EDMUND BOGER, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1806.]
This officer first went to sea, as a Midshipman on board the Porcupine 24, commanded by Captain (now Sir George) Martin, in 1789; from which period he was never a single day out of active employment until he came on shore with the rank of Post-Captain, in 1806.
The first action in which Mr. Boger bore a part, was that between the British and French fleets, near Genoa, Mar. 14, 1795, an account of which will be found at p. 340 of our first volume. Immediately after that event he was promoted from Vice-Admiral Hotham’s flag-ship [the Britannia of 100 guns[1]], into the Inconstant frigate, commanded by the late Sir Thomas Francis Freemantle, the friend of Nelson, and his companion in many brilliant enterprises.
In Aug. 1795, the Inconstant was employed co-operating with the Austro-Sardinian forces in an attempt to expel the French army from the Genoese territory; and on the 26th of that month, Lieutenant Boger assisted at the capture of la Resolu corvette, of 10 guns and 87 men, three other armed vessels, and seven transports, five of which were laden with shells, ammunition, provisions, and wine, for the use of the enemy’s troops at Allasio, and other places in the vicinity of Vado. Two barks laden with gunpowder and provisions were also destroyed at the same time by the boats of the Inconstant and other ships composing Nelson’s squadron.
On the 20th April, 1796, the Inconstant, then off Tunis, captured l’Unité French national ship, of 34 guns and 218 men. About this period, our affairs in the Mediterranean began to wear a most unpromising aspect. Genoa, no longer able to preserve even the appearance of neutrality, was obliged to shut her ports against the enemies of France; and the near approach of the republican army to Leghorn (in June) rendered the speedy removal of the British residents and their property an object of immediate importance. The performance of this service fell to the lot of the Inconstant; and
