had just obtained the chief command on the North American station. On the 30th of the same month, he was appointed to that officer’s flag-ship, the Asia 74; and we subsequently find him following the vice-admiral into the Tonnant 80. During the operations against Washington and Baltimore, he was actively employed in boats and on shore; and he appears to have been severely wounded in the head, while commanding the barge of the latter ship, under the orders of Captain Nicholas Lockyer, at the capture of five heavy gun-vessels on Lac Borgne, Dec. 14th, 1814[1].
After the failure of the expedition against New Orleans, Lieutenant Roberts commanded a detachment of boats employed in watching Fort Boyer, for the purpose of preventing the American garrison from escaping to, or having any communication with, the town of Mobile.
On the 11th Feb. 1815, at the close of the day, a furious tornado suddenly convulsed the Mobile-river in a most extraordinary manner, and hurried its stream, with almost overwhelming velocity, into the ocean. Lieutenant Roberts, then in the Tonnant’s launch, lying at a grapnel off the recently surrendered fort, instantly used every exertion to dismount the boat’s carronade, and to prepare her to withstand the violence of the storm; but such was its suddenness and impetuosity, that, before he could effect his object, the grapnel rope parted, and he was blown, in a nearly water-logged state, out to sea; every returning wave making the fate of himself and his companions, (24 in number,) apparently the more inevitable. Providentially, however, although in the gloom of night, the Meteor bomb. Captain Samuel Roberts, was discovered at anchor, and in such a truly fortunate direction that the boat drove near to, and by means of ropes thrown to her, was hauled alongside, scarcely a minute before she went down, in nine fathoms water, taking with her every article both of public and private property.
For his exemplary conduct on the above occasions, Sir Alexander Cochrane was pleased to appoint Lieutenant
