Sicily against Joachim Murat. Soon after his arrival there he was intrusted with a confidential mission to the court of Naples, then wavering in its allegiance to Napoleon Buonaparte. On the night of 19 Feb. 1814, being at the time in command of the Scylla brig, bearing the flag of Sir R. Hall, he put off in a boat during a furious gale from Palermo, where he happened to be on shore, to the assistance of a vessel in flames, which proved to be the Whitby transport. He saved one of the crew – all he could – and then made for the land, his being the only boat, out of several, that returned in safety. We subsequently find him, entirely through his own resources, and without any official instructions, engaged in conducting a series of hydrographic operations connecting Barbary, Sicily, and Italy – a service in which he displayed so much talent that Rear-Admiral Chas. Vinicombe Penrose, astonished and delighted with what he had achieved, forwarded to the Admiralty the result of his labours, accompanied by a letter glowing with all the eulogium he deserved. He continued his important labours in a borrowed Sicilian gun-boat long after the British troops had evacuated the island, and afforded such satisfaction to the Admiralty that their Lordships promoted him, 18 Sept. 1815, to the rank of Commander;[1] and not only promoted him, but, “as a mark of their approbation, and an incitement to other officers to give their attention to similar pursuits,” expressed their intention of having a selection of his drawings engraved and published, that he might reap the benefit. Difficulties unforeseen causing this arrangement to be altered, it was determined ultimately that the ‘Atlas of Sicily’ should be engraved in the Admiralty office, and that Capt. Smyth should (which he accordingly did) publish ‘A Memoir descriptive of the Resouroes, Inhabitants, and Hydrography of that and the neighbouring islands, interspersed with antiquarian and other notices.’ Of this work, we may add, the Admiralty purchased 100 copies. In 1817 Capt. Smyth, whose continued exertions in the surveying department, added to his extensive researches among the relics of antiquity in the northern parts of Africa, had by this time gained him high reputation in the scientific world, was appointed to the Aid sloop, and in her he increased his well-earned fame. Although his operations were of too elaborate a character to admit of detail here, we may state that he was selected to complete the grand survey of the shores of the Adriatic commenced by Napoleon Buonaparte; and that, assisted by a party of Austrian and Neapolitan staff officers, and by the Imperial sloop-of-war Velox, he accomplished his task in less than two years, notwithstanding a dreadful plague was raging along the Albanian coast.[2] He afterwards accompanied Sir Thos. Maitland to the Court of the famous Ali Pacha, to treat respecting the cession of Parga; and, prior to his return to England in 1820, he obtained the thanks of Sir Fred. Adam, Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, for the manner in which he cooperated in suppressing a dangerous insurrection among the inhabitants of Santa Maura, particularly for the rigorous blockade he maintained, and for the assistance he afforded in disarming the population of several Greek villages. His next and last appointment was, 27 Jan. 1821, to the Adventure 6, in which vessel he was again ordered to the Mediterranean for the purpose of carrying out a plan he had himself formed for perfecting the survey of that sea. Deprived by our limits of the pleasure we should feel in following Capt. Smyth over the wide-spread field of his investigations, we must content ourselves with stating that the additions he made during his absence to astronomy, geography, and hydrography procured for him the congratulalions of scientific Europe, and raised him to the first order of maritime surveyors. To him, in a word, to Beaufort, and to Guattier du Parc are we indebted for having every part of the Mediterranean and Euxine, from the Gut of Gibraltar to the Sea of Azov, fixed and determined. “The more I see of your Mediterranean surveys,” says the distingmshed hydrographer of the Admiralty, Sir F. Beaufort, “the more I admire the great extent of your labours, the perseverance of your researches, the acuteness of your details, and the taste with which you have executed the charts. Take them altogether, no survey has ever before issued from the Admiralty that can be compared to yours. It is quite astonishing the work you did – and did in such a masterly manner – in the time you were abroad.” While he commanded the Adventure, Capt. Smyth received from Mehemet Ali an offer of the celebrated “Cleopatra’s Needle,” intended as a present to George IV. – but an opportunity of attempting its embarkation did not occur. In the summer of 1824 he was senior officer off Gibraltar when a body of Constitutionalists under the orders of Don Francisco Valdes surprised Tarifa – a circumstance which, as they were known to have sallied from the rock, involved him in a painful correspondence with General Latour, commanding the French troops at Cadiz, and the Spanish General Don Jose O’Donnell. The efforts, prompt though unavailing, which he made in Sept. of the same year, in conjunction with Capt. Henry Evelyn Pitfield Sturt of the Phaeton 46, to save a ship on fire from destruction, obtained him the thanks of the United States Consul at Gibraltar and of the masters of 11 American merchantmen. He attained Post-rank 7 Feb. 1824; paid the Adventure off in the following Nov.; and accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
In reviewing the services of Capt. Smyth, we may observe that he has constructed the following charts and views, viz.:– one (a general outline chart) of the Mediterranean; one of Galita Island and the Gulf of Cattaro; one of the coast of Egypt from Alamaïd to the Rosetta branch of the Nile (with two views); one of the Gulf of Spezia, with plan of Via Reggio; one of the harbour of Villa Franca (with two views); one of the coast of France and Italy from Cape Roux to Monaco; one of the port and road of Marseilles, and the position of La Caseidagne Rock; twenty-six of Sicily; one of the harbours of Pantellaria and Lampedusa, as also of the Pelagic Islands and of the Island of Linosa; four of Malta; three of the south coast of Spain; three of the west coast of Greece; two of the Morea; one of the south coast of France; nine of the north coast of Africa; four of Sardinia; eight of the Adriatic Sea; and four of the west coast of Italy. In the course of 1815 Capt. Smyth obtained two honourable augmentations to his family arms, and was admitted by Sir Wm. Sidney Smith into the Anti-Piratical Society of Knights-Liberators of the Slaves (white and black) in Africa; and in March, 1816, he received the Royal permission to accept and wear the small Cross of the Order of St. Ferdinand and of Merit, granted to him for his valour and services against the enemy off Messina. He was subsequently presented by the Emperor of Austria with a gold snuff-box superbly decorated with brilliants. In 1821 he was admitted into the Antiquarian and Astronomical Societies of London; in June, 1826, he was unanimously elected a F.R.S.; in Dec. following he was voted a member of the society recently established at Florence for Scrutinizing the Statistics and Natural History of Tuscany; in 1829 he was named an Associate of the Academy of Sciences at Palermo; and in July, 1830, he was chosen one of the Council of the Geographical Society of London – an institution he had been instrumental in establishing. He became afterwards one of the Committee for Improving and Extending the ‘Nautical Almanac;’ and within the last few years he has been nominated a Doctor of the Civil Law, a Vice-President of the Royal
- ↑ Some time prior to his promotion, Capt. Smyth, having from the summit of Paniria observed a large Neapolitan gun-vessel standing towards the Cala-del-Castello, had stationed himself in an armed boat close under a point of land, where, just as the enemy was rounding it, he dashed alongside, and so completely surprised the crew, that he obtained possession without a man of either party being hurt.
- ↑ The result of Capt. Smyth’s labours was published at the Imperial Geographical Institute at Milan.
