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MAUNSELL.
745

manded the Sybille’s main-deck, was sent to take possession of her. On 17 June, 1800, 12 months after he had risen to the post of Acting-Lieutenant, he was at length confirmed in his appointment to the Sybille, commanded at the time by Capt. Chas. Adam. Among other services in which he participated under that officer, was the capture and destruction, 23 Aug. 1800, of five Dutch armed vessels and 22 merchantmen in Batavia roads. He further, in the following Oct., aided in making prize of 24 Dutch proas, four of which mounted 6 guns each; and on 19 Aug. 1801 (when off Mahé, the principal of the Seychelle Islands) was instrumental to the taking, with a loss to the Sybille (out of 300 men) of 2 killed and 1 wounded, of La Chiffonne, of 42 guns and 296 men, 23 of whom were killed and 30 wounded. This action, a very gallant one of 20 minutes, was attended with the disadvantage to the British of being fought among rocks and shoals, and under the fire of an enemy’s battery. As soon as the vessel had struck her colours, Mr. Mauger was placed in charge of her as Prize-Master. On leaving the Sybille in Oct. 1801, he joined the Suffolk 74, Capts. Wm. Clark and Curtis; and in that ship, in the spring of 1802, he returned to England. His next appointment was, 16 June, 1803, to La Chiffonne, then a British 36-gun frigate, commanded by his former Captain, Adam; whom, in Sept. 1805, he accompanied, as Senior Lieutenant, into the Resistance 38. In the former ship, when in company with the Falcon sloop. Clinker gun-brig, and Frances armed-cutter, we find him assisting, 10 June, 1805, in driving on shore under the batteries of Fécamp a division of the French flotilla, consisting of 2 corvettes and 15 gun-vessels, carrying in all 51 guns, 4 8-inch mortars, and 3 field-pieces, accompanied by 14 transports. While attached to the Resistance, he beheld Sir John Borlase Warren’s capture, 13 March, 1806, of the Marengo 80, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule aided in the transport home from Vera Cruz of a considerable quantity of freight, was at the taking of L’Aigle privateer of 14 guns and 66 men, and escorted a large body of General Officers to the coast of Portugal. He left the Resistance in Dec. 1808; and was next, from 3 May to 25 Aug. 1815, employed in the Queen Charlotte 100, flag-ship of Sir Geo. Martin, with whom he went from Chatham to Portsmouth. He became a Retired Commander on the Junior List 15 Dec. 1830; and on the Senior 17 Feb. 1845.

Commander Mauger married, in 1802, Miss Margaret Allez, and by that lady has issue four sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Charles, is a Captain in the 17th Regt. Bombay Native Infantry; and another, John, was a Lieutenant in the Royal Marines.



MAUNSELL. (Lieutenant, 1846.)

Edward Eyre Maunsell is, we believe, eldest son of the Rev. Edw. Eyre Maunsell, A.M., of Fort Eyre, co. Galway, by Eliza Maria, daughter of Rich. Studdert, Esq., of Bunratty Castle, co. Clare. This officer passed his examination 21 Aug. 1839; and after having served for some time as Mate on board the St. Vincent 120, flag-ship at Portsmouth of Sir Chas. Rowley, was promoted, 23 March, 1846, to a Lieutenancy in the Ferret 8, Capt. Geo. Sprigg, on the coast of Africa. Since 5 July, 1847, he has been attached, in the capacity of Additional Lieutenant, to the President 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Jas. Rich. Dacres, at the Cape of Good Hope.



MAUNSELL, C.B. (Captain, 1812. f-p., 22; h-p., 25.)

Robert Maunsell was born, in May, 1786, at Limerick, and died 31 Aug. 1845. He was third son of the Rev. Wm. Maunsell, Archdeacon of Limerick, by Lucy, daughter and co-heir of Philip Oliver, Esq., M.P., of Castle Oliver, co. Limerick; and a near relative of Admiral Robt. Dudley Oliver. His eldest brother, the present Thos. Philip Maunsell, Esq., of Thorpe Malsor, Northamptonshire, is M.P. for the northern division of that co., Colonel of the Northampton Militia, and Captain of the Kettering Yeomanry Cavalry: his second, the Rev. Wm. Wray Maunsell, Archdeacon of Limerick, married the eldest daughter of the Right Rev. Chas. Warburton, Bishop of Cloyne.

This officer entered the Navy, in Feb. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Mermaid 32, Capt. Robt. Dudley Oliver, fitting for the Mediterranean; where he attained the rating of Midshipman in July, 1800, removed in 1801 to the Maidstone 32, Capts. Rich. Hussey Moubray and Hon. Geo. Elliot, and continued most actively employed until the end of 1804. It was his fortune during that period to be made a participator in many cutting-out affairs; but particularly on 11 July, 1804, when, holding the rating of Master’s Mate, he served with the boats of the Maidstone, Narcissus, and Seahorse, 10 in number, under the orders of Lieut. John Thompson, and assisted at the capture of 12 settees, lying at La Vandour, in the Bay of Hières, after a conflict, in which the British, encountered by a tremendous fire of grape-shot and musketry, as well from the vessels themselves as from a battery and the houses of the town, sustained a loss of 4 men killed and 23 (including himself, severely) wounded.[1] So great were the coolness and perseverance developed on the occasion by Mr. Maunsell, that he was promoted, as soon as he had accomplished his time, to a Lieutenancy, 7 March, 1805, in the Princess Royal 98, Capt. Robt. Carthew Reynolds, attached to the Channel fleet.[2] Being next, 26 May, 1807, appointed to the Blanche 28, Capt. John Edgcumbe, on the East India station, he took a passage thither in, we believe, the St. Alban’s 64, and, soon after his arrival, had the satisfaction of being advanced, by a commission dated 15 Feb. 1808, to the command of the Procris 18. Among the numerous prizes made by Capt. Maunsell in that sloop, we may include the capture, in 1809, of the Dutch company’s brig Wagsted of 8 guns, 4 swivels, and 86 men.[3] On the morning of 31 July, 1811, being off the mouth of the Indramargu Indramargu [errata 1] River, coast of Java, he took personal command of the boats of the Procris, together with two fiat-boats, carrying an officer and 20 men of H.M.’s 14th Regt., and an officer and the same number of men from H.M.’s 89th Regt., and with a degree of skill and ability that called forth the after-thanks of Commodore Broughton, led them ashore to the attack of six of the enemy’s gunboats; each mounting 1 brass 32-pounder carronade forward and 1 18-pounder aft, both on pivots, with a crew of more than 60 men, in convoy of 40 or 50 proas. Although the latter contrived to escape by hauling through the mud up the river, yet were five of the armed vessels irresistibly boarded and carried, and the remaining one destroyed; this, too with a loss of only 11 men wounded, notwithstanding that the enemy, in addition to the fire of their guns, kept up a constant discharge of musketry.[4] As a reward for his meritorious conduct in achieving so gallant an exploit, Capt. Maunsell was almost immediately placed in acting-command of the Illustrious 74, bearing the Commodore’s broad pendant. Prior to the event we have just recorded he had been ordered to take charge of a transport with 400 troops in the Sunda Strait, for the purpose of joining the expedition then daily expected off Batavia. Owing to the reluctance felt by the Master of the transport to run during the night, Capt. Maunsell, fearing that the delay thereby occasioned would prevent their arriving at the appointed rendezvous in time to assist in the landing, took the whole 400 men on board his own vessel, and by his promptitude in so doing was enabled to reach his destination two days previous to the debarkation, whereas the transport did not arrive until nearly a month afterwards. During his command of the Illustrious, a period of about two months, Capt. Maunsell served on

  1. Correction: Indramargu should be amended to Indramayu : detail

  1. In consideration of the injury he received the Patriotic Society voted him a gratuity.
  2. He had often, previously, had charge of a watch.
  3. Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 388.
  4. Vide Gaz. 1811, pp. 2409-11.