Captain Otter continued in France as a prisoner till the conclusion of the war. On the 30th May, 1814, he was tried by a court-martial for the loss of the Proserpine, and honorably acquitted of all blame on that occasion, the court agreeing that the ship was defended in the most gallant and determined manner, and that her colours were not struck until resistance was of no avail.
Agents.– Messrs. Cooke, Halford, and Son.
THOMAS HURD, Esq
Late Hydrographer to the Board of Admiralty; Superintendant of Chronometers; and a Commissioner for the Discovery of Longitude.
[Post-Captain of 1802.]
Previous to the first American war we find this officer assisting in a survey of Newfoundland, and afterwards completing his time as a Midshipman on board the flag-ships of the late Admiral Gambier and Earl Howe, by the latter of whom he was made a Lieutenant into the Unicorn frigate, commanded by Captain J. Ford, in 1777.
The Unicorn being coppered, was enabled to come up with and capture an unusually large number of American privateers and merchantmen, and Lieutenant Hurd, in consequence, realized a considerable sum, as had been predicted
hours after he said the words, a shot actually took his head clean off; and the heart-rending scene that ensued, on the boys finding out that it was their father, beggars all description. He was the only man killed outright. The marine who was mortally wounded, knew his end was very fast approaching, and begged to be allowed to die on board the Proserpine; but he was sent on shore to the hospital at Toulon, and although he could scarcely speak from his wounds, when he passed under the stern of the French Admiral’s flag-ship, seeing numbers on her poop looking at the boat, which was the Proserpine’s cutter, he made an effort to raise himself up in his cot, and exclaimed,
“You Frenchmen, don’t talk of your fighting,
“Nor boast of this deed you have done:
“Don’t think that Old England you’ll frighten,
“So easy as Holland and Spain.”
He then attempted to sing “God save the King,” but could not, being faint from loss of blood and exertions; this gallant man was firm and collected to his last moments, and afforded a proof of that sterling and truly British heroism for which our seamen and marines have ever been noted.
