Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/121

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her name), situated about nine miles S.W.b.W. from the middle of the southern sand isle of the Turks Islands in the West Indian sea, on which occasion, fatal as it was, that gallant and worthy officer had the satisfaction of seeing every person, except one man, safe off the wreck before he quitted it, the ship then under water as far aft as the capstan.

In 1792, Mr. D. J. Woodriff accompanied his father in circumnavigating the globe, the latter gentleman having been appointed to a peculiar service, the principal object of which voyage was to afford relief to the then infant colony of Port Jackson, in New South Wales.

On the 1st. Aug. 1801, the subject of this memoir embarked as midshipman on board the Princess Charlotte frigate, bearing the flag of Lord Gardner, on the Irish station, and commanded by his son, the Hon. Francis F. Gardner. Whilst belonging to this ship, he was detached in an open boat (in charge of a lieutenant) from Cork, to proceed round the coast and into the lakes of Killarney, to meet and salute the Viceroy, which, after much difficulty, was accomplished. We are induced to mention this circumstance, from the supposition that the Princess Charlotte’s was probably the first boat from a man-of-war which did so, and possibly the last.

On the 1st Feb. 1803, Mr. Woodriff rejoined his father, then commanding the Calcutta, armed en flûte, and preparing to convey 450 convicts of both sexes, to Port Philip, in Bass’s Straits, for the purpose of forming a settlement on the southern extremity of New Holland. An outline of that ship’s voyage out and home has been given in Vol. II. Part II. p. 541 . During her stay at Port Philip, Mr. Woodriff went on many excursions for the purpose of exploring the country, and often suffered much from the want of water when bewildered in the woods. On one occasion, having landed at a considerable distance from the ship, in company with some other gentlemen, his boat was swept away from the beach and carried by the tide to a distance of about twenty-five miles along the coast, leaving the exploring party and boat’s crew with nothing to eat or drink. Fortunately they had the means of kindling a fire, by which, after dark, they sat,