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

The 2-clasp Naval General Service medal awarded to Lieutenant John Salter, Royal Navy, Midshipman in Sir John Duckworth’s flagship Superb at St Domingo, and Master’s Mate of the Northumberland at the destruction of the French 40-gun frigates L’Arienne and L’Andromache and 16-gun brig Mamelouck at the entrance of L’Orient in May 1812

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, St Domingo, Northumberland 22 May 1812 (John Salter, Midshipman.) edge bruise, otherwise toned, good very fine £5,000-£7,000

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

Blair Collection, Glendining’s, July 1937; Spink N.C., October 1955 (Northumberland clasp only on these two appearances); Spink N.C., May 1956 (now restored to 2 clasps); Glendining’s, September 1958 and November 1984; Colin Message Collection, August 1999.

63 clasps issued for Northumberland.

Midshipman of Superb (Duckworth’s flagship) at St Domingo.

John Salter entered the Navy 11 October 1805 as Midshipman on board the Superb 74, Captains Richard Goodwin Keats and Donald M‘Leod, and in which ship he fought under the flag of Sir John Thomas Duckworth in the action off St. Domingo on 6 February 1806. It was also with the Superb that he accompanied the 1807 expedition to the Dardanells. Removing, in January 1808, to the Defiance 74, Captain Hon. Henry Hotham, Salter served with a squadron under Rear-Admiral Hon. Robert Stopford at the destruction, on 24 February 1809, of three French frigates under the batteries of Sable d’Olonne, on the coast of France, after a contest in which the Defiance - added to severe damage experienced in her sails and rigging - sustained a loss of 2 men killed and 25 wounded.

After much active service on the north coast of Spain, Salter followed Captain Hotham as Master’s Mate, in September 1810, into the Northumberland 74, and on 22 May 1812, was present in company with the Growler gun-brig, at the destruction of the French 40 gun frigates L’Arienne and L’Andromache and 16-gun brig Mamelouck at the entrance of L’Orient; the fire of these ships, conjointly with that of a heavy battery, killed 5 and wounded 28 of the Northumberland’s crew. In the course of the same year, he joined the Minden 74, Captain Alexander Skene, and the Nisus 38, flag-ship of Hon. R. Stopford, both on the Cape station, where on 26 November 1812, he was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Racehorse 18. On 26 October 1813 he was confirmed into the Lion 64, Captain Henderson Bain, and was subsequently appointed, on 11 July 1814, to the Opossum 10, Captain Thomas Woolrige, with whom he served in the Channel and off the north coast of Spain until sent to the Hospital at Plymouth the following October. On 9 January 1815 he moved to the Penelope 36, which frigate his health did not permit him to join, and on 29 June 1821, for a short time, to the Windsor Castle 74, Captain Charles Dashwood, lying at Plymouth. From disease contracted in the service he became totally blind and was placed on the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital on 30 January 1826, a concession reserved for 10 Captains, 15 Commanders and 50 Lieutenants only.

Sold with notes compiled by Colin Message.