one or two field-pieces, together with a few troops on the beach; the result whereof was the surrender of the enemy’s ship, after a loss to herself of about 29 men killed, independently of several wounded, and to the British of 10 killed and 23 wounded. The letter which apprized the Admiralty of the achievement we have here detailed also bore testimony to the zeal and bravery of Lieut. Nugent, declaring him, on the present, as well as on former occasions, to have shown himself a gallant and anxious officer.[1] In the following year he retook the Lord Middleton, a rich West Indiaman, and another vessel, the Fame, of Dublin, and, after a long chase, drove on shore, on the Ile de Bas, the French schooner privateer Étoile, by whom the two former had been originally captured. In 1808 the Lieutenant performed a very neat exploit. A French frigate being in the act of fitting out at St. Maloes, he disguised his brig and stood into that harbour. Shortly after he had entered it he was approached by a cutter, rowing 12 oars, under the orders of the First-Lieutenant. Of this boat, and of all who were in her, he took instant possession; he then poured three broadsides into the frigate; and before either she or the batteries could bring a gun to bear upon him he was off and again at sea. In 1809 he brought out a vessel laden with oak timber from under the batteries at Cherbourg. On the next night, while engaged in a similar affair, he had several men killed and wounded in his boats; and on the following morning he captured a valuable American brig. In Sept. of the same year he made prize, off the Naze, of the Dorothea Catharina Danish privateer, of 6 guns and 35 men. He subsequently, in 1810, chased the French brig-of-war Le Cygne into Cherbourg, seizing, simultaneously, one of her boats, commanded by a Lieutenant; and, on 10 Aug. in that year, he attacked and drove on the rocks, on the coast of Norway, although under the protection of a three-masted schooner and another armed vessel, a convoy of 10 sail, two of which his boats succeeded in bringing off.[2] A few weeks afterwards he chased on shore and destroyed, on different occasions, the Danish privateers Aelbergh of 8 guns and 30 men, and Popham, of 3 guns and 10 men, together with the Troforte, a brig laden with rye and barley.[3] Independently of many other affairs equally creditable to his zeal and activity, we find him, in 1813, capturing another privateer (the Dansbergh of 4 guns and 24 men[4]), driving three gun-boats on shore, and recapturing and destroying a Swedish galliot frozen up at Carlscrona. We are informed that he also assisted in reducing the Danish island of Udsire. On becoming, as above, First-Lieutenant of the Cornwallis, Mr. Nugent fitted that ship for the flag of Sir Geo. Burlton; finding then, however, that the Admiral intended taking a follower and an officer junior to him in rank as his First-Lieutenant, he resigned his appointment, but had the satisfaction, in doing so, of receiving very high testimonials as well from Sir Geo. Burlton himself as from the Flag-Captain. He next, 22 Nov. 1816, obtained command of the Greyhound Revenue-cruizer; in which vessel, during the three years and upwards that he continued in her, he made an unprecedented number of seizures. Since 11 Oct. 1823 he has been employed under the Treasury as an Inspecting-Commander of the Coast Guard in the North-West district of Ireland. Notwithstanding the long train of valuable services we have above recorded, added to others performed in the situation he at present fills, he was not advanced to the rank of Commander until 23 Nov. 1841!
We may add that, when in the Strenuous in 1807, Commander Nugent jumped overboard in the Race of Alderney and saved the life of a Gunner’s Mate, Mr. Jas. Sinnott. In 1818 he rescued the lives of a Coast Guard crew and also of two excisemen; and in 1827 he saved, in co. Mayo, the lives of the crew of the Maria of Galway. On two occasions, when in the Greyhound, it fell to his lot to be desperately assaulted and beaten by smugglers – once at Hastings in Sussex, and once at Portland in Dorset. Although reduced in each instance to the necessity of being long under medical treatment, he never received the least compensation. His humane exertions in the cause of others, however, have been acknowledged by the presentation to him of a medal and several small pieces of plate. A sword, during the war, was voted to him by the Patriotic Society in consideration of his wounds. Agents – Burnett and Holmes.
O.
OAKE. (Captain, 1846. f-p., 22; h-p., 19.)
Josiah Oake entered the Navy, 14 July, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Sampson 64, Capt. Wm. Cuming, in which ship and the Diadem, of similar force, he continued employed in South America (where he witnessed the capture of Maldonado and Monte Video) and at the Cape of Good Hope until the spring of 1808 – the latter part of the time in the capacity of Midshipman. He then joined the Salvador del Mundo, flag-ship at Plymouth of Admiral Young; and next, in Dec. 1808, July 1810, and May 1811, the Bellerophon 74, Capt. Sam. Warren, Cormorant, Master-Commander Josiah Oake, and Aigle 36, Capt. Sir John Louis. In those ships he served on the Baltic, Lisbon, Mediterranean, and West India stations for a period of six years and a half. He assisted, in the Aigle, at the capture and destruction of a French convoy under the guns of Porto Maurizio, 11 April, 1814. In March, 1815, he took up a commission bearing date 2 of the preceding March; and he was subsequently, 23 Jan. 1821 and 10 Feb. 1825, appointed to the Adventure surveying-vessel, and Zebra 18, Capts. Wm. Henry Smyth and Edw. Rich. Williams, both in the Mediterranean. Being awarded a second promotal commission 28 April, 1827, he served as an Inspecting-Commander in the Coast Guard from 24 June, 1836, until the summer of 1839, and in command, on the coast of Africa, of the Ferret 6, from 1 Dec. 1841 until 1845. He attained his present rank 9 Nov. 1846. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
OAKELEY. (Lieutenant, 1843.)
Henry Oakeley is fifth son of the late Rev. Herbert Oakeley, D.D., of Oakeley, Salop, Rector of Lydham, and Prebendary of Worcester.
This officer entered the Navy 6 Nov. 1830; passed his examination in 1837; obtained his commission 4 Oct. 1843; and from 2 May, 1844, until paid off in 1847, served on the coast of Africa in the Cygnet 6, Capts. Henry Layton, Fred. Wilmot Horton, and Fred. Byng Montresor.
He married, 1 June, 1847, Emily Letitia, third daughter of the late Colonel Hamelin Trelawny, R.A., and niece of Sir Wm. Lewis Salusbury Trelawny, Bart.
OAKES. (Commander, 1828. f-p., 14; h-p., 20.)
Orbell Oakes, born in 1800, is second son of the late Orbell Ray Oakes, Esq., of Nowton Court, a Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for co. Suffolk, and a Magistrate for Bury St. Edmunds, by Elizabeth Francis, daughter of John Plampin, Esq., of Chadacre Hall, Simpling. His youngest sister, now deceased, married Lieut.-Colonel Astley, of the Royal Engineers.
This officer entered the Navy, 6 Aug. 1813, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Boyne 98, Capt. Geo. Burlton, stationed in the Mediterranean; where, in the following month, he removed to the Ocean 98, Capt. Robt. Plampin. From July, 1814, until Jan. 1820, he served at Plymouth, and on the Irish, Newfoundland, and St. Helena stations, in the Salvador del Mondo, Capt. Robt. Hall, Tiber 38,
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1806, p. 1364. – In the preceding month he had assisted, in company with the Constance and Abeona gun-brig, in driving the Salamandre on shore, and by his exertions had excited (Vide Gaz. 1806, p. 1235) the highest approbation of Sir James Saumarez.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1285.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1582.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 2406.
