ing year, he obtained the honorable appointment of a Colonel of Royal Marines; and, on the 9th Nov. 1805, was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral.
Early in the following year we find his flag flying on board the Pompée, of 80 guns, in which ship he arrived at Palermo on the 21st April, and there assumed the command of the squadron employed in that quarter. The Neapolitan government had at that time been displaced from its capital, and Naples itself was in the hands of the enemy; however, the judicious disposition of the British naval and military forces prevented farther mischief. Finding that Gaeta still held out, although as yet without succour, it was the Rear-Admiral’s first care to see that the necessary supplies should be safely conveyed to the Governor. This was successfully accomplished; and the enemy, though the besiegers, were in a measure reduced to the defensive. The garrison was consequently left to the care of the Prince of Hesse-Philipsthal, and the British squadron proceeded to Naples, an attack on which was apprehended by the French. The city was at this time illuminated on account of Joseph Buonaparte proclaiming himself King of the two Sicilies. It would have been easy for Sir W. Sidney Smith to interrupt the shew of festivity; but he considered that the unfortunate inhabitants had evil enough on them; that the restoration of the capital to its lawful sovereign and its fugitive inhabitants, would be no gratification if it should be found a heap of ruins; and that
ledgment of his meritorious exertions in the defence of Acre; and the family Crest, viz. a Leopard’s Head, collared and lined, issuant out of an Oriental Crown; the said arms and crest to he borne hy Sir W. Sidney Smith and his issue, together with the motto, “Coeur de Lion” limited to the Peers of the Realm, the Knights of the different Orders, and the Proxies of Princes of the Blood Royal at Installations, except in such cases wherein, under particular circumstances, the King shall be pleased to grant his especial licence for the use thereof; his Majesty, in order to give a further testimony of his particular approbation of our officer’s services, was also graciously pleased to allow him to bear, for Supporters to his arms, a Tiger guardant, navally crowned, in the mouth a Palm Branch, being the symbol of Victory, supporting the Union flag of Great Britain, with the Inscription, “Jerusalem, 1799,” upon the cross of St. George, and a Lamb murally crowned; in the mouth an Olive Branch, being the symbol of Peace, supporting the Banner of Jerusalem.
