crew of the Perdrix in readiness to act, and to row guard during the night; which order he refused to obey, alleging, that notwithstanding the absence of Captain Fahie, he did not consider Lord Camelford authorized to issue such command. Both ships were alongside the dock-yard repairing, and their respective crews witnessed the altercation which took place between the parties. At length Lieutenant Peterson directed his men to come on shore with arms, and having drawn them up in a line, placed himself at their head with a sword by his side. Lord Camelford finding it was necessary to adopt the most decisive and prompt measures to check this violent and mutinous proceeding, ordered a party of marines from the Favorite to be landed; and taking a pistol from one of his officers, went up to Lieutenant Peterson, and demanded whether he still persisted in refusing to obey his orders? To which the Lieutenant replied, “Yes, I do refuse.” Lord Camelford. instantly shot him dead, and desired the men collected about him to return to their ships, which they did peaceably. On the following day the Matilda and Beaver arrived, when his Lordship surrendered himself to Captain Mitford of the former vessel, by whom he was sent to the Commander-in-Chief, then at Fort Royal Bay, Martinique. A Court-Martial subsequently assembled on board the Invincible, to try Lord Camelford for the death of Lieutenant Peterson. After hearing the whole of the evidence adduced on the occasion, and what the Prisoner had to offer in his defence, and maturely and deliberately weighing and considering the same; and being fully sensible of the necessity of prompt measures in cases of mutiny, they were unanimously of opinion, that the very extraordinary and manifest disobedience of Lieutenant Peterson, both before and at the instant of his death, to the lawful orders of his superior officer, and the violent measures adopted by the deceased to resist the same, were acts of mutiny highly injurious to the discipline of the service; they did therefore adjudge his Lordship a most honorable aquittal[1].
On the 11th Dec. 1798, Captain Fahie fell in with, and
- ↑ Lord Camelford was killed in a duel with a Mr. Best, March 14, 1804. For the particulars of that transaction we refer our readers to Faulkner’s History of Kensington, p 177, &c.
