Captain Edward Pelham Brenton, R.N., is a brother of the subject of this memoir: another brother held the rank of Lieutenant, and was mortally wounded when commanding an attack made by the boats of the Peterell sloop of war, upon an enemy’s armed vessel near Barcelona, in 1799.
Agent.– Messrs. Maude.
SIR ROBERT MENDS, KNT.
Knight of the Royal Spanish Order of Charles III.; and late Commodore of the Squadron employed on the African Station.
[Post-Captain of 1800.]
This officer, we have reason to believe, entered the naval service without any thing in the shape of interest whereby to procure advancement. He lost an arm during the American war, previous to the completion of his 14th year, and suffered amputation twice before his recovery could be hoped for[1]. In 1786, we find him serving on the coast of Africa, in the Grampus, a 50-gun ship, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Edward Thompson, by whom himself and four other young gentlemen were directed to do duty as Lieutenants, wear a peculiar dress to distinguish them from the other Midshipmen, and form a separate mess in a cabin allotted them for that purpose.
Soon after his return to England, Mr. Mends presented a petition on his knees to our late monarch at Windsor; and in consequence thereof, was most graciously recommended by his Majesty to Earl Howe for promotion. Previous, however, to his obtaining a commission, in 1789, he served as an Admiralty Midshipman on board the Colossus 74, where he was allowed the sole use of a cabin in order that his situation might be more comfortable to him than it could possibly have been in a cockpit berth.
Mr. Mends’ first appointment as a Lieutenant was to the Childers sloop of war, commanded by Captain (now Sir Robert) Barlow, and stationed on the coast of Cornwall for the suppression of smuggling. Whilst thus employed, he
- ↑ Mr. Mends, on being asked after his recovery how he felt whilst the surgeon was performing the painful operation of removing his shattered limb, replied, “Very well until I saw my arm lying on a table beside me I then became sick.”
