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, June, 1803, he joined the Tonnant 80, Captain Sir Edward Pellew (now Viscount Exmouth); and in May, 1804, the Culloden 74, bearing the flag of the same officer, as commander-in-chief on the East India station, where he was successively appointed acting lieutenant of the Howe frigate and Harrier sloop, both commanded by Captain Edward Ratsey, in the early part of 1805. The following is Mr. James’s account of the action alluded to in Suppl. Part I. p. 175:–
“On the 2d Aug. 1805, at 1-30 p.m., as the British 38-gun frigate Phileton, Captain John Wood, and 18-gun brig-sloop Harrier, Captain Edward Ratsey, were entering the straits of St. Bernadino, Philippine Islands, a strange frigate (la Sémillante) was dicovered lying at anchor in the road of St. Jacinta. * * * * * *
“Immediately on discovering the British vessels, the Sémillante began warping in-shore, between a battery on the south point of St. Jacinta and a reef of rocks; in which operation she was assisted by several boats, and subsequently by her sails, which she loosed in order to take advantage of a light air that sprang up from the north-east. At 2-40 p.m., hoisting French colours and a broad pendant, the Sémillante commenced firing her stern-chasers at the Harrier; from whom the Phaeton was then distant about three miles in the north-west. The battery began firing also; and in two minutes afterwards the Harrier, being off the north point of the bay, opened her starboard broadside. Finding the water to shoal from ten to seven, and then to five and four fathoms, the brig hove to; but still continued a smart fire. At a few minutes past 3 p.m., the Phaeton got up and joined in the cannonade; and a round tower now added its fire to that of the battery at the point. The British frigate and sloop, although, from the difficulty of the navigation and the lightness of the breeze, unable to clone as they wished, continued to engage. At 4 p.m., the latter wore and fought her larboard guns. At 4-30 she caught fire in her waist hammock-cloths, supposed to have been caused by red-hot shot from the battery: the flames, however, were soon extinguished. The weather now became nearly calm, and the brig, in consequence, began drifting towards the reef. At 5 p.m., finding that the Phileton could not get alongside of the enemy without warping, and that his boats would, in such a case, run the risk of being cut to pieces, Captain Wood ceased firing, hauled off, and signalled Captain Ratsey to do the same. The Harrier, by means of her boats, towed her head round: and, in a minute or two afterwards, the action ended.
“The Phileton had her sails, rigging, and some of her masts damaged by the enemy’s fire; three of her boats were injured, and she received nine shot in her hull; but, fortunately, had only two men wounded. The Harrier having from her nearness to the shore, at its commencement, bore the brunt of the action, suffered rather more than her consort. Her rigging and sails were much cut, and all her boats more or less damaged: her masts were also injured, particularly her main-mast, which she was obliged to fish to prevent it from falling. The fire from the Sémillante and batteries had been aimed chiefly at the rigging of the two British vessels; and that it was which occasioned the Harrier’s loss to be no greater than the Phaeton’s, – two men wounded. The British stood off for the night, and at daylight on the 3d, having a fine breeze offshore, tacked and stood in to reconnoitre. They found that the Sémillante had warped close to the beach; and that, for her further protection, a six-gun battery had been erected on the north point. They waited o6F the port until the morning of the 4th; when, finding the French frigate still in the same place, they made sail, and ran through the straits of St. Bernadino. What loss the Sémillante sustained in this engagement, is not recorded in any French account; but it was afterwards understood at Calcutta, that she had 13 men killed and 36 wounded. With respect to the damage done to her hull and masts, all we know is, that she suffered so much as to prevent her from proceeding to Mexico, for a cargo of specie. ‘La Sémillante avait éte très-maltraitée dans ce combat; elle fut forcée de renoncer au voyage du Mexique[3],’ is an admission that places that fact beyond a doubt.”
On the 4th July, 1806, the Harrier assisted at the destruction of the Dutch East India Company’s armed brig Elizabeth, under the fort of Manado, in the Java seas. On the 6th, at the capture of another enemy’s cruiser, named the Belgica; and, on the 26th of the same month, at that of the Batavian republican frigate Pallas, a large two-decked Indiaman, and an armed ship of 500 tons. Mr. Hole’s “very exemplary conduct” during the action which terminated in the surrender of the Pallas and two of her consorts, was highly spoken of by his commander, the present Sir E. Thomas Troubridge[4].
From Jan. 1807 until Aug. 1812, Mr. Hole served as Sir Edward Pellew’s first lieutenant, in the Culloden 74, Christian VII. 80, and Caledonia 120; on the East India, North Sea, and Mediterranean stations. Whilst in the former ship, he appears to have had two narrow escapes. On the first occasion, he was standing across the main-tack when it gave way, and his legs getting entangled, he was carried half-way up to the main-yard, from which height he fell, but providentially alighted upon the back of a sheep in the launch, from whence he was carried below with the blood running out of his shoes, receiving, as he crossed the quarter-deck, the following salute from the captain of marines, a very gallant and good officer, as well as a most worthy man:– “I don’t care a d___n for your legs, you shall pay for the sheep you have killed!” Secondly, when unshipping the rudder, he incautiously stepped across the hawser, in order to give some necessary orders, and had scarcely done so when the lashing of the block through which it was passed gave way: – had he been but a single moment later, so violent was the force with which the block struck the beams, that he must inevitably have been crushed to pieces.
On the 29th Aug. 1812, Lieutenant Hole was promoted, by Sir Edward Pellew, to the command of the Badger sloop, in which vessel he captured l’Aventure, French privateer, of two guns and twenty-eight men, Oct. 30th, 1813. Previous to his joining her, he acted for about two months as captain of the Resistance frigate. His subsequent appointments were to the Guadaloupe and Pelorus, sloops, which latter he left, in consequence of ill-health, in Nov. 1814. We should here observe, that the Badger, owing to her having had communication with Malta, during the prevalence of the plague in that island, was never once admitted to pratique for the long space of 337 days.
Commander Hole is married, but has no issue. One of his brothers, Lewis, obtained post rank in Dec. 1813; another, Henry, is a captain in the royal marines: his nephew, William Hole, was made a lieutenant for gallant conduct during the late war with America, and is now in the coast-guard service. Two of his sisters are married to medical gentlemen.
- ↑ Suppl. Part III. p. 182.
- ↑ See Vol. II. Part II. p. 878.
- ↑ Dictionnaire des Batailes, &c. tome iv. p. 5.
- ↑ See Suppl. Part I. p. 281.