This officer entered the Navy, early in 1791, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Thorn sloop, Capt. Taylor, on the Leith station. In the course of the same year he became attached to the Prosperine frigate, commanded in the West Indies by Capt. Jas. Alms; and enjoining, for a short time in 1794, the Latona 38, Capt. Edw. Thornbrough, he fought and was severely wounded in Lord Howe’s famous action. With the exception of a few months in 1796-7, during which we find him serving at Home on board the Carnatic, Colossus, and Russell 74’s, all commanded by Capt. Rich. Grindall, he did not again go afloat until May 1803, on 5 of which month he was received into the Windsor Castle 98, Capts. Philip Chas. Durham, Albemarle Bertie, and Davidge Gould. With those officers Mr. Loney was for two years employed in the Channel, principally in the capacity of Midshipman. He then in succession joined the Thunderer 74, Capt. Wm. Lechmere, and Dart sloop, Capt. Brownrigg; and on 6 Feb. 1806, having returned to the West Indies, it was his fortune to be present in the action off St. Domingo on board the Northumberland 74, flag-ship of the late Sir Alex. Cochrane; by whom he was nominated, 5 May, 1807, Acting-Lieutenant of the Chichester store-ship, Capt. Tait. On leaving that vessel, to which he had been confirmed 11 Aug. in the same year, Mr. Loney was appointed, 26 April, 1808, to the Thisbe 28, bearing the flag in the Thames of Hon. Henry Edwin Stanhope. Removing, a month afterwards, to the Thrush 18, Capt. Chas. Webb, he was again ordered to the West Indies, where, in July, 1809, he witnessed the surrender of St. Domingo. About the early part of 1810, being at the time engaged in the defence of Cadiz, he was placed by Sir Rich. Goodwin Keats in acting-command of the Thunder bomb, in which vessel he remained until superseded on the arrival from England of a Captain appointed by the Admiralty. While next in command (from Nov. 1810 until compelled by illness to resign in March, 1811) of the Dart cutter, Mr. Loney was employed in the conveyance of despatches between Cadiz and Lord Wellington’s army in Portugal. His subsequent appointments were – 12 Dec. 1811, to the Spider 16, Capt. Frank Gore Willock, on the West India station, whence he invalided 6 Feb. 1813 – 4 Sept. 1826, to be Agent for Transports afloat, which service a severe injury received in the head during a heavy gale obliged him to quit in the ensuing March – and 2 April, 1827, and 6 Feb. 1837, to the command, for a period each time of five years, of the Semaphores at Beacon Hill and Portsmouth. He has been on half-pay since 1 April, 1842.
Lieut. Loney married, 20 April, 1808, the daughter of a respectable Government Contractor, by whom he has issue ten children. One of his sons, John Felix, a Master in the R.N. (1845), is now serving in that capacity on board the Poictiers 72, guardship at Chatham.
LONEY. (Commander, 1837. f-p., 24; h-p., 26.)
Robert Loney entered the Navy, in Sept. 1797, as a Boy, on board the Atlas 98, Capts. Matthew Squire and Theophilus Jones, with whom he served in the Channel until March, 1801. In March, 1803, he became Fst.-cl. Vol. of the Salvador del Mundo, bearing the flags of Admirals Sir John Colpoys and Wm. Young at Plymouth, where he continued to officiate as Midshipman, until transferred, in Feb. 1806, to L’Aigle 36, Capt. Geo. Wolfe. In March, 1808, we find him participating in a very gallant engagement fought by L’Aigle with two French frigates and the enemy’s batteries at Ile de Groix, where, besides having 3 of her guns split and dismounted, a bower-anchor cut in two, and her mainmast and bowsprit irreparably injured, the former ship had 22 of her people more or less severely wounded. One of her antagonists was compelled to take refuge under a fort, and the other to run on shore on Pointe des Chats. In April, 1809, immediately prior to the destruction of the shipping in Aix Roads, Mr. Loney served in the boats under Lieut. Rich. Devonshire at the destruction of the works on the Boyart Rock, a hazardous achievement which elicited the thanks of Lord Gambier; and he subsequently, on becoming attached to the Walcheren armament, assisted in forcing the passage between Flushing and Cadsand; on which occasion L’Aigle, in consequence of a shell bursting in her after gun-room, sustained a loss of 5 men wounded and had her stern-frame greatly damaged. After a servitude of three months in the West Indies on board the Pert sloop, Capt. Wm. Hall, Mr. Loney, in Aug. 1810, rejoined the Salvador del Mundo, bearing the flag of Sir Robt. Calder at Plymouth, where he remained a few weeks, and had command during the period of the Admiral’s tender. Joining, then, the Scipion 74, he served as Second-Master of that ship, under the flag of Hon. Robt. Stopford, at the reduction of Java in Sept. 1811; immediately after which event he was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Madagascar frigate, Capt. Chas. Sullivan. He was confirmed a Lieutenant 8 May, 1812; and on 16 of the ensuing Oct. was appointed to the Reindeer 18, Capt. Wm. Manners, with whom he cruized until compelled from ill health to invalid 21 June, 1814. His subsequent appointments were to the command – 16 Dec. 1825, of the Nimble Revenue-cutter – 12 Aug. 1829 (four months after he had left the latter vessel), of the Vigilant ketch, on the Plymouth station, where we find him employed until paid off 21 Nov. 1831 – and 1 Nov. 1832, of the Savage 10, which vessel was put out of commission 23 July, 1836. For his services in the Savage off Oporto during the civil war in Portugal, and the protection he afforded to British interests during the revolution in Venezuela, Lieut. Loney was rewarded with the rank of Commander 10 Jan. 1837. He has since been on half-pay.
LONG. (Retired Commander, 1842. f-p., 20; h-p., 30.)
James Long was born 17 April, 1774.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Feb. 1797, as A.B., on board the Sybille, of 48 guns, Capts. Edw. Cooke, Wm. Waller, and Chas. Adam; and was a Midshipman of that ship in Jan. 1798, when, in company with the Fox 32, she entered the Spanish harbour of Manilla under French disguise, although three sail of the line and three frigates belonging to the enemy were lying there, and succeeded, besides eliciting much information, in capturing seven boats, about 200 men, numerous implements of war, and a large quantity of ammunition. In the course of the same month, he joined in an attack made by the Sybille and Fox on the settlement of Samboangon in the island of Magindanao, where, in an action with a fort and battery, the two ships sustained a loss of 6 men killed and 16 wounded. On 1 March, 1799, we find him present, off the sand-heads of Bengal River, in a most furious engagement of two hours and a half, which terminated in the Sybille’s capture of the French frigate La Forte, of 52 guns and 370 men, after a loss to the latter of 65 (including her Captain) killed, and 80 wounded, and to the British, out of 371 men, of 5 killed and 17 (Capt. Cooke himself being mortally) wounded. The damage done to each ship was in proportion to her loss. Independently of a participation in other services, Mr. Long assisted, while under Capt. Adam, at the capture and destruction, 23 Aug. 1800, of five Dutch armed vessels and 22 merchantmen in Batavia Roads. He further contributed, in the following Oct., to the making prize of 24 Dutch proas, four of which mounted 6 guns each; and on 19 Aug. 1801 (when off Mahe, the principal of the Seychelle Islands) he aided in taking, with a loss to the Sybille (out of 300 men) of 2 killed and 1 wounded, of La Chiffonne of 42 guns and 296 men, 23 of whom were killed and 30 wounded. This action, a very gallant one of 20 minutes, was attended with the disadvantage to the British of being fought among rocks and shoals, and under the fire of an enemy’s bat-
