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49

RETIRED CAPTAINS.

ROBERT FANSHAWE, Esq
Late Commissioner of Plymouth Dock Yard.
[Retired Captain]

This officer, a son of the late Captain Fanshawe, R.N., was born in America, about the month of Jan. 1740; entered the naval service as a Midshipman on board the Salisbury of 50 guns, in 1753; and proceeded in that ship to the East Indies, in company with a small squadron commanded by the late Vice-Admiral Charles Watson, under whom he served at the reduction of Geriah, a strong fortress, the residence of the piratical chief Angria; the recapture of Calcutta; and the taking of Chandernagor, the principal French settlement in the province of Bengal^[1]. He also bore a part in the three general actions between Vice-Admiral Pocock and the Count d’Ache, in 1758 and 1759^[2]. His

↑ Vice-Admiral Watson fell a sacrifice to the unwholesomeness of the East India climate, Aug. 15, 1757. The East India Company, as a testimony of their gratitude for the services he had rendered them, caused a beautiful monument to be erected to his memory, in Westminster Abbey; and the King was pleased to create his son a Baronet. The operations of his squadron will be found fully detailed in the first volume of Schomberg’s Naval Chronology.
↑ On the death of Vice-Admiral Watson, his friend Pocock succeeded to the command of the squadron in India, and three times defeated a superior force under M. d’Aché. When General Lally was brought prisoner to England, after the reduction of Pondicherry, immediately on his arrival he begged to be introduced to Admiral (then Sir George) Pocock; whom he no sooner saw, than he flew to embrace him, and thus addressed him; “Dear Sir George, as the first man in your profession, I cannot but esteem and respect you, though you have been the greatest enemy I ever had. But for you, I had triumphed in India, instead of being made a captive. When we first sailed out to give you battle, I had provided a number of musicians on board the Zodiac, intending to give the ladies a ball upon our victory; but you left me only three of my fiddlers alive, and treated us all so roughly, that you quite spoiled us for dancing.” Sir George Pocock, as is well known, commanded the fleet employed in the reduction of the Havannah. He died in Curzon Street, May Fair, April 3, 1792, in his 87th year.

[1] Vice-Admiral Watson fell a sacrifice to the unwholesomeness of the East India climate, Aug. 15, 1757. The East India Company, as a testimony of their gratitude for the services he had rendered them, caused a beautiful monument to be erected to his memory, in Westminster Abbey; and the King was pleased to create his son a Baronet. The operations of his squadron will be found fully detailed in the first volume of Schomberg’s Naval Chronology.

[2] On the death of Vice-Admiral Watson, his friend Pocock succeeded to the command of the squadron in India, and three times defeated a superior force under M. d’Aché. When General Lally was brought prisoner to England, after the reduction of Pondicherry, immediately on his arrival he begged to be introduced to Admiral (then Sir George) Pocock; whom he no sooner saw, than he flew to embrace him, and thus addressed him; “Dear Sir George, as the first man in your profession, I cannot but esteem and respect you, though you have been the greatest enemy I ever had. But for you, I had triumphed in India, instead of being made a captive. When we first sailed out to give you battle, I had provided a number of musicians on board the Zodiac, intending to give the ladies a ball upon our victory; but you left me only three of my fiddlers alive, and treated us all so roughly, that you quite spoiled us for dancing.” Sir George Pocock, as is well known, commanded the fleet employed in the reduction of the Havannah. He died in Curzon Street, May Fair, April 3, 1792, in his 87th year.

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