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commanders.


HENRY DRURY, Esq.
[Commander.]

Obtained the rank of lieutenant in Sept. 1807; acted as captain of the Akbar frigate during the operations against the island of Java, in Aug. and Sept. 1811; and was confirmed in his present rank on the 10th of the latter month. He is now an Inspecting-Commander in the Coast-Guard Service, to which he was appointed June 10th, 1831.



JOHN GEORGE BOSS, Esq.
[Commander.]

Was born at Beverley, co. York, in 1781; and educated by his aunt, Mrs. Frances Savage, of Honsea, in the same county, a most distinguished character in the methodist connexion, whose memoirs, together with her writings, are deposited in the archives of that society.

Mr. Boss commenced his naval career as an apprentice in the merchant service: but soon quitted it, and entered as midshipman on board the Excellent 74, Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, in 1796. Previous to the peace of Amiens, he was engaged in various cutting-out expeditions; and after the renewal of hostilities, we find him, for a short time, in the hands of the enemy. On recovering his liberty, he joined the Centaur 74, bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Samuel Hood, then commander-in-chief at the Leeward Islands.

The next service in which Mr. Boss appears to have been employed, was as a volunteer at the storming of Fort Soloman, in the island of Martinique. He subsequently assisted in fortifying the Diamond Rock[1]; and was with Lieutenant George Edmund Byron Bettesworth, of the Centaur, when that officer surprised and brought off a party of engineers employed in constructing works against it; on which occasion the general commanding that corps was taken prisoner.