while encamped with the army at Maysenbergh, he offered in a heavy gale to fetch provisions from the ships in Simon’s Bay. He accordingly put off, but his boat was soon cast away, and he and his crew, being washed out of her, were with difficulty saved. In the Queen Charlotte Mr. Stone continued to serve under the flag, in the Channel, of Sir Chas. Thompson, until 24 March, 1799. He then removed to the Royal George 100, flag-ship of Lord Bridport; and on 31 March, 1800, he was confirmed a Lieutenant, a short time after he had been ordered to act as such, in the Neptune 98, Capt. Jas. Vashon. When lying subsequently in Bantry Bay with a squadron under Rear-Admiral Chas. Morice Pole, the latter having made the signal for a Lieutenant of the Neptune, Mr. Stone, although it blew hard, was immediately sent on board the Admiral’s ship. The gale increasing before he could reach his destination, he was driven in his boat to sea, and after beating about for several hours was thrown on shore, at nine p.m., on Bear Island. Here with his men and a Midshipman he passed the night in a mud cot; and on the following day, to the astonishment of all on board, he rejoined his ship. He had previously, in the Royal George, taken part in an attack made, 2 July, 1799, on a Spanish squadron in Aix Roads. Invaliding from the Neptune in Feb. 1801, he was next, from 4 May in that year until March, 1802, and from 11 Juno following until he again invalided in April, 1804, employed in the Channel and North Sea in the Namur 74, Capt. Hon. Michael De Courcy, and Cruizer 18, Capt. John Hancock. On 14 June, 1803, he volunteered, with two boats, to bring out the French brig and schooner Le Commode and L’Inabordable, of 4 guns each, which had been driven on shore by the Cruizer and Jalouse, near Cape Blanc-Nez. This service, after he had been for an hour exposed to a galling fire from the enemy’s batteries and some field-pieces, he succeeded in accomplishing, although on reaching the vessels he found them scuttled and stuck fast in the mud. He was Senior-Lieutenant of the Cruizer in March, 1804, when that sloop gallantly beat off, and then pursued close under the batteries of Ostend, 13 armed brigs, full of troops, which had been sent from Flushing for the express purpose of either taking or destroying her. In the following month a pulmonary complaint and an attack of rheumatism produced by the arduous nature of his services in the North Sea compelled him, as above stated, to invalid. On his restoration to health he applied, fervently, but in vain, for employment in a sea-going ship; and indeed the only appointments which he ever afterwards succeeded in obtaining appear to have been, 23 Jan. 1824, for three years, to the Ordinary at Portsmouth; and, very recently, to the Volunteer Service at Liverpool.
Lieut. Stone married, first, 15 April, 1805, Hannah Stone, daughter of Mr. Salmon, R.N.; and, that lady dying 10 July, 1832, a second time, 24 Sept. 1835, Susannah, daughter of Lieut. Wm. Colborne, formerly of the 66th Regt., and a near relative of Lord Seaton. By his former marriage he has issue 15 children; by his second he has had two sons.
STONE. (Lieut., 1824. f-p., 13; h-p., 22.)
John Stone was born 28 July, 1799.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 Feb. 1812, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the North Star 28, Capts. Thos. Coe and Geo. Bentham, with whom he served in the Channel and West Indies, part of the time in the capacity of Midshipman, until 30 April, 1816. He was afterwards employed – from 20 Aug. 1816 until July, 1819, in the Weymouth store-ship, Master- Commander Rich. Turner, in the Mediterranean and Baltic – from July, 1819, until 20 April, 1823, as Midshipman and Mate (he passed his examination in Aug. 1818), in the Superb 78, Capts. Thos. White and Adam Mackenzie (bearing the broad pendant at first of Commodore Sir Thos. Masterman Hardy), in South America – and from 20 April, 1823, until 3 Dec. 1824, in the Hussar 46, Capt. Geo. Harris, on the Lisbon and West India stations. He was then, for his exertions in the suppression of piracy, presented with a commission dated 20 Aug. 1824. He has since been on half-pay.
Lieut. Stone married, 6 Sept. 1836, Miss Ann Warton Johnson, of Greenwich, co. Kent.
STONE. (Lieut., 1824. f-p., 22; h-p., 14.)
William Stone, born 1 May, 1799, is second son of Wm. Stone, Esq., late Master-Shipwright of Chatham Dockyard.
This officer entered the Navy, 28 Jan. 1811, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Peacock of 18 guns and 122 men, Capt. Wm. Peake; and on 24 Feb. 1813 was present, as Midshipman, in that vessel when she was captured, off Demerara, by the American ship Hornet of 20 guns and 165 men, after a close and desperate action of 25 minutes, in which the British sustained a loss of 5 (including their commander) killed and 33 wounded, and the enemy of only 1 killed and 2 wounded. Among the wounded on the occasion was Mr. Stone, whose skull was fractured by a musket-ball. On his release from captivity he was received, in June, 1813, on board the Sceptre 74, Capt. Chas. Bayne Hodgson Ross, stationed in the Chesapeake, where he was again wounded, in the neck, in an action with Commodore Barney’s flotilla. He also assisted in cutting out, on the coast of North Carolina, the Anaconda brig of 18 guns, and the 14-gun privateer St. Lawrence. He continued on the coast of North America in the vessel last mentioned, which was added to the British Navy and placed under the command of Lieut. David Boyd, and in the Maidstone 36, Capt. Wm. Skipsey, until Sept. 1815; and he was afterwards employed between Sept. 1815 and Oct. 1817, as Master’s Mate, in the Leander 50 and Vengeur 74, Capts. Edw. Chetham and Thos. Alexander, on the Home station – and between the latter date and April, 1824, as Mate and Admiralty-Midshipman (he passed his examination 5 March, 1817), in the Glasgow 60, Capt. Hon. Anthony Maitland, Dispatch 18, Capt. Wm. Clarke Jervoise, and Rochfort 80, Capt. Chas. Marsh Schomberg. On 19 May, 1824, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. While attached to the Dispatch an explosion of gunpowder deprived him for a long time of his sight; and so seriously was he injured that he was ultimately for many years rendered
