marked its approbation. After much active employment in the Channel he sailed, in the early part of 1809, for the West Indies, with intelligence for Sir Alex. Cochrane of a French squadron having proceeded thither; and in April of that year he gained the warmest acknowledgments of Major-General Maitland for his conduct on shore at the capture of the Saintes islands.[1] After their subjugation the Narcissus returned home with General Maitland, Governor of Grenada, and General Montgomery, Governor of Dominica. In 1812-13, at which time he had command of the Rhin, Capt. Malcolm was employed in active co-operation with the patriots on the north coast of Spain, under the orders of Sir Geo. Collier and Sir Home Popham; particularly at the attack upon Lequeytio, during which he had command of the island of St. Nicholas, situated near that town;[2] at Guetaria, where he landed for the purpose of reducing the town, but was compelled, by the sudden appearance of more than 2000 French troops, to retire, with the loss of 3 Midshipmen and 29 men taken prisoners;[3] also at Santander, where he again went on shore, took possession of a fort, and rendered much important service; and at the defence of Castro. In the spring of 1813 he was ordered with convoy to the West Indies; and in the course of the following year he was sent, with the Pique 36 and Mosquito brig under his orders, to cruize after an American squadron on the Brazilian station. On 18 July, 1815, Capt. Malcolm, who was at that time Senior officer on the coast of Bretagne, and had been joined by the Menelaus and Havannah frigates, performed a very neat exploit in landing at the head of a body of seamen and marines ftom the three ships at Corrijou, near Abervrach, where he stormed and carried a fort, and, with the assistance of the Fly and Ferret sloops, who had followed, effected the capture of an armed cutter, a praam-brig, and a gun-vessel, together with a convoy reposing in the harbour under their protection. This affair was the last of the sort achieved during the war. While in the Narcissus and Rhin, Capt. Malcolm, who appears to have been in frequent command of small flying squadrons, contrived to take, independently of a whole host of merchantmen, upwards of 20 privateers and other armed vessels, carrying 168 guns and 1059 men.[4] On leaving the Royal Charlotte as above, Sir Chas. Malcolm (he had received the honour of Knighthood at the hands of the Irish Viceroy) was appointed Superintendent of the Bombay Marine; the duties of which important post he continued to discharge for ten years, faithfully and zealously watching over and advancing the interests of the honourable and scientific corps under his command, and ably assisting Government in his station. During that period, as we gain from the general order issued by the Governor in Council on the occasion of his being succeeded by the present Sir Robt. Oliver, he proved eminently successful in elevating the character of the service, instituted many extensive and important surveys, was the means by his judicious instructions and suggestions of making numerous interesting and valuable additions to geography and navigation, and rendered himself conspicuous by his exertions in the introduction and establishment of steam-navigation in the Red Sea. Indeed he effected a complete revulsion in the administration of naval affairs, converting the system as it had pre-existed into what is now recognised as the Indian Navy, a name he was himself the first to impart. His promotion to the rank of Rear-Admiral took place 10 Jan. 1837, and to that of Vice-Admiral 28 April, 1847
Sir Chas. Malcolm married, first, 4 June, 1808, his cousin, Magdalene, daughter of Chas. Pasley, Esq.; and, secondly, 11 April, 1829, Elmira Riddell, youngest daughter of Major-General Shaw. By his first marriage he has issue one daughter, and by his second three sons – the eldest of whom, George John, a Midshipman R.N., entered the service in June, 1842, and was in the Firebrand with the present Capt. Jas. Hope in the expedition up the Parana in Nov. 1845. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
MALDEN. (Lieut., 1818. f-p., 14; h-p., 24.)
Charles Robert Malden was born, 9 Aug. 1797, at Putney, co. Surrey. His father, a medical man and general practitioner of repute, resided at Malden, in Essex, a place from which his family, who had been seated there for many generations, derives its name.
This officer entered the Navy, 22 June, 1809, as a Supernumerary, on board the Diligence Navy transport, Master-Commander Alex. Black, in order to await an opportunity of joining the Acasta 40, Capt. Philip Beaver, from which latter vessel he eventually, in Oct. of the same year, removed to the Scipion 74, bearing the flag in the Bay of Biscay of Rear-Admiral Hon. Robt. Stopford. Being again, in June, 1810, placed under the orders of Capt. Beaver in the Nisus 38, and awarded the rating of Midshipman, he sailed for the Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies, and assisted, while on those stations, at the reduction of the Mauritius and the island of Java. Soon after the commencement of the war with the United States, he was sent home in a captured American Indiaman. On the Nisus being paid off in May, 1814,[5] Mr. Malden (he had only rejoined her a short time previously, having been intermediately employed on board the Prince 98, guard-ship at Spithead) became attached to the Traave 38, armée en flûte, Capts. Rowland Money and John Codd. In the following Sept. we find him serving on shore as Aide-de-Camp to Capt. Money in the attack upon Baltimore; and in Dec. of the same year accompanying the expedition against New Orleans, where he suffered much from exposure in open boats, and was for three weeks deprived by the frost of the use of his feet – an infliction of which he still feels the effects. We may add that during a portion of the operations he again officiated as Aide-de-Camp to Capt. Money. Quitting the Traave in Aug. 1816, Mr. Malden (who about that period passed his examination) next, in March, 1817, joined the Tagus 38, Capt. Jas. Whitley Deans Dundas, on the Mediterranean station, where the favourable report made by that officer to the Admiralty of his proficiency in the science of surveying led to his being confirmed a Lieutenant (after he had acted for a few weeks as such on board the Albion 74, flag-ship of Sir Chas. Vinicombe Penrose) in the Aid surveying-vessel, Capt. Wm. Henry Smyth, 1 Sept. 1818. He continued under the latter officer until Jan. 1821, and was lastly appointed – 14 Sept. 1823, to the Shamrock, another surveying-vessel, commanded in the Channel and on the coast of Ireland by Capt. Martin White – and in the summer of 1824 (in the capacity of Supernumerary-Lieutenant and Head-Surveyor), to the Blonde 42, Capt. Lord Byron, fitting for the Pacific, whither he escorted the remains of the late King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands. During the voyage an island was discovered in lat. 4° 0' S., long. 155° 0' W., to which Lord Byron gave the name of Malden, in compliment to the subject of the present memoir; who, pending his sojourn among the Sandwich Islands, surveyed the south coast and harbour of Honorura, and also an important harbour in the island of Ha-wai-i (or Owhyhee) capable of containing five or six sail-of-the-line in perfect security, which had entirely escaped the observation both of Cook and Vancouver, and to which he affixed the name of Byron’s Bay. He was discharged on the return of the Blonde to England in the spring of 1826.
Lieut. Malden is the present proprietor and con-
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 780.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1812, p. 1278.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1812, p. 1441.
- ↑ Including the Cantela Spanish man-of-war schooner, pierced for 12 guns, but carrying only 6, with 25 men, captured 19 Aug. 1807 (Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 1125); the Avantura letter-of-marque of 10 guns and 43 men; and the privateers Navarrois of 16 guns and 132 men, San Joseph of 14 guns and 68 men, La Comtesse de Montalivet of 14 guns and 57 men, La Courageuse of 14 guns and 70 men, and Decatur of 223 tons.
- ↑ She was at the time commanded by Capt. Chas. Marsh Schomberg.
