Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p2.djvu/59

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48
captains of 1828.

mouth frigate[1], carrying out with him the duplicate of the treaty between Great Britain, France, and Russia, for the protection of persecuted Greece.

Previous to his joining the Pelican, the subject of this sketch was sent in the Dartmouth, with a letter from Sir Edward Codrington to the commander of the Turco-Egyptian fleet, who had just arrived at Navarin, for the purpose of co-operating with Ibrahim Pacha; and we soon afterwards find him despatched, in the same ship, to the Ottoman generalissimo, on a mission of some importance. The manner in which he acquitted himself on those occasions met with the approbation of his commander-in-chief; and his subsequent endeavours in the suppression of piracy were also officially acknowledged.

After the battle of Navarin, at which he had not the good fortune to be present. Commander Hamilton watched that harbour till it was evacuated by the remains of the discomfited fleet, when he proceeded with the information to Sir Edward Codrington, at Malta. During this cruise off the Morea, be destroyed a schooner of four guns and forty men, commanded by a notorious character who had long annoyed the coast.

In Jan. 1828, the Pelican formed part of a small squadron under Sir Thomas Staines, at the destruction of several other piratical vessels, in the harbour of Carabasa, and her marines were afterwards landed to take possession of that fortress, in conjunction with those of the Isis 50. She was next placed under the orders of Captain Edmund Lyons, of the Blonde frigate, and employed in attending the second division of an Egyptian fleet, sent from Alexandria to complete the evacuation of the Morea. During the embarkation of the last part of Ibrahim Pacha’s army, in Oct. 1828, Commander Hamilton heard of his promotion to the rank of captain; but he did not give up the command of the Pelican till Dec. 1st following. Since then he has visited Greece, Asia Minor, and Constantinople, and resided some time in Italy.

  1. Commanded by Captain (now Sir Thomas) Fellowes.