Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 4 clasps, Egypt, 28 Aug Boat Service 1809, 28 June Boat Service 1810, Lissa (Francis Blyth.) a little distortion to lower clasp carriage at the side, otherwise lightly polished and toned, good very fine and rare £10,000-£14,000

By descent to the present vendor.

Approximately 612 clasps issued for Egypt, including 26 to H.M.S. Kent; 15 clasps issued for Boat Service 28 August 1809; 24 clasps issued for Boat Service 28 June 1810; approximately 123 clasps issued for Lissa, including 36 top H.M.S. Amphion. This is a unique name on the roll and a unique combination of clasps. Approximately 100 medals issued with 4 clasps.

Francis Blyth is confirmed on the Message roll as an Ordinary Seaman in H.M.S. Kent for the operations off the coast of Egypt and, in a separate entry, as Captain of the Forecastle in the boats of Amphion in the services of August 1809 and June 1810, and as Quartermaster in the same ship in the action at Lissa. Blyth was discharged from Impregnable in February 1815 with 15 years 6 months of service, which would take him back to Egypt and admitted to pension at the rate of £16 per annum on 3 March 1815.

The clasp for ‘Egypt’ was not authorised until 1850 when “... such officer, seaman, or marine, as shall already have received the Naval Medal for other services, shall receive, instead of a new additional Medal, a clasp with the word ‘Egypt’ engraven thereon.”

Boats of the Amphion at Cortelazzo, 28 August 1809

‘The thirty-two gun frigate Amphion, Captain W, Hoste in cruising the Adriatic, on August 24th, discovered lying in the port of Cortelazzo, near Trieste, six Italian gun-boats, and a convoy of trabaccolos, under a battery of four twenty-four pounders. The shallowness of the water not allowing the frigate to enter the port, Captain Hoste decided to send in his boats. To prevent any suspicion of his intention, he kept off out of sight from the land, till the evening of August 26th, when soon after midnight he anchored off the place. At three in the morning, a party of seventy men under the command of Lieutenants Phillott and Jones, landed about a mile to the Southward of the battery, leaving another party under the orders of Lieutenant Slaughter, in the boats, to attack the vessels when the battery had been carried. At a quarter past three a.m., Lieutenant Phillott assailed the battery, and though surrounded by a ditch and cherauz-de-frise captured it in ten minutes, and made the pre-arranged signal for the boats to advance. The guns in the battery were immediately turned on the gun-boats, which were boarded and taken possession of after a slight resistance, by Lieutenant Slaughter, though mounting long twenty-four pounders and swivels. Two trabaccolos laden with cheese and rice were brought off, and five others burnt. The battery was destroyed and the guns spiked, and the boats returned to the Amphion with but one man wounded. For his distinguished behaviour on this and other occasions, Lieutenant Phillott was promoted to the rank of commander.’ (Medals of the British Navy by W. H. Long, 1895, refers)

Capture of twenty-five Vessels at Grao, 28 June 1810

‘The British frigates, Active, thirty-eight, Captain J. Gordon, and Cerberus, thirty-two, Captain H. Whitby, under the orders of Captain W. Hoste, of the Amphion, thirty-two, were cruising in the Gulf of Trieste, in the month of June. On the morning of June 28th, the Amphion chased a convoy laden with naval stores for the arsenal at Venice, into the harbour of Grao. Captain Hoste decided upon the capture or destruction of the vessels, which, owing to the shoals, could be effected only by boats. In the evening he signalled to the Active and Cerberus, to send their boats to him at midnight, but owing to her distance in the offing the Active was unable to obey the signal in time. At the hour appointed the boats of the Amphion and Cerberus, commanded by Lieutenant W. Slaughter, (second of the Amphion) assisted by Lieutenants D. O'Brien, and J. Dickenson, pushed off, and before daylight landed a little to the right of the town. On advancing the British were attacked by a body of French troops, and armed peasantry, who were charged with the bayonet, and a sergeant and thirty-five men made prisoners. The town was then entered, and the vessels, twenty-five in number, taken possession of, but it being low water, it was late in the evening, and only after great exertions they were got afloat, and over the bar. In the mean time the boats of the Active came up, and assisted in repelling another attack of the enemy, taking their Commander and twenty-two men prisoners. Five vessels were brought out with their cargoes, and a number of small trading craft, laden with the cargoes of eleven vessels which were burnt. At eight p.m., the boats and the prizes had joined the ships, which had anchored about four miles from the town. The loss of the victors in this dashing affair, was four men killed, and Lieutenant Brattle of the Marines, and seven men wounded. Lieutenant Slaughter was promoted to the rank of Commander in the month of November following.’ (Medals of the British Navy by W. H. Long, 1895, refers)

Action off Lissa, 13 March 1811

‘In 1811, Captain W. Hoste in the Amphion, thirty-two, having under his command the Active, thirty-eight, Capt. J. A. Gordon; Cerberus, thirty-two, Captain H. Whitby; and the Volage, twenty-two, Capt. P. Hornby, was cruising in the Adriatic. On March 13th, off the Island of Lissa, he met with a French squadron of four French and Venetian frigates of forty guns each, two of thirty-two guns, a corvette of sixteen guns, and four smaller vessels, more than double his force. Hoste formed his line of battle, and with the signal, "Remember Nelson," at his masthead, awaited the attack of the enemy, who bore down in two divisions and attempted to break his line. They were received by so well directed a fire that their leading ship La Favourite became unmanageable, and in endeavouring to wear, ran on the rocks. Part of the French squadron then engaged the British to leeward, while their other ships continued the action to wind-ward, thus placing Hoste between two fires, a French frigate taking her station on the lee quarter, and a Venetian frigate on the weather quarter of the Amphion. After a severe contest both were compelled to strike. The remainder of the enemy then bore off, the Amphion was too crippled to pursue, but the Active and Cerberus chased and captured the Venetian frigate Corona of forty-four guns. Another French frigate, which had struck her colours and surrendered, taking advantage of the disabled state of the Amphion stole off, and with the smaller vessels escaped. The French Commodore Dubourdieu was slain in the action, and his ship being on the rocks was set on fire by her crew and destroyed. The loss of the British was fifty men killed and one hundred and fifty wounded. The loss of the French was much greater.’ (Medals of the British Navy by W. H. Long, 1895, refers)

Sold with a copied photographic image supposed to be of Blyth in later life.