Orders, Decorations and Medals

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Camperdown (John Tracy, Master’s Mate) nearly extremely fine £5000-6000

Ex Seaby, June 1979.

John Tracy was born on 23 November 1774, a descendant of the ancient Barons of Devon. He entered the Navy in 1794, on board the Incendiary fire-ship, in which ship he was attached to the force sent in 1795 to co-operate with the French Royalists in Quiberon Bay. After serving aboard the Porcupine 24, in the Channel, he was nominated Master’s Mate of the Ardent 64, and fought in that ship and was wounded in the action off Camperdown on 11 October 1797. In consideration of the injuries he sustained on this occasion he was allotted a pension, which ceased on his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant. He was also present in Ardent in 1799 in the expedition to Holland, where he assisted in landing the troops and witnessed the surrender of the Dutch squadron under Rear-Admiral Storey.

During the winter of that year a six-oared cutter, with 8 men, belonging to the Arrow sloop, in attempting to land in a heavy gale at North Yarmouth, was swamped at some distance to the shore. Two of the crew were drowned, a fate which, as it was impossible to get a boat out to their assistance, must inevitably have attended the remainder, had not Mr Tracy, who happened to be on shore, seized the beachmen’s line, fastened it round his body, and, regardless of danger, dashed in among the breakers, through which he succeeded in reaching the unfortunate men, who, having the rope then secured to them, were hauled on shore amidst the acclamations of the beholders. On 6 October 1800, Mr Tracy was made Lieutenant into the Explosion bomb, and one week later removed to the Heldin 28, in which vessel he took part, in August 1801, in Lord Nelson’s attack upon the Boulogne flotilla. Assuming command, 28 September 1803, of the Princess Augusta, a small hired cutter, of 8 guns and 25 men, he was occasionally employed in that vessel in the conveyance of despatches and other communications to Russia. He was strongly recommended also by his senior officer, Captain Robert Dudley Oliver, for valuable service he performed off Havre-de-Grace.

On 13 June 1804, he had 3 or 4 men, including himself slightly, wounded, in an action of two hours and three quarters, fought near the mouth of the river Tees, with a French privateer of 14 guns, full of men, which in the end sheered off, on observing the approach of two small vessels, manned with sea-fencibles from Redcar. The Princess Augusta, in this very gallant affair, received several shots near the water’s edge, and was much shattered in her rigging. The conduct of her brave commander was highly approved by the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Keith, and the Board of the Admiralty. He afterwards, besides making prize, 28 January 1807, of the Jena privateer of 8 guns and 46 men, took within twelve months as many as 19 of the enemy’s vessels, and drove on shore on the coast of Holland and destroyed a captured brig, under a battery of 6 guns and a fire of musketry. In the affair with the Jena he was again slightly wounded; and for this and his other proceedings he had the gratification of receiving letters of a flattering nature from his Commander-in-Chief, Lord Keith and Vice-Admiral Thomas Macnamara Russell, as well as the renewed approbation of the Admiralty.

On 4 February 1807, Lieutenant Tracy was removed to the command of the Linnet brig, of 12 18-pounder carronades, 2 long sixes, and 60 men. In her he was chiefly employed in blockading Havre-de-Grace, in cruising the Channel, North Sea, &c., in escorting convoy to Newfoundland, and on sea service on the coast of Ireland. On 16 January 1808 he enforced the surrender, off Cape Barfleur, after a running action of an hour and 40 minutes, of Le Courrier lugger of 18 guns and 60 men; on 30 August following he captured, near Cherbourg, the Foudroyant of 10 guns and 25 men; his vessel during the latter part of the operations connected with the expedition of 1809 to the Walcheren, occupied the advanced position in the river Scheldt, in order that she might be on the look-out for fire-vessels; and on 29 May 1812, he took, off the Start, Le Petit Charles, carrying 26 armed men. On other occasions he recaptured two brigs, made prize of a privateer and two small French sloops, and detained three Danish vessels. His performances indeed in the Linnet twice obtained for him the commendation of their Lordships.

On 25 February 1813, being then in the chops of the Channel, the wind blowing hard, Lieutenant Tracy had the misfortune to be captured by La Gloire, a French 40-gun frigate, returning from a two months’ cruise. His conduct on this occasion is deserving of particular mention. La Gloire, when first discovered, was to windward. Bearing up under her fore-sail and close-reefed main-top-sail, she arrived within hail of the Linnet at 2.30 p.m., and ordered her to strike. Instead of doing so, the brig boldly crossed the bows of the frigate, and, regardless of a heavy fire which the latter commenced, obtained the weather-gage. As La Gloire outsailed the Linnet on every point, all that Lieutenant Tracy could now do was to endeavour to out-manoeuvre her. This he did by making short tacks, well aware that, owing to her great length, the frigate could not come about so quickly as a brig of less than 200 tons. In practising this manoeuvre, the Linnet had to cross the bows of La Gloire a second and a third time (the second time so near as to carry away the frigate’s jib-boom), and was all the while exposed to her fire; but which, owing to the ill-direction of the shot from the roughness of the sea, did no great execution. At length, at 3.30 p.m., having succeeded in cutting away some of the Linnet’s rigging, La Gloire got nearly alongside of her; but Lieutenant Tracy would not yet haul down the British colours. The brig suddenly bore up athwart the hawse of the frigate; and La Gloire, had she not as suddenly luffed up, must, as the French Captain, Monsieur Roussin, says, have passed completely over her. Two broadsides from La Gloire now carried away the bowsprit, fore-yard, and gaff of the Linnet, and compelled her to surrender. Such seamanship and intrepidity on the part of Lieutenant Tracy show where La Gloire would have been had he encountered her in a frigate. The Linnet was carried into Brest and her late commander, officers and crew remained as prisoners until the end of the war. Tracy, it is recorded, was detained at the fortress of Bitche, where conditions of imprisonment were particularly unpleasant, he having been sent directly there as a ‘matelot’ for ‘desertion’. On 31 May 1814, a court-martial was held on board the Gladiator, at Portsmouth, to try them for the loss of their vessel; in pronouncing its sentence, the court-martial expressed its opinion “that the capture of H.M. late gun-brig Linnet was caused by her falling in with a French frigate of very superior force, and that the conduct of the said Lieutenant John Tracy, his officers, and company was most able, judicious, and seamanlike, although they were not so fortunate as to effect their escape from so superior a force. Yet,” it went on to say, “their manoeuvres in having three times crossed the frigate’s bows, and at one time so near as to carry away her flying-jib-boom, evinced so much courage and judgement, that the court doth adjudge the said Lieutenant John Tracy, his officers, and company to be fully and most honourably acquitted.” As a reward for his skill and valour Tracy was promoted to Commander on 11 June 1814, despite which he was unable afterwards to gain employment, nor was he successful in his efforts to obtain the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital.