Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p2.djvu/279

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commanders.

battle of Cape St. Vincent; on which occasion he took possession of the Spanish 3-decker Salvador-del-Mundo. The following is appended to a biographical memoir of Sir James Saumarez, published in 1801:–

“The mind shrinks with horror in relating the accumulated sufferings which the wounded on board that ship endured. There were no less than 52 lying on the decks with wounds that required amputation. The Spanish surgeon, after dressing the other wounded men below, came upon deck and began the butchery; after having separated the limb, he omitted to tie up the arteries. Bleeding returned as soon as the circulation was restored, and in a few minutes the victims bled to death. Such was the indignation felt by the English sailors towards the surgeon, that it required some efforts on the part of their officers, to prevent them from throwing him overboard. He was, however, stopped in his bloody career.”

Lieutenant Luce obtained the rank of commander Mar. 8th, 1797; married, in 1799, Miss Jane Scarville, of Newport, in the Isle of Wight; and died at Walworth, co. Surrey, May 8th, 1827, aged 70 years.




EDWARD WILLIAMS (a), Esq.
[Commander.]

Was made a lieutenant in 1779; and commanded the Advice cutter, at the close of the American war in 1783. We next find him commanding the Speedwell, a vessel of the same description, in which he captured le Braave, French privateer, off the Isle of Wight, Aug. 22d, 1796. His promotion to the rank of commander took place in Mar. 1797. During part of the late war he held an appointment in the Sea-Fencible service; and on the 13th Aug. 1810, he obtained the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital.




MATTHEW WRENCH, Esq.
[Commander.]

Obtained his first commission in 1790; and distinguished himself, as lieutenant of the Vulcan fire-ship, Captain Charles Hare, at the destruction of the arsenal and shipping at Toulon, under the immediate direction of Sir W. Sidney Smith, Dec, 18th, 1793. He was promoted to the command of the Lace-