Capt. Jas. Rich. Dacres, and Conqueror 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Plampin. He waa then nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Rosario 10, Capt. Wm. Hendry; from which vessel, in three months, he returned in a similar capacity to the Conqueror. Being confirmed by commission dated 14 Oct. 1820, he was next, from 15 March, 1825, until advanced to his present rank 19 May, 1828, employed in the Tweed and Semiramis frigates, as Flag-Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Plampin at Cork. On 28 March, 1839, he received an appointment to the Coast Guard. He left that service in the spring of 1841; but since 31 March, 1845, has again been engaged in it.
Commander Oakes married, at Florence, 3 March, 1832, Caroline, youngest daughter of Wm. Bryan, Esq. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.
O’BRIEN. (Lieut., 1807. f-p., 17; h-p., 32.)
Andrew O’Brien entered the Navy, 10 March, 1798, as a Boy, on board the Romney 50, Capt. John Lawford; and in the summer of the same year waa present at the detention of a large convoy laden with naval and military stores for France, and under the protection of a Swedish frigate. After accompanying the expedition against the Helder, and witnessing the surrender of Rear-Admiral Story’s squadron, he followed Capt. Lawford, as Midshipman, in Aug. 1800, into the Polyphemus 64, which ship formed part of Lord Nelson’s division in the attack upon the Danish line of defence before Copenhagen, 2 April, 1801. In the course of 1803 he became in succession attached to the Achille and Courageux 74’s, both commanded, the latter in the West Indies, by Capt. John Okes Hardy; and he next, between 1803 and the close of 1807, served, principally on the Home station, in the Britannia 100, Captain (afterwards Rear-Admiral) the Earl of Northesk, Avon sloop, Capt. Fras. Jackson Snell, and Audacious 74, Capts. John Lawford and Thos. Le Marchant Gosselin. Of the latter ship he was created a Lieutenant 25 April, 1807. His succeeding appointments were – 24 Dec. in that year, to the Racehorse 18, stationed at first off Guernsey, and then at the Cape of Good Hope, whence he invalided in July, 1810 – 6 March, 1811, for a few weeks, to the Recruit sloop, Capt. Humphrey Fleming Senhouse, at Newfoundland – 28 Sept. following, to the Brisk 16, Capt. Eyles Mounsher, on the Irish station – and, 28 June, 1813, to the Forth 40, Capt. Sir Wm. Bolton, employed in the North Sea and North America. He returned to England in May, 1815; and has since been on half-pay.
O’BRIEN. (Lieutenant, 1840.)
Charles Douglas O’Brien died about the commencement of 1846.
This officer entered the Navy 29 March, 1823; passed his examination in 1830; and, as a reward for his services during the operations on the coast of Syria, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 4 Nov. 1840. His succeeding appointments were – 15 Dec. 1840, 13 Sept. 1841, and 17 Oct. 1842, to the Benbow 72, Cambridge 78, and Rodney 92, Capts. Houston Stewart, Edw. Barnard, and Robt. Maunsell, all in the Mediterranean – 1 Feb. 1844, to the Coast Guard – 11 Dec. following, as Additional-Lieutenant, to the Caledonia 120, flag-ship of Sir David Milne at Devonport – and 11 Jan. and 6 May, 1845, to the Ranger 6, and Prometheus steam-sloop, Capts. Jas. Anderson and John Hay, both on the coast of Africa, where he continued employed as First-Lieutenant of the latter vessel until the period of his death.
O’BRIEN. (Captain, 1821. f-p., 20; h-p., 31.)
Donat Henchy O’Brien was born in March, 1785. He is descended from one of the ancient monarchs of Ireland.
This officer entered the Navy, 16 Dec. 1796, as Ordinary, on board the Overyssel 64, Capts. John Young and John Bazely, bearing the successive flags of Admirals Joseph Peyton and Skeffington Lutwidge on the Home station. Continuing in that ship until Jan. 1800, he accompanied, in the capacity of Master’s Mate, the expedition of 1799 against the Helder, where, in command of a flat-bottomed boat, he assisted at the landing of the army. After this he was placed in charge of a merchantman laden with Portland stone, intended to be sunk, with others, at the entrance of Gorée harbour, for the purpose of preventing the egress of three Dutch line-of-battle ships. Before, however, an opportunity had presented itself for the execution of the plan, the vessel was caught in a gale of wind and went down, three minutes only after Mr. O’Brien had been rescued from his perilous situation through the intrepid humanity of a boat’s crew belonging to the Lion armed-cutter under the orders of Lieut. Tatham. In Jan. 1800, as above mentioned, he was directed to act as Lieutenant of the Atalante 16, Capt. Anselm John Griffiths, in which sloop, owing to the absence of her own Lieutenant, and of the Master, Boatswain, and Gunner, he was for three months most harassingly employed off the Flemish banks, Dunkerque, and Gravelines, being, during the whole of that period, compelled, with the present Capt. Jas. Couch, to keep six hours’ alternate watch. He then went back to the Overyssel; and he next, in Dec. 1801, Feb. 1802, and Feb. 1803 (in the course of which month he passed his examination), became in succession attached, again as Master’s Mate, to the Berschermer 54, Capt. Alex. Fraser, Amphion 32, Capts. Rich. Henry Alex. Bennett, Alex. Fraser, and Thos. Masterman Hardy, and Hussar 38, Capt. Philip Wilkinson. In the latter frigate it was his lot, during a passage home with despatches from Ferrol, to be wrecked, 8 Feb. 1804, on the southernmost part of the Saintes; a misfortune which in a few days rendered him a prisoner to the French at Brest. After three attempts at escape, which had entailed on him privations and hardships not to be imagined, and had all ended in his re-capture, he at length, 14 Sept. 1808, succeeded in effecting a flight; truly wonderful in Its history, from the famed fortress of Bitche.[1] Reaching Trieste in the following Nov., he contrived, with two friends (one of them the present Lieut. Maurice Hewson), to get on board a boat belonging to the Amphion 32, Capt. Wm. Hoste, which had been sent inshore on the look-out under the command of Lieut. Geo. Matthew Jones. Under that officer, before his return to the frigate, we find him afforded an opportunity of participating in a desperate attack on two powerful vessels, whose successful resistance killed 2 and wounded 5 of the British, including himself severely through the right arm. Proceeding soon to Malta in H.M. brig Spider, he was there received on board the Ocean 98, flag-ship of Lord Collingwood, who promoted him, 29 March, 1809, to a Lieutenancy in the Warrior 74, Capt. John Wm. Spranger. After assisting at the reduction of the islands of Ischia and Procida, and of those of Zante, Cephalonia, Ithaca, and Cerigo, he again, in March, 1810, joined the Amphion, still commanded by Capt. Hoste. On 29 of the ensuing June, with the boats of the latter frigate and the Cerberus under his orders, he covered the landing of a body of seamen and marines commanded by Lieut. Wm. Slaughter, near the town of Grao, where the gallantry and exertion of the British enabled them to defeat a numerous body of French troops, and to effect the capture and destruction of a large convoy laden with naval stores for the arsenal at Venice.[2] Besides many other dashing services, Mr. O’Brien was subsequently, 13 March, 1811, present, as Second-Lieutenant of the Amphion, in the celebrated action
- ↑ We are relieved, even had we space, from the necessity of entering at large into the history of Capt. O’Brien’s captivity, it being already familiar to the public through the medium of the ‘Narrative,’ &c., published by him in 1814, and re-produced in 1839, in two volumes, under the title of ‘My Adventures during the late War; comprising a Narrative of Shipwreck, Captivity, Escapes from French Prisons, &c., from 1804 to 1827.’
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1857.
