Lieutenant of the Royal George, to act as Commander of the Medusa, which ship, in common with the rest of the fleet, had yard ropes rove in order to strike terror into the minds of the officers, and those who might feel disposed to side with them.
Pursuing the same temperate though firm line of conduct that he had previously done in the flag-ship, Captain Becher succeeded in restraining the violent disposition of his crew, and soon after rendered an essential service by conveying a regiment to Ireland, at a moment when the presence of fresh troops was much required, to overawe the rebellious natives of that country. For this service he received the approbation of the Admiralty, by whom Lord Bridport’s appointment had been confirmed on the death of Captain Eaton[1].
We next find Captain Becher proceeding to Gibraltar, where he had the misfortune to be wrecked, whilst under orders to join Lord Nelson in the Mediterranean, where the Medusa was to have been established as a post ship under his command.
After this disaster, he appears to have been very usefully employed in equipping the expedition destined against Minorca, and superintending the conduct of his officers and men during their occasional services in gun-boats, under the immediate command and observation of Earl St. Vincent. He subsequently held a command in the Sea Fencibles at Feversham, Kent. His post commission bears date April 29, 1802; a sufficient proof that the nobleman then presiding at the Admiralty, and who had witnessed the Medusa’s fate, did not attach any blame to her Commander, whatever he might have laid to his own charge, on account of her loss[2].
Captain Becher’s last appointment afloat was in Sept. 1802,
- ↑ The untimely death of Captain Eaton is described by Captain Brentqn in his Naval History, Vol. I, p. 456.
- ↑ The Medusa was lost through the interference of Earl St. Vincent, occasioned by his Lordship’s impatience to get her out of Gibraltar mole. We have been told by an old Post-Captain, (not the subject of this memoir) that had her Commander been allowed to proceed in his own way, no accident of the kind would have happened. The Admiral dictated to him from the shore by means of a speaking trumpet.
