Mr. William Nicholls, master of an American merchant brig, to go on shore and be at large, contrary to the express directions of his captain; when the said Mr. Nicholls was under detention on a charge of having, after the brig which he commanded had been detained and ordered to Plymouth, overpowered the prize crew, and turned them adrift in a boat ninety miles distant from the land.
In 1813, we find Mr. Symons restored to his former rank, and serving under Captain (now Sir David) Milne, in the Venerable and Bulwark 74’s. His last appointment was to the Leander 50, fitting out for the flag of the same officer, as commander-in-chief on the Halifax station; of which ship he was second lieutenant at the memorable battle of Algiers. He obtained a commander’s commission on the 17th Sept. 1816; married, Sept. 1st, 1818, Miss Jacobson, of Plymouth; and died, we believe, in 1829.
RICHARD HOWELL FLEMING, Esq.
Knight of the Royal Sicilian Order of St. Ferdinand and of Merit.
[Commander.]
This officer first embarked in April 1793, at the age of fourteen years, as a volunteer on board the Solebay frigate, Captain William Hancock Kelly, in which ship he was present at the reduction of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadaloupe, by the military and naval forces under Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis, in March and April, 1794. On his return from the West Indies, in Nov. 1795, he was discharged and sent home by Captain Kelly’s successor (the present Sir Henry W. Bayntun), a favor not extended to any other of the crew. In Feb. 1796, he again volunteered, and was received on board the Romney 50, fitting out for the flag of Sir James Wallace, in which ship he served under Captains Frank Sotheron, John Bligh, and John Lawford, on the Newfoundland and North Sea stations, until invalided on account of a severe hurt in his knee, in Oct. 1798. When recovered, he shipped himself on board an East Indiaman, in which he made one voyage out and home; and on his return to Eng-
