Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/296

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
712
REAR-ADMIRALS OF THE WHITE.

find him employed, first on the North Sea station, and subsequently in the Mediterranean, where he obtained post rank in the Minerve frigate, by commission dated Jan. 11, 1796.

From the Minerve, Captain Ogle exchanged with the present Sir George Cockburn into the Meleager, of 32 gims, stationed off Cadiz, where, at the commencement of the war between England and Spain he captured a number of the enemy’s vessels. Whilst on this station he was also employed to repeat the signals of the fleet under Sir John Jervis, a duty requiring the most minute attention, and which he executed much to the satisfaction of that commander.

On the 1st July, 1796, Captain Ogle was tried by a Court Martial, in consequence of a complaint preferred by a person named Wheaton, Master of the merchant brig Union, which was captured when under convoy of the Peterell. The charge not being proved, he was honorably acquitted, and declared to be “a zealous, attentive, and most diligent officer.

The Meleager returned to England in 1798, and was soon after ordered to the Leeward Islands, from whence she proceeded to the Jamaica station, where Captain Ogle cruized with considerable activity and success. Whilst there he exchanged into the Greyhound frigate, in which ship he came home some time in the year 1800. He was subsequently sent to the Mediterranean, where he captured a Genoese privateer, mounting 10 guns, a Spanish armed polacre, and several trading vessels. Towards the latter end of 1801, he removed into the Egyptienne, a frigate of the largest class; and about the same time received the Turkish gold medal, as an honorable testimony of his having served in Egypt[1].

From this period we find no mention of Captain Ogle until 1805, when he commissioned the Unite, of 38 guns, and again went to the Mediterranean. In the following year he was

  1. Captain Ogle’s elder brother Major Thomas Ogle, of the 58th regiment, was killed at the landing of the army in Aboukir Bay; an account of which event will be found in a note at p. 259, et seq. His cousin, Newton Ogle, Esq., a Captain of the 70th regiment, and an aide-de-camp to General Sir Charles Grey, lost his life in an affair with the enemy on Morne Marscot, in the island of Guadaloupe, June 29, 1794. He was a young man of an excellent understanding, and had distinguished himself on all occasions where his exertions had been called forth. See Willyams note at p. 122.