Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/361

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SIR EDWARD BERRY, BART.
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been so amply related in our memoir of Sir James Saumarez[1], that it would be wholly superfluous to notice them again at large; we shall therefore content ourselves with observing, that notwithstanding the excessive damage which the Vanguard received in the Gulf of Lyons, Rear-Admiral Nelson, to whom the charge of the squadron had been confided by Earl St. Vincent, determined not to remove his flag from that ship, which was soon refitted by the great exertions of Captain Berry while at anchor in the Sardinian harbour of St. Pietro, from whence she again sailed in tolerable order.

Soon after the termination of the tremendous conflict in Aboukir Bay, Captain Berry was sent to the Commander-in-Chief with the Rear-Admiral’s despatches, from which we make the following extract: “the support and assistance I have received from Captain Berry, cannot he sufficiently expressed. I was wounded in the head, and obliged to he carried off the deck, but the service suffered no loss by that event. Captain Berry was fully equal to the important service then going on, and to him I must beg leave to refer you for every information relative to this victory. He will present you with the flag of the second in command, that of the Commander-in-Chief being burnt in l’Orient.

On his passage down the Mediterranean in the Leander, of 50 guns, commanded by the present Sir T. B. Thompson, our officer had the misfortune to be taken prisoner by le Généréux, a French 74. He also received a severe wound in the desperate action which took place on that occasion[2]. The enemy, on taking possession of their prize, not only plundered the officers and crew of every thing they possessed, but afterwards by their cruelty and neglect exposed the sick and wounded to almost certain death. However Captains Thompson and Berry were permitted to return, on their parole of honor, to England, where they were received by their countrymen with great applause. Sir Horatio Nelson’s duplicate despatches had in the mean time been brought home overland by the Hon. Captain Capel, and honors of every kind were decreed to the conquerors of the Nile. Captain Berry, after his exchange, was knighted by his Sovereign, received