stroyed a captured brig, under a battery of 6 guns and a fire of musketry. In the affair with the Jena he was again slightly wounded; and for this and his other proceedings he had the gratification of receiving letters of a flattering nature from his Commanders-in-Chief, Lord Keith and Vice-Admiral Thos. Macnamara Russell, as well as the renewed approbation of the Admiralty. On 4 Feb. 1807 Mr. Tracy was removed to the command of the Linnet brig, of 12 18-pounder carronades, 2 long sixes, and 60 men. In her he was chiefly employed in blockading Havre-de-Grace, in cruizing in the Channel, North Sea, &c. in escorting convoy to Newfoundland, and on service on the coast of Ireland. On 16 Jan. 1808 he enforced the surrender, off Cape Barfleur, after a running action of an hour and 40 minutes, of Le Courrier lugger of 18 guns and 60 men;[1] on 30 Aug. following he captured, near Cherbourg, the Foudroyant of 10 guns and 25 men; his vessel, during the latter part of the operations connected with the expedition of 1809 to the Walcheren, occupied the advanced position in the river Scheldt, in order that she might be on the look-out for fire-vessels; and on 29 May, 1812, he took, off the Start, Le Petit Charles, carrying 26 armed men. On other occasions he recaptured two brigs, made prize of a privateer and two small French sloops, and detained three Danish vessels. His performances indeed in the Linnet twice obtained for him the commendation of their Lordships; and he was continued in her until Feb. 1813; on 25 of which month he fell in with, and was forced to strike his colours to, the French 40-gun La Gloire, This latter step, however, was deferred until he had done all that intrepidity could do, and had exhausted every resource that consummate seamanship could suggest. In pronouncing its sentence, the court-martial, which, on 31 May, 1814, assembled on board the Gladiator at Portsmouth to try the late officers and crew of the Linnet, expressed its opinion “that the capture of H.M. late gun-brig Linnet was caused by her falling in with a French frigate of very superior force, and that the conduct of the said Lieut. John Tracy, his officers, and company was most able, judicious, and seamanlike, although they were not so fortunate as to effect their escape from so superior a force. Yet,” it went on to say, “their manoeuvres in having three times crossed the frigate’s bows, and at one time so near as to carry away her flying-jib-boom, evinced so much courage and judgment, that the court doth adjudge the said Lieut. John Tracy, his officers, and company to be fully and most honourably acquitted.” As a reward for his skill and valour Mr. Tracy was promoted, 11 June following, to the rank of Commander. He afterwards, until 1836, sought, but in vain, for employment; nor has he been since more successful in his efforts to obtain, that which he covets, the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital.
Commander Tracy married, 3 May, 1825, Mrs. Knight, of Gosport, only sister of the Rev. J. B. Cooper, of Emsworth, co. Hants. A son, by a former marriage, J. J. C. H. Tracy, is a Lieutenant R.N.
TRACY. (Lieut., 1837. f-p., 22; h-p., 2)
John Joseph Clapp Harding Tracy is son of Commander John Tracy, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 9 July, 1823, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Queen Charlotte 100, Capt. Jas. Nash, lying at Portsmouth; where he removed, in Feb. 1824, to the Victory 100, Capt. Chas. Inglis. From April, 1826, until Jan. 1830, he served (he had already attained the rating of Midshipman) in the West Indies in the Espiègle 18, Capts. Rich. Augustus Yates, Williams Sandom, Henry Gosset, Joseph O’Brien, Chas. Ramsay Drinkwater (now Bethune), and Russell Eliott. He then again joined, for rather more than three months, the Victory, Capt. Hon. Geo. Elliot; and he was next, from 8 Sept. 1830 until 8 Jan. 1834, and from 19 Jan. 1834 until 22 Sept. 1837, employed as Mate in the Rainbow 28, Capt. Sir John Franklin, and Charybdis 36, Lieut.-Commander Sam. Mercer, in the Mediterranean and on the coast of Africa. On 30 of the month last mentioned he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. His appointments have since been – 16 Dec. 1837, to the Lily 16, Capt. John Reeve, with whom he returned to the coast of Africa – 28 Nov. 1839, after six months of half-pay, to the Wanderer 16, Capts. Hon. Joseph Denman, Stephen Grenville Fremantle, and Geo. Henry Seymour, in which vessel he was for four years and seven months employed on the African and China stations, the chief part of the time as First-Lieutenant, including about four weeks that he acted as Commander – and 18 July, 1845, to the charge, which he still retains, of a station in the Coast Guard. On 19 Nov. 1840 he landed at the Gallinas, and after having destroyed the factories, brought off a number of slaves, whom he conveyed, in the prize-vessel Vanguarda, to Sierra Leone. In an engagement with some pirates off Acheen, on the coast of Sumatra, Mr. Tracy, who had charge of the Wanderer’s boats, and was in company with those of the Haeleqdin, had 4 men wounded, one of them severely, in his own boat, the pinnace.
TRAILL. (Lieut., 1809. f-p., 17; h-p., 28.)
Gilbert Traill entered the Navy, 3 Aug. 1802, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Clyde 38, Capt. John Larmour. After serving for two years in the North Sea he removed as Midshipman, in Sept. 1804, to the Mediator frigate, Capts. Sir Thos. Livingstone, John Seater, Wm. Furlong Wise, and Jas. Rich. Dacres; in which ship he made a voyage to St. Helena and then proceeded to the West Indies, where we find him, in the early part of 1807, assisting at the capture of the Fort of Samana, St. Domingo, a notorious nest for privateers. In Oct. of the latter year he became Master’s Mate (a rating he had attained in Feb. 1805) of the Talbot sloop, Capt. Hon. Alex. Jones; and on 21 Jan. 1809, at which period he had been for five months serving in the Mediterranean in the Ocean 98, flag-ship of Lord Collingwood, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. His succeeding appointments were – 11 April, 1809, and 16 May, 1811, to the Unité 36, Capts. Patrick Campbell and Edwin Henry Chamherlayne, and Tiger 74, Capt. Benj. Hallowell, both in the Mediterranean – 5 Sept. 1811, to the Owen Glendower 36, Capt. Brian Hodgson, whom he accompanied to the East Indies – 6 April, 1812, and 12 April, 1813, to the Illustrious and Minden 74’s, flag-ships on that station of Sir Sam. Hood – 16 Jan. 1315, to the Malacca 36, Capt. Geo. Henderson, from which frigate he was paid off on his return to England in the following July – 17 Sept. 1817, to the Mersey 26, Capt. Edw. Collier, fitting for the coast of North America, whence he invalided in Aug. 1819 – and 2 Oct. 1833, to the command, which he retained until the spring of 1835, of the Leveret 10, on the Lisbon station. He has since been on half-pay.
TRAVERS, Kt., K.H. (Captain, 1829. f-p., 18; h-p., 31.)
Sir Eaton Stannard Travers, born in 1782, is third surviving son of the late John Travers, Esq., of Hettyfield and Grange, co. Cork, of which he was a Magistrate, by Mehetabel, only daughter of John Colthurst, Esq., of Dripsey Castle, and niece of Sir Nicholas Colthurst, Bart., of Ardrum. Four of his brothers, Major-General Sir Robt. Travers, K.C.B., Majors Jas. Conway Travers, K.H., and Joseph Gates Travers (the latter Barrack-Master at Portsmouth), and Capt. Nicholas Colthurst Travers, Barrack-Master at Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, served during a greater part of the late war in the Rifle Brigade, and were all wounded; a fifth, John Travers, died a Lieutenant of the Hebe frigate in the West Indies. He descends, remotely, from Laurentius Travers, who settled at Nateby, co.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1808, p 107.
