60 men, bound to Madagascar for slaves; but the latter, on the approach of the British, cut her cable and ran on a coral-reef, under the protection of the land-batteries, where, the enemy not being able to get her afloat, she was ultimately broken up. On 21 Aug. 1810, having followed into Rivière Noire a large ship (which proved to be the Windham, an Indiaman recently taken by the French, mounting 30 guns and manned with the same number of hands), Mr. Watling, with but two boats, containing between them a Midshipman, Mr. John Andrews, and 9 men, armed with no other weapons of offence than the stretchers, succeeded in obtaining possession of her, although exposed to a severe fire from the batteries on shore. Towards the close of Aug. he was engaged, in company with the 36-gun frigates Néréide, Iphigenia, and Magicienne, in a series of gallant but untoward operations which terminated in the self-destruction, at the entrance of Port Sud-Est, of the Sirius and Magicienne, the capture of the Néréide, and the surrender, to a powerful French squadron, of the Iphigenia. During their progress he was employed in a boat in conveying to the different ships the instructions of Capt. Pym, the senior officer; and when it became necessary to destroy the Sirius to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy, he nearly lost his life through his intrepidity in going below, after she had been abandoned, and opening the magazine-doors, in order that the flames which had been kindled might the more readily communicate to it and accomplish the object in view.[1] As soon as the frigate had been blown up he volunteered to convey Capt. Pym’s despatches in an open boat to the Ile de Bourbon, a distance of 140 miles; on his arrival there he was presented by Governor Farquhar with the sura of 200l., and sent in the Egremont, a prize schooner fitted for the purpose, to Madras, with intelligence of the disasters which had occurred. After enduring many hardships he reached Madras, where, in acknowledgment of the services he had rendered to the East India Company, he had the gratification of receiving from the Governor-General in Council a further sum of 200l. In the following Oct. he was made the bearer of a strong letter of recommendation from Lieut.-General Hewett to Lieut.-General Abercromby and ordered with despatches to the island of Rodrigues; but by the time he gained that destination the fatigue he had undergone had so reduced his health that he was under the necessity of being sent to sick quarters at Bourbon. The Commander-in-Chief, Vice-Admiral Bertie, on this occasion publicly expressed to him, on the quarterdeck of his flag-ship the Africaine, the regret he felt at the circumstance, especially as it would deprive the expedition then about to sail for the Isle of France of the intimate knowledge he possessed of the coast: he assured him, however, that on the reduction of the colony he would promote him, for his meritorious conduct, to the command of a ship. While at Bourbon Mr. Watling was appointed by Governor Farquhar, in consideration of his former exertions, Captain of the port. On afterwards repairing to the Mauritius, to the government of which island his Excellency on its conquest had been removed, he was placed by him in command of the Wellesley, a large American prize-schooner, for the purpose of conveying home important despatches to the Secretary of State for the Colonies and to the Hon. Court of Directors. Prior to his departure for England he had the good fortune, in a 4-oared gig, to rescue from apparently inevitable destruction the wife of a Major in the Army and 15 other persons, who had been wrecked on a coral-reef near Port Louis in a vessel over which the waves at the time were dashing with awful fury. The devoted heroism he displayed in achieving this act of humanity was witnessed by thousands of persons from the shore, and had the effect of drawing a glowing eulogium from the Governor. On his return to England Mr. Watling was appointed, in Dec. 1811, to the Aquilon 32, Capt. Wm. Bowles, on the North Sea station. In the summer of 1812, a representation of his services having been made to the First Lord of the Admiralty, he was ordered on promotion, in the Minden 74, Capt. Alex. Skene, to the Cape of Good Hope; where he continued to serve as a Supernumerary in the Lion 64, flag-ship of the Hon. Robt. Stopford, Astrea 36, Capt. Chas. Marsh Schomberg, Harpy sloop, Capt. Allen, and Racehorse 18, Capts. Geo. Fred. Rich and Jas. De Rippe, until at length advanced to the rank of Commander 1 Dec. 1813. His next appointments were, 23 June, 1815, to the Volcano bomb, fitting at Portsmouth, and 6 Sept. following, to the Julia 16. In the latter vessel he was employed off St. Helena for the security of Napoleon Buonaparte until April, 1816, at which period the state of his health obliged him to invalid. He afterwards, from 1824 until 1827, performed the duties of an Inspecting-Commander in the Coast Guard. He was promoted to the rank he now holds 22 July, 1830; arid hassince been on half-pay.
Capt. Watling was wounded, during the war, in the right hand; so severely indeed that the two fore-fingers have been rendered stiff in the joint. He is at present a Justice of the Peace for cos. Denbigh and Caernarvon; and a Deputy-Lieutenant for the latter. He married Martha Hayles, eldest daughter of Peter Titley, Esq., of Penloyn, co. Denbigh, a Deputy-Lieutenant for that shire.
WATSON. (Lieutenant, 1828.)
Christopher Robert Watson died about the commencement of 1847.
This officer entered the Navy, 18 May, 1810; passed his examination in 1816; and was made Lieutenant, 28 March, 1828, into the Zebra 18, Capts. Brunswick Popham and Edm. Williams Gilbert, on the Mediterranean station; whence he returned to England about Jan. 1829. His last appointment was, 8 Oct. 1838, to the Coast Guard; a service in which he remained but a very brief period.
WATSON. (Lieut., 1818. f-p., 14; h-p., 26.)
David Henry Watson entered the Navy, 11 March, 1807, as Midshipman, on board the Agamemnon[2] 64, Capt. Jonas Rose, under whom, after accompanying the expedition against Copenhagen, he sailed for the Rio de la Plata and was there wrecked 20 June, 180D. He was employed next, from Dec. 1810 until May, 1813, in the Courageux 74, Capt. Philip Wilkinson, in the Baltic; from May, 1813, until Aug. 1815 in the Albion and Sceptre 74’s, Capts. John Ferris Devonshire and Wm. Waller, on the coasts of North America and France; from Aug. 1815 until May, 1816, in the Araxes 38, Capt. Geo. Miller Bligh, in the West Indies; from July, 1816, until June, 1817, in the Montreal, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Sir Robt. Hall on Lake Ontario; and from Jan. 1818 until July, 1819, as Midshipman, Master’s Mate, and Lieutenant (commission dated 3 Dec. 1818) in the Leander 60, flag-ship of Sir David Milne at Halifax. He afterwards had charge, for nearly three years, of a Preventive station on the coast of Hampshire, embracing at least 15 miles of country; and, as a proof of the arduous nature of the duties he had to perform, it may be mentioned that during the winter-months he had been known to be out for 14 nights together, each time for 16 hours, without being able to lie down, except on the wet ground.
From 7 May, 1823, until 9 May, 1834, Lieut. Watson filled the appointment of Landing-Waiter and Searcher at the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has, since then, been employed in the Custom House in London; where he is at present Surveyor of the outward department. While at Halifax he received the thanks of the Governor, Lieut.-General Sir Peregrine Maitland, and of the Council and House of Assembly of Nova Scotia for his exertions in establishing a quarantine, at a time of great ex-
