the tide was running near six knots per hour, in the course of three hours and a half every person was removed, and then only did Captain Becher quit his post.
On the 5th April following a court-martial, assembled at Portsmouth, determined that no blame was imputable to Captain Becher for his conduct on the occasion of la Determinée’s loss; that he used every means in his power to obtain a pilot for Jersey, both before he sailed from Spithead, and during the voyage, without effect; that he was actuated by commendable zeal for the service in attempting to enter the harbour by endeavouring to follow the Aurora’s track; and that his cool and officer-like conduct, after she struck, was highly meritorious, especially in ordering the anchors to be let go, to prevent her drifting into deep water, by which means many lives were in all probability saved; the court did therefore adjudge him to be acquitted of all blame[1].
Captain Becher subsequently commanded the Sea Fencibles at Alnwick, in the county of Northumberland. He married, in 1793, Frances, daughter of the Rev. ___ Scott, of Queen’s College, Oxford, Rector of Kingston and Port Royal in Jamaica (and brother of the present Countess of Oxford), by whom he has issue Alexander Bridport[2], a Lieutenant R.N., and acting pro tempore as Hydrographer to the Admiralty; Elizabeth Emma Maria, married to Captain Wood, son of General Wood; Ann, married to Lieutenant Charles W. Nepean, son of General Nepeau, and nephew of the late Right Hon. Sir Evan Nepean, Bart., Governor of Bombay; two other sons, and three daughters. Four of his children died in their infancy. His eldest brother, the Rev. Michael Thomas Becher, of King’s College, Cambridge, was Head Master of the Royal Foundation School at Bury St. Edmunds, during a period of 21 years.
Agent.– J. Woodhead, Esq.
JOHN HATLEY, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1802.]
This officer was made a Lieutenant by Sir Robert Harland,
