A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Pelly, Richard Wilson
PELLY. (Commander, 1844.)
Richard Wilson Pelly, during his command of the Rose, performed good and valuable service. While stationed for some time in the Gulf of Florida, he had the good fortune, without a blow, to settle a formidable rebellion in the islands of Magdalene; and when senior officer at the blockade of Vera Cruz, on the outbreak of the war between Mexico and the United States, he made such important arrangements with the contending parties as to secure for the royal mail steamers advantages not usual in cases of blockade. For his able and judicious conduct he obtained the high approbation of his Commander-in-Chief, Sir Fras. Wm. Austen, and of the Board of Admiralty, and received very flattering testimonials from the merchants and the British Minister at Mexico. At a period, too, when hostilities were daily expected to take place between Great Britain and the United States, he contrived by an admirable stroke of diplomacy (although three frigates, two large steamers, four corvettes, and several smaller vessels belonging to the latter power were on the station) to procure the removal to the Havana of two large steamers lying up the river Alvarado, which had been built and armed for the Mexican Government, and which, in the event of a rupture, would in all probability have been seized and turned against us by the Americans. The situation in which Commander Pelly was at this juncture placed was responsible in the extreme, inasmuch as the least indiscretion on his part might of itself have led to a collision between the two countries.[1] He was subsequently joined by the Vesuvius sloop and the Endymion 44; yet, although the Captains of those vessels, Geo. Wm. Douglas O’Callaghan and Geo. Robt. Lambert, were each senior to himself, the state of their health was such that he had the duty still to perform. So afflicted with sickness was the crew of the Vesuvius, that it was found necessary, soon after her arrival, to send her for a change of climate to Halifax; but her engineers having been carried off by fever, and her coals being nearly all expended, a formidable obstacle presented itself. In this emergency Commander Pelly was induced to apply for aid to the Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company; and as he had been the means not long before of procuring for the latter certain privileges already noticed, his request was forthwith acceded to, and the public service thereby materially benefited. During the many months that he was on the Mexican station, although his own health suffered from the anxiety to which he was exposed, that of his crew, owing to the sanitary measures he adopted, was preserved. Previously to embarking in the service we have here detailed, the Commander had been employed in protecting the fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in a manner that had gained the approval of the Commander-in-Chief.
- ↑ So pleased was Her Majesty’s Minister, Mr. Chas. Bankhead, at the whole of Commander Pellv’s conduct, that he acknowledged that the latter had left nothing for him to do.