JOHN SHEPHERD, Esq.
[Commander.]
Was made a lieutenant on the 10th of May, 1799; and commander Aug. 12th, 1812.
CHARLES HOLE, Esq.
[Commander.]
Was born at West Buckland, near Barnstaple (of which place his father, the Rev. William Hole, was surrogate), Feb. 27th, 1781[1].
This officer entered the royal navy, as midshipman on board the Atlas 98, Captain Edmund Dodd, June 6th, 1795; and was scarcely fifteen years of age when he had the temerity to walk from the main-top-sail-yard-arm to the rigging, without holding by any rope; an exploit rendered the more remarkable by the circumstance, of the studding-sail-booms not being then aloft: he continued in the same ship, under the command of Captain Matthew Squire, until Oct. 1799; when we find him rated master’s-mate of the Stag frigate, Captain Joseph Yorke. On the 29th of Aug. 1800, he commanded a boat at the capture of la Guêpe, French ship privateer, of 18 guns and 161 men. The enemy’s loss on this occasion consisted of no less than sixty-five men killed and wounded; that of the British, four killed, one drowned, and twenty wounded[2].
On the 6th of the ensuing month, the Stag, then under the command of Captain Robert Winthrop, was wrecked in Vigo bay; after which disaster, Mr. Hole appears to have served as master’s-mate of the Renown 74, flagship of Sir John Borlase Warren, on the coast of Spain, and in the Mediterranean; whore he was removed to le Généreux 74, Captain Manley Dixon, in July, 1801; appointed acting master of the Delight sloop, Captain Richard William Cribb, in Sept. following; and from that vessel discharged into the Foudroyant 80, bearing the flag of Admiral Lord Keith, with whom he returned to England during the peace of Amiens,
