to give the first intimation of the enemy’s approach. In a few days, however, he was under the necessity of resuming the post, which he had before held, of First-Lieutenant, and of resigning his command of the Hazard to the late Sir Wm. Elliott, who, in consideration of conduct he had displayed on a recent occasion, had been appointed to her instead of the officer at first proposed. During the siege of Guadeloupe the Hazard, in leading the British fleet to an anchorage in Anse la Barque, gained the position assigned to her a considerable time before any of the other ships. While her sails were being furled an enemy’s schooner, La Mouche, was perceived to be in flames; and, notwithstanding that a heavy fire was pouring from the contiguous batteries, a boat was instantly lowered and, manned with a few marines only, sent under the command of Mr. Robertson to board her. On reaching the schooner, it was found that her deck was already burnt; and so intense was the heat that all her guns went off while the lieutenant and his redjackets (the whole of whom were severely scorched) were engaged in cutting away her masts. Having returned to England with the bearers of the naval and military despatches announcing the conquest of Guadeloupe, the Hazard was ordered to Newfoundland; where, prior to his removal, in Oct. 1812, to the Antelope 50, flag-ship of Sir John Thos. Duckworth, we find Mr. Robertson contributing to the capture of several American vessels, and on all occasions discharging his duty in a manner that gained him the unqualified approbation of his Captain, Cookesley. Proceeding in the early part of 1813 in the Antelope under Capt. Sam. Butcher to the Baltic, he was for some time employed in protecting the trade through the Great Belt. In command of a captured row-boat, armed with 1 6-pounder, he made prize, on one occasion, of two vessels of a similar description;[1] and on a second, 23 Oct. 1813, he boarded and took, with resistless impetuosity, a privateer, the Eleanora pierced for 16 guns, but having only 1 long 9- pounder (on a pivot), 2 short 18-pounders, and 2 swivels mounted, with a quantity of small arms, and a complement of 37 men, 22 of whom had been selected from the King’s boats.[2] The Eleanora, to increase her means of defence, had placed 24 picked hands on board a lugger; but this vessel too Mr. Robertson had contrived to defeat, compelling her people to return to the schooner, which he and his crew entered pell-mell with them.[3] In reporting the details of this dashing performance, Capt. Butcher declares, “that since he had known the service he had never met in it a young man more eminently gifted with every quality calculated to render him an ornament to his profession” than “that most eminently zealous and gallant officer, Lieut. Jas. Robertson,” whose conduct he had been “until the close of day an admiring though distant spectator of, and, after dark, had heard and seen very distinctly by the heavy fire kept up.” Despite this glowing praise, and notwithstanding too his past services, Mr. Robertson, justified certainly in anticipating promotion, received not the least reward. So convinced, however, was his Captain that he would have attained superior rank that, when afterwards employed with other officers in successful boat-attacks, his name was purposely, as agreed between him and Capt. Butcher, omitted in the reports in order to give the rest a better chance: but the thanks of the Admiralty were all he obtained. In Nov. 1813 he removed at the request of Rear-Admiral Graham Moore to that officer’s flag-ship, the Vigo 74. The latter, being found defective, was in the ensuing Dec. paid off; and on 15 Feb. 1814 Mr. Robertson was appointed to the Lake-service in Canada; their lordships being desirous of selecting for that arduous employ “officers who had had an opportunity of distinguishing themselves.” Sailing accordingly for his destination in the Penelope troop-ship, Capt. Chas. Sullivan, he joined, in the summer of the same year, in the capacity of First-Lieutenant, the Montreal of 24 and Confiance of 37 guns, both commanded by his relative, Capt. Geo. Downie. On 11 Sept. 1814 it was his lot to be on board the Confiance in the action fought beneath the hostile batteries of Plattsburgh; where a British squadron, commanded by the officer last mentioned, was under the necessity of surrendering to a more powerful American force under Commodore Macdonough. Capt. Downie falling early, the command of the Confiance devolved upon Mr. Robertson, who, as far as his ship was concerned, nobly continued the action, although long exposed to the enemy’s united fire, until, cut to pieces and in the act of sinking, she had had 41, including her Captain, killed and 83 wounded.[4] For some time before she was taken possession of by the enemy, the water had gained so much upon her that it was found necessary to elevate the heads of the wounded to prevent them from drowning. Mr. Robertson, to whom Commodore Macdonough returned his sword, was detained in America until the end of the war. On 20 Aug. 1815, he was tried by a court-martial, and most honourably acquitted of all blame on account of the loss of the Confiance; and on the following day he was at length advanced to his present rank. His efforts to procure further employment were unavailing.
The Commander married, 24 .Tune, 1824, Ann, only daughter of the late Wm. Walker, Esq., of Gilgarran, near Whitehaven, co. Cumberland, and sister of Wm. Walker, Esq., who was killed, 1 June, 1819, during his passage in an English schooner to Italy, by the contents of a gun unwarrantably fired into her by a Spanish frigate.
WALKER. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 10; h-p., 31.)
John Walker (a) entered the Navy 9 May, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Swallow sloop, Capt. Alex. Milner, employed in the Channel, and off the coasts of Spain and Portugal. In Aug. 1809, five months after he had attained the rating of Midshipman, he removed to the Norge 74; and in that ship, commanded by Capts. John Sprat Rainier and Chas. Dashwood, he continued to serve, off Lisbon, at the defence of Cadiz, in the Mediterranean and North Sea, and on the North American and West India stations, until Aug. 1815 – the last 19 months in the capacity of Master’s Mate. He took part, in 1814-15, in the operations against New Orleans. On leaving the Norge he was presented with a commission bearmg date 17 Feb. 1815. He has since been on half-pay.
WALKER. (Lieutenant, 1827.)
John Walker (b) entered the Navy, 4 Feb. 1813; passed his examination in 1820; and was made Lieutenant, 28 May, 1827, into the Druid 46, Capt. Sam. Chambers, on the Jamaica station; where he obtained command, 20 July following, of the Pickle schooner. In her he remained but a short period. He has been employed, since 20 Sept. 1833, In the Coast Guard.
WALKER. (Lieut., 1822. f-p., 14; h-p., 17.)
Leven Charles Frederick Walker, horn in 1801, is son of the late Rear-Admiral Jas. Walker,[5] C.B., K.C.T.S. (whose father, Jas. Walker, married
- ↑ Each carrying 1 gun and small arms, and one with 12 and the other with 13 men. – Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 2406, where he is represented as having achieved the exploit in the boats of the Antelope.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 2406.
- ↑ While the British were in the act of boarding, an explosion took place in their own boat, which, while it panic-struck the enemy, gave them, if possible, an additional impetus, from the belief that the boat was sinking. The Danes, before they surrendered, had 3 men killed and 4 wounded; their assailants only 2 wounded.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 2336. According to Mr. James, the number wounded was about 60.
- ↑ Rear-Admiral Walker entered the Navy in 1776, on board the Southampton frigate. He obtained his first commission 18 June, 1781; served in the Torbay 74 during the operations against St. Christopher’s, under Sir Sam. Hood, and in Rodney’s action 12 April, 1782; and for his conduct as First and Signal Lieutenant on board the Niger, one of
