On his passage home Captain Maxwell had an interview with Napoleon Buonaparte, who remembered that he had commanded at the capture of la Pomone, and said to him “Vous étiez très méchant – Eh bien! your goverment must not blame you for the loss of the Alceste, for you have taken one of my frigates[1].” That his government had no cause to censure him will be seen by the decision of a Court-Martial, held on board the Queen Charlotte at Portsmouth, in August, 1817:–
“The Court is of opinion that the loss of H.M. late ship Alceste, was caused by her striking on a sunken rock, until then unknown, in the straits of Caspar. That Captain Murray Maxwell, previous to the circumstance, appears to have conducted himself in the most zealous and officer-like manner; and, after the ship struck, his coolness, self-collection, and exertions, were highly conspicuous; and that every thing was done by him and his officers within the power of man to execute, previous to the loss of the ship, and afterwards to preserve the lives of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst, H.M. Ambassador, and his suite, as well as those.of the ship’s company, and to save her stores on that occasion; the Court, therefore, adjudge the said Captain Murray Maxwell, his officers and men, to be most fully acquitted.”
Amongst the witnesses examined on this occasion was Lord Amherst, who stated “that he had selected Captain Maxwell, on the occasion of the embassy, from motives of personal friendship, as well as from the high opinion he entertained of his professional character, which opinion had been much increased by the events of the voyage.”
Captain Maxwell was nominated a C.B. in 1815, and received the honor of knighthood on the 27th May, 1818. At the general election in the same year he stood as a candidate for the city of Westminster, and sustained severe personal injury from the vile rabble with which the hustings in Covent Garden is on such occasions surrounded. On the 20th May, 1819, the Hon. East India Company presented him with the sum of 1500l. for the services rendered by him to the embassy, and as a remuneration for the loss he sustained on his return from China. He was appointed to the Bulwark, a third-rate, bearing the flag of Sir Benjamin Hallowell, at Chatham, in June, 1821; and removed to the Briton frigate, on the 28th Nov. 1822. He is at present employed on the South American station.
- ↑ See “M‘Leod’s Voyage,” p. 320.
