sort the Amelia 38, she defeated a French squadron, consisting of three frigates and a gun-vessel. Quitting the St. Fiorenzo in April, 1801, he next, in Feb. 1804, became Senior of the Tribune 36, Capts. Rich. Henry Alex. Bennett and Thos. Baker, stationed in the Channel and North Sea. In May, 1806, he was appointed, in the same capacity, to the Fame 74, Capt. K. H. A. Bennett; but that ship being at sea, and his promotion to the rank of Commander taking place before she returned (his commission as such bearing date 25 Sept. 1806), he never joined her. His last appointments were – 16 May and 18 Aug. 1808, to the Combatant and Mercurius sloops of 18 guns each – the former stationed in the river Weser. While in the Mercurius, in which vessel he remained until Sept. 1815, he was chiefly employed on convoy service, and escorted about 2000 vessels to the White Sea, the Baltic, and every part of the North Sea. Of these not one was at any time either captured or lost. On one occasion, in April, 1813, Capt. Renwick conducted in safety a fleet of between 400 and 500 sail through the Sound under a continued fire from Cronenburg Castle; a performance which obtained for him the thanks of Rear-Admiral Jas. Nicoll Morris. At different times he made prize of 17 vessels. He attained Post-rank 1 Jan. 1817; was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 7 Nov. 1840; and accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
Representations made by Capt. Renwick, when in the Mercurius, of the danger and delay to which convoys bound to the Baltic were subjected from certain injudicious instructions, accompanied at the same time by suggestions for more appropriate ones, led to the adoption of the latter by the Lords of the Admiralty, whose approbation was conveyed to him through the Commander-in-Chief. In Nov. 1814 he became impressed with a conviction that measures, more efficacious than those in vogue, might be rendered practicable for the suppression of smuggling. He accordingly, in March, 1815, developed his ideas on the subject to the Board of Admiralty, and proposed a plan which secured so much attention that it proved, we have every reason to believe, the foundation of the present system of Coast Guard. He is married, and has issue.
REPINGTON. (Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 1847.)
Edward Henry A’Court Repington. The services of this officer are those of Capt. Edward Henry A’Court, who attained Flag-rank 6 Aug. 1847, and assumed, in the course of that year, the name of Repington.
REVANS. (Commander, 1816. f-p., 19; h-p., 36.)
Thomas Revans, born in Oct. 1781, at Lymington, is son of John Revans, Esq., of that place, formerly of Saxmundham and Woodbridge, co. Suffolk; and is the youngest of six brothers, three of whom, besides himself, were devoted to the service of their country. One of these lost his right arm in action, and was killed at St. Domingo in 1797; and another, a Master R.N., was severely wounded at the reduction of the island of Grenada in 1794.
This officer entered the Navy, 6 Dec. 1792, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Lizard 28, Capt. Thos. Williams, under whom he was for nearly 18 months employed in the Channel and North Sea. Re-embarking, 15 Dec. 1797, on board the Sheerness 44, Capts. Jas. Cornwallis and Wm. Hanwell, he served in that ship on the coast of Africa, as A.B. and Master’s Mate, until transferred, in Nov. 1798, to the Hannibal 74, Capts. Edw. Tyrrell Smith and John Loring. In the course of the following year he was slightly wounded in the boats under Lieut. Geo. Fred. Stovin at the capture of a Spanish letter-of-marque oif the Isle of Pines. On his return from the West Indies at the close of 1800 he joined La Déterminée armée en flûte, Capts. John Clarke Searle and Alex. Becher; in which ship, prior to being wrecked off Jersey in March, 1803, he took part in the operations connected with the expedition of 1801 to Egypt, formed one of Lord Elgin’s suite when that nobleman received a diamond decoration from Selim III., and was employed on the coasts of Catalonia and Italy. After the loss of La Déterminée, on the wreck of which he was one of five persons who, with their Captain, remained until the last moment, Mr. Revans was received, as Master’s Mate, on board the Dreadnought 98, bearing the flag in the Channel of Hon. Wm. Cornwallis; under whom, on removing to the Ville de Paris 110, he assisted, 22 Aug. 1805, in driving the French fleet into Brest. In March and May, 1806, having previously served for a few weeks on board the Hibernia 120, flag-ship of Earl St. Vincent, he was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Révolutionnaire and Minerva frigates, Capts. Chas. Feilding and Geo. Collier; and on 4 Aug. in the same year, after he had a second time officiated as Master’s Mate in the Hibernia, and again acted as Lieutenant in the Ville de Paris and Hibernia, he was confirmed in the latter rank in the Impétueux 74, Capts. John Lawford and David Milne. In that ship he accompanied the expedition to the Walcheren in 1809, and, we are informed, witnessed the destruction, in the same year, of a French frigate off L’Orient. He was also employed in her boats in co-operation with the British army when occupying the lines of Torres Vedras; and afterwards proceeded to the Baltic. In the summer of 1812 he left the Impétueux; and between that period and Nov. 1814 he was further employed under Capt. Milne, as First-Lieutenant, in the Dublin, Venerable, and Bulwark 74’s, on the Home and North American stations. In the Bulwark he was present at the capture of the towns of Castine, Hamden, and Bangor, and at the self-destruction of the U.S. corvette Adams. In Nov. 1814 he was subpoenaed on a trial instituted by the Admiralty, and, being in consequence obliged to leave his ship, he lost the promotion which at the conclusion of hostilities was accorded to such as were recommended by Sir Alex. Cochrane, the Commander-in-Chief. In May, 1816, he became Flag-Lieutenant, in the Leander 50, to his old commander, then Rear-Admiral Milne, under whom he fought in that capacity in the Impregnable 104 at the battle of Algiers, and was there intrusted with the command of a division of the flotilla.[1] He returned with the Rear-Admiral to England in the Glasgow 50, and on his arrival was promoted, 16 Sept. 1816, to the rank of Commander. He has since been on half-pay.
Commander Revans married the only daughter of the late Jas. Scott, Esq., of Kilishandria, co. Cavan, great-grand-daughter of Capt. Thos. Scott, who was killed in command of a troop of dragoons in the reign of William III., and sister of Major W. B. Scott, who fell in command of the 44th Regt. in the retreat from Cabul in Jan. 1842.
REYNOLDS, C.B. (Rear-Admiral, of the Blue, 1848. f-p., 22; h-p., 30.)
Barrington Reynolds is son of Rear-Admiral Robt. Carthew Reynolds, who perished in the St. George 98, on his passage home from the Baltic, 24 Dec. 1811; and brother of Commander Robt. Carthew Reynolds, R.N., who was promoted to that rank for his conduct (and afterwards died of the wounds he received) at the cutting out from under Fort Edward, Martinique, of the French brig-corvette Le Curieux of 16 guns and 70 men, 4 Feb. 1804.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1795, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Druid 32, commanded by his father, with whom he afterwards served as Midshipman in the Amazon 36 and Pomone 40. In the Amazon he assisted, in company with the Indefatigable 46, at the capture, in April, 1796, of L’Unité of 38 guns and 255 men, and La Virginie of 44 guns and 339 men; and on 14 Jan. 1797 was wrecked and taken prisoner, near Ile Bas, at the close of a gallant action of 10 hours with Les Droits
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1816, p. 1792.
