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

The Naval General Service medal awarded to Captain Peter S. Hambly, Royal Navy, Master’s Mate in the Prince at the battle of Trafalgar, when he was one of the party in charge of the Santissima Trinidad before she was sunk, remaining on board until within a short time of her going down - the water when he left having reached above her lower deck - and being promoted in honour of the victory by commission dated December 1805

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Trafalgar (P. S. Hambly, Master’s Mate.) extremely fine £10,000-£14,000

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

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Collection

J. B. Hayward, March 1971; Peter Dale Collection, July 2000.

Confirmed on the roll as Master’s Mate aboard H.M.S. Prince at Trafalgar.

Peter Sampson Hambly entered the Navy on 1 December 1797, as Midshipman, on board the Ville de Paris 110, Captain Hon. George Grey, bearing the flag off Lisbon and in the Mediterranean of Earl St. Vincent. Subsequently removing to the Emerald 36, Captain Thomas Moutray Waller, he assisted in that ship, in company with the Leviathan 74, and was slightly wounded at the capture of the two Spanish frigates Carmen and Florentina on 7 April 1800, each laden with 500 quintals of quicksilver for the use of the mines at Lima. Independently of that service, he was frequently employed in the Emerald’s boats off the port of Cadiz; was instrumental to the capture of several privateers; and was a second time wounded. Between the summers of 1800 and 1802, he was next attached, as Master’s Mate, to the Florentina 36, Captain John Broughton, with which ship he served at the landing of the troops in Egypt and received a sabre-cut in the right wrist at the battle of Alexandria on 21 March 1801, the battle in which Sir Ralph Abercromby was killed. In April 1803, after he had been borne on the books of the Tonnant 80, Captain Sir Edward Pellew, for a short period, Hambly joined the Prince 98, Captain Richard Grindall, under whom he fought at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. At the close of the conflict, he was then one of the party in charge of the Santissima Trinidad before she was sunk, remaining on board until within a short time of her going down; when he eventually left the sinking ship, the water had already reached her lower deck. Being promoted in honour of the victory by a commission dated 24 December of the same year, Hambly was next appointed on 27 March 1806 to the Morgiana sloop, Captains Robert Raynsford and William Landless, on the Mediterranean station; on 18 December 1806 to the Queen 98, Captains Erasmus Pender, William Shields, Charles Inglis, and Thomas George Shortland, employed off Cadiz, the Dardanells, &c.; and on 11 July 1808, to the Defence 74, Captain Charles Ekins. Captain Ekins, after assisting at the blockade of Flushing and Kronstat, entrusted Hambly with the erection and command of a battery on an island in the Gulf of Finland, for the purpose of obstructing the movements of the Russians, including the destruction of Russian vessels in 1809, and the blockade of Flushing in 1810. Later, in October 1810, Hambly was placed at the command of part of the flotilla employed at the defence of Cadiz, where - and at Tarifa - he continued in almost daily collision with the enemy, until the autumn of 1813, when he invalided. On one occasion a shot passed through the side of Hambly’s gun-boat, and it was with the greatest difficulty she could be kept afloat. In June 1814, he joined the flotilla on the river St. Lawrence, and when the 100-gun ship of that name was ready for launching he was appointed her First-Lieutenant. By the time she was nearly equipped for sea, he was sent to take the command on Lake Champlain, where he remained until the month of December. He then became Senior of the Psyche 32, Captain Peter Fisher, from which ship, stationed on Lake Ontario, he removed to the acting-command of the Star sloop on 11 July 1815. Later the same year, from 12 October until 30 November 1816, he was superintending the naval establishment on Lake Huron. He obtained a second promotal commission on 12 August 1819, and from 3 August 1838, until his Post-promotion on 23 November 1841, was employed in command of the Orestes 18, on the South American station, after which he was placed on half-pay. Captain Hambly died in 1847 when his phaeton overturned in a Devon country lane.