In Sept. following, Captain Griffiths was appointed to the Constance of 24 guns, which ship appears to have been successively employed in the blockade of the Elbe, and as a cruiser on the coast of Portugal, and in the Channel. In July, 1806, he removed into the Topaze frigate, on the Irish station, from whence he proceeded to Davis’s Straits, for the protection of the whale fishery, in company with Captain, now Rear-Admiral, Maitland, of the Boadicea. He was subsequently ordered to the Mediterranean, where he left the Topaze and joined the Leonidas frigate in the month of July, 1809; a short time previous to which his boats, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Hammond, made an attack on nine of the enemy’s vessels lying at anchor in the road of Demata, on the coast of Albania; and, notwithstanding the opposition of a very superior force, five of them being regularly armed for war, and in complete preparation for resistance, succeeded in bringing them all out, with the loss of only one man killed and another wounded[1].
The Leonidas formed part of the squadron under Captain Spranger, at the capture of Cephalonia, Oct. 4, 1809[2], and assisted at the reduction of St. Maura, by the military and naval forces under Brigadier-General Oswald, and Captain George Eyre, in March and April, 1810. The particulars of that service are detailed in the latter officer’s public letter, a copy of which will be found at p. 404, et seq. of Vol. II. part I.
Captain Griffiths left the Leonidas, in 1813, and has not since been afloat. He married, June 7, 1802, Miss Parker, of Arundel.
Agent.– Harry Cook, Esq.
- ↑ The vessels captured on this occasion were loaded with timber and brandy on government account, and were bound to Corfu, where their cargoes were much needed. They consisted of three armed vessels carrying in the whole 15 guns, 6 swivels, and 93 men; two gun-boats; and four trabaccolas. Lieutenant Hammond had previously received a severe wound, whereby his right hand was rendered nearly useless, when cutting out two vessels on the same coast; he subsequently distinguished himself at the destruction of a French convoy in the bay of Rosas, an account of which will be given in our memoir of Captain John Tailour.
- ↑ SSee Vol. I, p. 719.
