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DUNLAP.
being sent to cruize off the coast of Spain, he succeeded in capturing a galleon, Il Fortuna, laden with specie to the amount of 150,000l., and with merchandize of nearly equal value, but he generously returned 10,000 crowns of the spoil to the unfortunate sufferers, and restored them to liberty. On 6 April, 1806, while her boats with all but 40 of the crew were absent on an expedition up the Garonne, the Pallas gave chase to, and drove on shore, two corvettes and a large armed frigate-built store-ship, mounting in the whole 64 guns. In May, 1806, Lord Cochrane distinguished himself by the destruction of the semaphores along the French coast, where he landed with the marines and boats’ crews, and, notwithstanding the defence of the militia, demolished the posts at Pointe de la Roche, Caliola, and L’Ance de Repos, burnt down the buildings, and bore off the signal-flags. He also carried by storm the battery at Pointe d’Equilon, destroyed its stores, and blew up the barrack and magazine. Four days after the latter event the Pallas, under a heavy fire from the batteries on He d’Aix, singly attacked the French 40-gun frigate La Minerve, in company with three 18-gun brigs, but, while preparing to board, she unfortunately ran foul of the former, and by the tremendous shock was reduced to a complete wreck. Assuming command, 23 Aug. 1806, of the Impérieuse, of 44 guns. Lord Cochrane, in the short period of one month, took and destroyed 15 vessels, chiefly laden with wine and provisions. He was afterwards sent to co-operate with the patriots on the coast of Catalonia, and he there, on 31 July, 1808, compelled the castle of Mongat to surrender, by which the road to Gerona, then besieged by the French, had been completely commanded. In Sept. 1803 his Lordship renewed his operations against the semaphores on the coast of France, where he completely destroyed those which had since been erected at Bourdique, La Pinde, St. Maguire, Frontignan, Canet, and Foy, with the houses attached to them, 14 barracks belonging to the gens-d’armes, a battery, and a strong tower on Lake Frontignan. Indeed, he kept the whole of the enemy’s coast in a constant state of alarm, suspended their trade, and, by the diversion he thus created, prevented those troops which had been intended for Figueras from advancing into the Peninsula. Returning to the coast of Spain, Lord Cochrane volunteered the defence of Trinidad Castle, attached to the fortress of Rosas, then besieged by the French, a thousand of whose picked men,, at the head of 80 of his oin people and about an equal number of Spaniards, he repelled, 30 Nov. 1808, in an assault made by them on the castle. He protracted the siege for 12 days, and then, finding further opposition useless, in consequence of the citadel having capitulated, he blew up the magazines of Trinidad Castle, and returned to his ship. The Captain of the Impérieuse subsequently rendered the Commander-in-Chief the important service of presenting him with the key of the enemy’s telegraph signals on the heights of Toulon, which enabled him to derive information twice a-day, not only of the movements of the enemy, but of his own cruizers, from the south promontory of Italy to Cape Rosas in Spain. In April, 1809, Lord Cochrane was selected by the First Lord of the Admiralty, in preference to many senior officers, to command a fleet of fire and explosion ships intended for the destruction of the French shipping as they lay at anchor in the road of He d’Aix. The glowing success which attended his Lordship’s personal efforts will ever remain prominent in the page of history. On the night of the 11th he went on board one of the explosion vessels, containing 1500 barrels of gunpowder, which, being conducted close to windward of the boom that had been placed for the protection of the French ships, shattered that means of defence. Favoured by wind and current, the fire-vessels, having a passage thus opened for them, rushed onward in blazing piles, carrying with them so much consternation, that by the next morning it was found that seven line-of-battle ships had cut their cables and run on shore. Of these La Ville de Varsovie 80, and Tonnant and Aquillon 74’s, were afterwards destroyed, as were also the Indienne of 44, and Calcutta of 56 guns – the latter after having been captured by Lord Cochrane, who, unsupported, approached in the Impérieuse, and commenced an action which lasted until she struck her colours. On 26 of the same month. His Majesty, to testify the sense entertained by himself and by the country at large of the hero’s conduct, conferred on him the dignity of a K.B. – the only instance but one (and that in the case of Sir John Jervis) in which so high an honour had been bestowed on an officer holding the rank of Captain. Lord Cochrane continued in the Impérieuse until Aug. 1809, but, in consequence of feelings of hostility engendered against him by the opposition he had offered in parliament to a vote of thanks proposed to Lord Gambier as Commander-in-Chief of the British fleet stationed in Basque Roads during the operations we have just recorded, and but for whose ineffectual support, it was asserted, the whole of the French shipping might have been destroyed, he was suffered to continue unemployed until 9 Feb. 1814. He then at length obtained command of the Tonnant 80, as Flag-Captain of his uncle, Sir Alex. Cochrane, at that time Commander-in-Chief in North America, but he resigned the appointment April following; and, on 5 July in the same year, from a combination of fortuitous circumstances, of which he appears to have been thoroughly the victim, he was doomed to lose his rank in the Navy, also the K.B. and his seat in parliament, in which he had officiated, since 1807, as Member for Westminster. Being no longer in the British service, his Lordship, in 1818, accepted the chief command of the Navy belonging to the new state of Chili, whose final independence the splendour of his subsequent achievements mainly contributed to effect. He afterwards assumed control of the Brazilian fleet, and gave such satisfaction that Don Pedro, in 1823, created him Marquess of Maranham. On the establishment of peace between Portugal and Brazil, his Lordship returned to England, whence he next proceeded to Greece, in whose service he appears to have been employed for a period of 12 months in 1827-8.[1] On the occasion of William the Fourth’s accession to the throne he was at length reinstated in his place in the British Navy; and on 22 May, 1847, although it had until then been most inconsistently withholden, the order of the Bath was restored to him, an act which of course reestablishes his Lordship’s character, but not more fully proves his innocence than it clearly indicates the debt of reparation- due to him for having been so long suffered to bear the stigma of unmerited disgrace. He became a Vice-Admiral 23 Nov. 1841.[2]
The noble Earl, who enjoys a high reputation for his scientific acquirements, married, 12 Aug. 1812, Katherine Frances Corbet, daughter of Thos. Barnes, Esq., of Essex, and has issue, with one daughter, four sons, of whom the eldest. Lord Cochrane, is a Captain in the 18th Regiment, and the third, Arthur Auckland Cochrane, a Mate R.N.
DUNLAP. (Lieut., 1842. f-p., 16; h-p., 1.)
Andrew Robert Dunlap, born 19. Feb. 1816, is son of Jas. Dunlap, Esq., M.D., a gentleman who
- ↑ The Earl of Dundonald possesses three Chilian dccolations for capturing the city of Valdivia and the frigate Emeralda, and for clearing the Pacific of all hostile vessels of war; also the Grand Cross of the Order of the Cruzero, for driving the Portuguese from the Northern provinces of Brazil; and the Order of the Redeemer of Greece. His Lordship’s services to his own country have been gazetted nine times.
- ↑ His Lordship has lately afforded the public some very sterling suggestions, the fruits of his vast experience, in the shape of a pamphlet, entitled ‘Observations on Naval Affairs, and on some collateral subjects, &c.’ In this volume he has published a summary of his Naval services, and has exhibited acts of injustice, as experienced by himself, which should render its perusal imperative on all who feel in any way interested in the honour of their country, and especially on those whose duty, as well as in whose power, it is to make atonement for the past, and by future acts to cancel its recollection.
