was appointed first of the Asia 74, Captain Alexander Skene. He subsequently joined the Tonnant 80, bearing the flag of the Hon. Sir Alexander I. Cochrane, from whom he received an appointment to command the Weser troop-ship, dated Dec. 24th, 1814[1].
At this period, Lieutenant Kent was actively employed in the arduous service of disembarking the army destined against New Orleans; and during the disastrous military operations in that quarter, we find him on shore, at the “Fishermen’s Huts,” assisting Captain Thomas Ball Sulivan in the superintendence of the naval department. On the 22d Jan. 1815, he assumed the command of the Weser, in which ship he was present at the capture of Mobile, and afterwards employed in bringing home from Quebec the seamen who had been serving on the Canadian Lakes. The Weser was paid off at Portsmouth, Oct. 27th, 1815.
Commander B. Kent married, Aug. 23d, 1823, Penelope Percival, only surviving child of his uncle Commander Henry Kent. In 1831, he had a severe attack of erysipelas, and his life, for some time, hung on a thread. This disease first attacked his young cousin and guest, Mr. George Collier Kerr, who ultimately recovered; but Mrs. Kent and the father of the youth, Captain Alexander R. Kerr, C.B., in the course of one short week, unfortunately fell victims to it.
SILAS THOMSON HOOD, Esq.
[Commander.]
Passed his examination in Mar. 1808, and was made a lieutenant on the 19th Dec. 1809. We first find him serving in the Bacchante frigate, Captain (afterwards Sir William) Hoste, by whom he was often highly eulogised for his gallant conduct, on the Mediterranean station. In Sept. 1812, he “most ably seconded” Lieutenant (now Captain) Donat H. O’Brien, in a successful attack upon an enemy’s convoy, from Barri bound to Venice; and in Jan. 1813, at the capture of five gun-vessels, near Otranto[2]. On the 14th of the follow-
- ↑ Confirmed by the Admiralty Mar. 29th, 1815.
- ↑ See Suppl. Part IV. pp. 278 and 280.
