Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p1.djvu/432

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commanders.
409


JAMES DAVIES, Esq.
[Commander.]

Obtained a lieutenant’s commission on the 11th Dec. 1807; served as first of the Severn frigate, Captain the Hon. Frederick W. Aylmer, at the battle of Algiers; and was promoted to the rank of commander, Sept. 16th, 1816.



GEORGE M‘PHERSON, Esq.
[Commander.]

Entered into the royal navy, in 1800, as midshipman on board the Dragon 74, Captain (afterwards Sir George) Campbell; under whose flag (as rear-admiral) he subsequently served in the Canopus 80, on the Mediterranean station. From thence he went, in the same ship, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral (afterwards Sir Thomas) Louis, and forming part of the squadron under Lord Nelson, to the West Indies, in pursuit of the combined fleets of France and Spain, under Mons. Villeneuve. After Sir John T. Duckworth’s battle, off St. Domingo, Feb. 6th, 1806, he sailed for England in le Brave, prize 74, the fate of which ship is recorded in Vol. I. Part II. p. 594.

We next find Mr. M‘Pherson serving in the Canopus at the forcing of the passage of the Dardanelles; and, if we are not misinformed, it was he who commanded the boat which rescued Captain (now Sir Henry) Blackwood, from a watery grave, when the Ajax, an 80-gun ship, under the command of that officer, was destroyed by fire, near the island of Tenedos, in the night of Feb. 14th, 1807[1]. During the subsequent fruitless negociations with the Turks, he assisted in a disastrous attempt to drive a party from Prota, an island in the Sea of Marmora[2].

After Sir John T, Duckworth’s retreat from before Constantinople, the Canopus accompanied him to Egypt, whither a conjunct expedition had already proceeded, under the com-