We next find this officer commanding the Vigilant revenue cruiser, which vessel was wrecked, through missing stays, when working out of Torbay, Dec. 5th, 1819. He lastly commanded the Badger, and, in that cruiser captured, near Dover, a large smuggling cutter, after a running fight attended with bloodshed. This prize, valued at near 30,000/., was lost to the captors, through the mismanagement of the then solicitor of the Board of Customs, who instead of prosecuting the prisoners as smugglers, tried them for piracy and murder, on which charges they were acquitted, and the vessel in consequence released. The solicitor was very properly dismissed from his office; but Lieutenant Nazer obtained no compensation, either for his disappointment or for a wound which he received while pursuing the smuggler.
This officer was advanced to his present rank on the 28th Aug. 1828. He married a Miss Woollnough.
THOMAS BALL, Esq.
[Commander.]
Was made a lieutenant on the 2d Jan. 1809; and appointed to the Clio sloop. Mar. 9th following. He continued in that vessel, under various commanders, until the peace with America, in 1815; and subsequently served in the Satellite sloop and Valorous 26, both commanded by the late Captain James Murray, on the Mediterranean and Newfoundland stations. His next appointment was, Nov. 13th, 1822, to the Owen Glendower frigate. Commodore Sir Robert Mends, with whom he proceeded to the coast of Africa, in the beginning of 1823. His advancement to the rank of commander took place on the 28th Aug. 1828.
JOHN SHEPHERD (b), Esq.
[Commander.]
Entered the royal navy in 1805; passed his examination, at Plymouth, in Oct. 1811; obtained his first commission on the 2d Feb. 1813; was made a commander on the 28th
