Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp4.djvu/45

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36
POST-CAPTAINS OF 1815.

had come to his support, the remainder of the crew were either killed or too badly wounded to assist him; and therefore hoping that he should be able to overtake and hang by her until she met with some other boat. When picked up by the cutter, his strength was almost gone.

On the Hawke’s arrival at Portsmouth, Lieutenant Price was sent to Haslar hospital, her surgeon believing that his hip-bone had been splintered; and three months elapsed before the real cause of his protracted sufferings was discovered. The fact is, that the Frenchman’s bayonet had been thrust with great violence against the upper part of the thigh-bone; and that it broke when he made a spring to extricate himself, leaving a piece, four inches and a half in length, behind: this was extracted by Mr. Charles Dods, one of the surgeons of the above establishment, and it is supposed that, as the flat part lay close to the bone, the probe had always passed along one of the grooves.

Lieutenant Price’s subsequent appointments were, to the Mulgrave 74 Captain Thomas James Maling; and San Josef, a first rate, fitting for the flag of Rear-Admiral Foote, previous to that officer becoming the second in command at Portsmouth[1]. He also served in the latter ship under Sir Richard King, by whom he was selected to do the duty of first lieutenant, although then only the third according to seniority.

The last brush in which Lieutenant Price was engaged with the French took place off Toulon, Nov. 5, 1813; on which occasion the San Josef had two fine young officers and two men wounded, whilst exchanging broadsides with the Wagram, of 130 guns. Each of the former[2] lost a leg by one unlucky shot.

The subject of this memoir was promoted to the command of the Volcano bomb, on the Mediterranean station, Dec. 6, 1813; and sent from thence to North America, in the

  1. See Suppl. Part II. p. 437, et seq.
  2. Lieutenant William Clarke, R.M. and Mr. William Cuppage, signal-midshipman.