ROYAL NAVAL BIOGRAPHY.
POST-CAPTAINS of 1822.
(Continued.)
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, Knt.
Doctor of the Civil Law; Fellow of the Royal Society, &c. &c. &c.
[Post-Captain of 1822.]
This officer is a brother to the late Sir Willingham Franklin, Knt., one of the Puisne Judges at Madras, and was born at Spilsby, co. Lincoln, in the year 1786. He entered the royal navy, at the age of fourteen years, as midshipman on board the Polyphemus 64, Captain (now Admiral) John Law ford, which ship was attached to Lord Nelson’s division, and sustained a loss of five men killed and twenty-five wounded, at the daring and successful attack on the Danish line of defence before Copenhagen, April 2d, 1801[1]. We afterwards find him proceeding to New Holland, in the Investigator sloop. Captain Matthew Flinders, under whose command he continued until that vessel, proving unfit for further service, was laid up at Port Jackson, in July, 1803. He was then received as supernumerary master’s-mate, on board the Porpoise store-ship. Lieutenant (now Captain) Robert Merrick Fowler, with whom he suffered shipwreck on a coral reef, in lat. 22° 11' S. long. 155° 13' E., Aug. 17th following. “His activity and perseverance in assisting to save the stores and provisions on that occasion, were truly praise-
- ↑ See Vol. I. pp. 365–371, and id. p. 498.
