Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, during the blockade of the former place by a French squadron; and, while in discharge of the duties which were thus imposed upon him, he had the satisfaction of being twice officially assured of the entire approbation of the Admiralty at his proceedings. In Jan. 1840 Capt. Herbert went round Cape Horn, and joined Rear-Admiral Chas. Bayne Hodgson Ross at Valparaiso, whence, in the ensuing June, he sailed for China via St. Bernardin’s Passage, encountering en route, while among the Philippine Islands, a typhoon, which the Calliope was only enabled to survive through the extreme exertions of her officers and crew. Arriving in the Canton river on 10 Oct., Capt. Herbert immediately assumed, and, until the advent of Rear-Admiral Hon. Geo. Eliot on 20 Nov., retained, the command of the blockading force. The important nature of his services, as one of the chief actors in the scenes of hostility that followed, demands our particular attention. On 7 Jan. 1841, having been placed by the Rear-Admiral in charge of the advanced squadron off the Boca Tigris, he conducted the attack made on the enemy’s forts at Chuenpee, where were annihilated 11 powerful junks, the flower of the Chinese navy;[1] and on 23 Feb., being at the time on board the Nemesis, he effected the destruction of a 20-gun battery at the back of the island of Anunghoy.[2] Three days after the latter event we find him, in the Calliope, heading the operations against the celebrated Bogue Forts, and on the 27th (with the Calliope, Herald 26, Alligator 26, Modeste 18, Sulphur 8, and Nemesis and Madagascar steamers, under his orders), attacking the enemy’s camp, fort, and ship Cambridge, bearing the Chinese admiral’s flag, at their position below Whampoa Beach, where 98 guns were on the whole destroyed.[3] After capturing, on 13 March, the last fort protective of the approaches to Canton, Capt. Herbert’s squadron advanced towards the city, and on the 18th attacked all the batteries and flotilla in its immediate vicinity; the former of which, in the course of two hours and a half, were in succession destroyed, and the latter either burnt or dispersed; thus enabling the British to plant the Union-Jack on the walls of the factory, and placing totally in their power the huge capital of Quang-tong.[4] On the renewal, in the following May, of the hostilities against Canton, the Chinese, on the night of 21 of that month, made a vigorous attack, with fire-rafts and armed boats, and from several masked and newly raised batteries, on the British shipping there located, and still commanded by Capt. Herbert. They were, however, totally defeated, and on the next day their batteries were dismantled, and their floating armament ruined. On 26 the water-defences between the Factories and Howqua’s fort, mounting 64 guns, were levelled, and forcible possession taken of their naval arsenal and warjunks.[5] In the month of June Capt. Herbert, who until then had directed, as we have stated, the movements of the advanced squadron on the Canton river, succeeded, owing to the death of Sir Humphrey Fleming Senhouse, to the command of the whole force employed on that stream. On the arrival, a few weeks afterwards, of Rear-Admiral Sir Wm. Parker, as Commander-in-Chief, he was removed to the Blenheim 72; in which ship, in the course of the following Aug. and Oct., he assisted, with great distinction, at the capture of Amoy, the retaking of Chusan, and the reduction of Chinghae.[6] On the latter occasion, after the necessary breachings had been accomplished, he landed in command of the light column of attack, consisting of a body of upwards of 700 seamen, marines, and troops, and stormed and carried the citadel, situated on the left bank of the Tinghae river; while the General, Sir Hugh Gough, with the land forces, made himself equally master of the extensive and formidable works on the right bank. Capt. Herbert, who was next present at the surrender of Ningpo, and subsequently accompanied several reconnoitring parties up the Tinghae, returned to Hong-Kong from off Ningpo and Chusan in Feb. 1842, and resumed command of the squadron in the Canton river. In the month of July he left Hong-Kong in a steamer, for the Yang-tse-Kiang, for the purpose of visiting Nanking, where he remained until H.M. Plenipotentiary, in Oct., took leave of the Imperial Commissioner. Sir Thos. Herbert, whose brilliancy of service had been rewarded, 14 Oct. 1841, with the dignity of a K.C.B.,[7] returned to England by the Cape of Good Hope – thus accomplishing a circumnavigation of the globe – and paid the Blenheim off in March, 1843. Since 11 Jan. 1847 he has been employed on the south-east coast of America, with a broad pendant in the Raleigh 50.
Sir Thos. Herbert, a Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for Kerry, was High Sheriff for that co. in 1829.
HERBERT. (Lieut., 1845. f-p., 12; h-p., 0.)
William George Herbert entered the Navy in 1835; acquired official mention for his services as Midshipman of the Edinburgh 72, Capt. Wm. Wilmott Henderson, during the operations of 1840 on the coast of Syria; passed his examination 20 Jan. 1841; and (until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 1 Dec. 1845) served, as Mate, on the Home and Mediterranean stations, in the Excellent gunnery-ship, Capt. Sir Thos. Hastings, and Queen 110, and Formidable 84, bearing each the flag of Sir Edw. W. C. R. Owen. He rejoined the Excellent 17 Jan. 1346; and since 9 of the following May has been employed, with the Channel squadron, in the Rodney 92, Capt. Edw. Collier.
HERRICK. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 21; h-p., 21.)
Edward Herrick is brother of Commander Wm. Henry Herrick, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 18 June, 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Revenge 74, Capts. Robt. Moorsom, Hon. Chas. Elphinstone Fleeming, John Gore, Hon. Chas. Paget, and John Nash. After participating, as Midshipman, in the action off Trafalgar, witnessing also Lord Cochrane’s destruction of the French shipping in Basque Roads, and serving in the batteries during the operations against Flushing, he sailed in 1811 for the East Indies, on board the Dromedary store-ship, Master-Commander Pritchard. On his arrival on that station he joined the Illustrious 74, bearing the broad pendant first of Commodore Wm. Robt. Broughton and the flag afterwards of Rear-Admiral Sir Sam. Hood. He returned to England in March, 1813, in the Modeste 38, Capt. Jas. Coutts Crawford, and, between May, 1814, and June, 1815, was next employed, latterly as Master’s Mate, in the President frigate, Capt. Arch. Duff, on the Cork station. He then took up a commission bearing date 3 Feb. 1815, but did not again go afloat until appointed, 6 Aug. 1830, to the Prince Regent 120, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Wm. Parker in the river Tagus. The latter ship being paid off 21 Feb. 1832, he subsequently joined – 29 June, 1832, as First-Lieutenant, the Champion 18, Capt. Hen. Arthur Duncombe, with whom he served in the Mediterranean until 16 Dec. 1834 – 18 March, 1836, in a similar capacity, the Minden 74, Capt. Alex. Renton Sharpe, frcm which ship, fitting at Plymouth, he was immediately superseded – 13 July, 1838, the Astraea 6, Capt. Jas. Hanway Plumridge, employed as a packet on the Falmouth station – and, 4 Jan. 1840 the Express, another Falmouth packet, which he himself commanded, with the exception, we believe of some months in 1843-4, until June, 1846. He has since been on half-pay.
Lieut. Herrick married, in 1836, Charlotte, only daughter of the late Capt. Thos. Alexander, R.N.,
