Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas (Part I)

The Naval General Service medal awarded to Midshipman James R. Crawford, Royal Navy, for his part in one of the most celebrated and sanguinary Gold Medal actions of the war - the capture of the French 74-gun Rivoli by the 74-gun Victorious under Captain John Talbot, R.N.

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Victorious with Rivoli (J. R. Crawford, Midshipman.) small edge nick, otherwise good very fine £6,000-£8,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas.

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Christie’s, November 1986.

James R. Crawford is confirmed on the roll as Midshipman aboard the Victorious. Approximately 66 clasps issued for this exceptionally bloody action, for which the Naval Gold Medal was awarded to Captain John Talbot, in addition to a Knighthood. Crawford does not appear to have passed for Lieutenant.

On 16 February 1812, the British 74-gun ship Victorious, Captain John Talbot, accompanied by the 18-gun brig-sloop Weazel, Captain John William Andrew, arrived off Venice, to watch the motions of the new French 74-gun ship Rivoli, Commodore Jean-Baptiste Barré, and two or three brigs of war, lying ready for sea in that port. Foggy weather made it the 21st before Captain Talbot was enabled to reconnoitre the port. On that day, at 2.30 p.m., the Victorious descried a brig in the east-north-east, and at 3 p.m., in the same direction, a large ship, with two more brigs, and two settees. The ship was the Rivoli herself; the three brigs were the Jéna and Mercure of 16, and the Mamelouck of eight guns; and the two settees were gun-boats; all about 12 hours from Venice, bound to the port of Pola in Istria, and at this time steering in line of battle; the two gun-boats and one brig ahead, then the Rivoli, and astern of her the two remaining brigs. The British 74 and brig were presently under all sail in chase, and soon began to gain upon the French squadron.

At 2.30 a.m. on the 22nd, perceiving that one of the two brigs in the rear had dropped astern, and that the Rivoli had shortened sail to allow her to close, Captain Talbot hailed the Weazel, and directed Captain Andrew to pass the Victorious if possible, and bring the sternmost brig to action. Captain Andrew was so prompt in obeying the order, that at 4.15 a.m. the Weazel overtook the Mercure, and engaged her within half pistol-shot. After the action between these two brigs had lasted about 20 minutes, the brig that had been in company with the Mercure, the Jéna, shortened sail, and engaged the Weazel distantly on her bow. Thus opposed, the latter still continued a close and well-directed fire upon the Mercure until another 20 minutes had elapsed, at the end of which the French brig blew up. In an instant the Weazel lowered down her boats, but only succeeded in saving three men, and those much bruised. In the meanwhile, taking advantage of the darkness of the morning and the damaged state of the Weazel’s rigging, the Jéna had made off, and soon disappeared. At daylight, however, the British brig regained a sight of both French brigs, one a short distance astern of the other, and, having by this time refitted herself, she crowded sail in pursuit, sweeping occasionally, owing to the lightness of the breeze; but the Jéna and Mamelouck outsailed the Weazel, and kept gradually increasing their distance.

At 4.30 a.m., just a quarter of an hour after the Weasel had begun her engagement with the Mercure, the Victorious, having a light air of wind on her larboard beam, arrived within half pistol-shot of, and opened her starboard guns upon, the Rivoli, who immediately returned the fire from her larboard broadside, and continued, with courses clewed up, but royals set, standing on towards the gulf of Triest. A furious engagement now ensued between these two line-of-battle ships, interrupted only when, for a few minutes together, the fog or the smoke hid them from each other’s view. In the early part of the action, Captain Talbot received a contusion from a splinter, that nearly deprived him of his sight, and the command of the ship devolved upon Lieutenant Thomas Ladd Peake, who emulated his wounded chief in bravery and judgement. After the mutual cannonade had thus continued for three hours, and the Rivoli, from the superior fire of the Victorious, had become unmanageable and reduced to such a resistance as two quarterdeck guns only could offer, Lieutenant Peake, by signal, recalled the Weazel, to have the benefit of her assistance, in case either ship, the Victorious herself being in a disabled state, and both ships at this time in seven fathoms’ water off the point of Groa, should happen to get aground. Having bore up in obedience to the signal, the Weazel stood across the bows of the Rivoli and, at 8 a.m., when within musket-shot distance, poured in her broadside. This the brig, wearing or tacking as necessary, repeated twice. Meanwhile the Victorious maintained a steady cannonade, and at 8.45 a.m. shot away the Rivoli’s mizen mast. In another quarter of an hour the French 74 fired a lee gun, and hailed the Victorious that she had struck.

The Victorious had her rigging cut to pieces, gaff and spanker-boom shot away, her three topmasts and mainmast badly wounded, her boats all destroyed, except a small punt belonging to the ward-room officers, and her hull struck in several places. Out of her actual crew of 506 men and boys (60 of the men sick, but only a few absent from their quarters), she had one lieutenant of marines, and 25 seamen and marines killed, her captain (slightly), one lieutenant of marines (mortally), two master’s mates, two midshipmen, and 93 seamen and marines wounded; in total, 27 killed and 99 wounded. The Weazel had the good fortune not to have a man hurt, either in her forty minutes’ engagement with the Mercure, or her very spirited, and in all probability, not ineffective cannonade of the Rivoli.

Captain John Talbot not only received a Small Naval Gold Medal for this action but was also knighted. Lieutenant Peake was promoted and Captain John W. Andrew of the Weazel was rewarded with a Post Captain’s Commission. Weazel’s part in this action was commemorated with a separate clasp inscribed ‘Weazel 22 Feby 1812’, but there were only 6 claimants for it including Captain Andrew.