The profession of the navy was his own particular choice, and he was happily placed under the tuition of such officers as were calculated to improve his early genius for nautical science. Having gone through the inferior gradations of service in the Mediterranean and Western Seas, he was promoted to the command of the Zephyr sloop, about 1775; and on the 30th May, 1776, advanced to the rank of Post-Captain in the Rippon, of 60 guns, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Edward Vernon.
Captain Waldegrave’s time passed on in the usual routine of service until Aug. 10, 1778, on which day the Commodore, being on a cruise off the coast of Coromandel, fell in with a French squadron under M. Tranjolly. An action ensued, and was maintained with great obstinacy for two hours; when the enemy availing himself of the crippled condition of the British ships, made sail and steered for Pondicherry, On the 21st Sir Edward again got sight of them, but their superiority in sailing prevented his being able to bring them to action; they however quitted the coast, which gave the Commodore an opportunity of taking possession of the anchorage in Pondicherry road, by which means he was enabled to co-operate with the army in the reduction of that place. In October it surrendered to the British arms.
In the above action the number of ships on each side were equal. Those of the English mounted 148 guns; the French 180. The loss sustained by the former, consisted of 11 killed and 53 wounded[1]. That of the enemy was never ascertained. The Sartine French frigate, mistaking the British for her own squadron, was afterwards taken.
The climate of the East Indies not agreeing with Captain Waldegrave’s health, he returned to England, and immediately on his arrival was appointed to the Pomona of 28 guns. In this ship he captured the Cumberland, American privateer, of 20 guns and 170 men. This was an important service, for the enemy’s vessel had been particularly destructive to
- ↑ The Rippon had 4 slain and 15 wounded.
ried Maria, daughter of Sir Edward Walpole; she afterwards became the consort of the late Duke of Gloucester, brother of King George III, and died in August, 1807.
