The John Goddard Collection of Important Naval Medals and Nelson Letters

Commander William R. B. Sellon, R.N., who was First-Lieutenant of the Castor at the capture of the French 74-gun ship-of-the-line D’Haultpoult in April 1809, and later distinguished himself when commanding a gallant boat action that elicited the high praise of Sir Edward Pellew

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Castor 17 June 1809 [6] (W. R. B. Sellon, Lieut. R.N.) engraved correction to second initial, probably official, some minor edge bruising and nicks, otherwise nearly extremely fine £10000-12000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The John Goddard Collection of Important Naval Medals and Nelson Letters.

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Provenance: Glendining’s, November 1956; Spink N.C., February 1957; The Armoury, December 1987.

Castor 17 June 1809 [6 issued] - [real date of action 17 April] William Andrews, Boy 2 Class (National Maritime Museum; another medal in the Patiala Collection, Sheesh Mahal Museum, India); James T. T. Dixon, Midshipman (Known); John Forbes, Surgeon (Honeyman Collection, Huntington Library, U.S.A.); Joseph McCarogher, Surgeon (Known); John Ross, Pte. R.M. (Honeyman Collection, Huntington Library, U.S.A.); W. R. B. Sellon, Lieutenant, R.N. (Initials ‘W. B. B.’ in Admiralty Claimants’ list with second ‘B’ clearly corrected to an ‘R’ which suggests that the correction to the medal was official).

William Richard Baker Sellon (formerly Smith) was the son of Thomas Smith, Esq., of the Chapter House of the Cathedral Church of St Paul, London, Receiver-General to the Dean and Chapter, by Sarah, daughter of the Rev William Sellon. He assumed, in January 1847, the surname and arms of Sellon on inheriting the property of his maternal aunt, Sophia Sellon.

This officer entered the Navy in March 1801, as a First Class Volunteer on board the Centaur 74, commanded by his relative Captain Bendall Robert Littlehales, at first in the Channel and next in the West Indies. He assisted, as Midshipman, at the reduction of St Lucia, where he served in the boats at the landing of the troops under a fire from the enemy’s batteries; and returned to England in 1803 in the Morne Fortunée, with Captain Littlehales, who carried despatches announcing the conquest. On 11 July 1805, having been employed nearly two years in the Downs and North Sea in the Orestes 14, Captain Thomas Brown, and had been in action with the Boulogne flotilla, he was wrecked, under a heavy fire from the enemy, on the Splinter Sand, in Dunkerque Road.

He then joined the Virginie 38, on the Irish station; and on 22 December 1807, having for six months there acted as Lieutenant in the Helena 18, he was confirmed in that rank. His next appointments were, 25 February 1808, to the Alexandria 32, in the North Sea, and on 28 December following, to the Castor 32, Captain William Roberts. In the Castor, of which frigate he became First-Lieutenant, he contributed to the capture in April 1809 of the French 74-gun ship D’Hautpoult.

Capture of the French 74 ship-of-the-line D’Hautpoult

Early in February 1809, the French dispatched a force under the command of Commodore Amable-Gilles Trude, on a mission to resupply the garrison at Martinique. His force comprised the 74-gun ships of the line Courageux, Polonais, and D’Haultpoult. These ships were escorting the en-flute frigates Felicité and Furieuse. The term en-flute meant a warship with some of it's armament removed to make room for cargo. Trude's force arrived in the Leeward Islands on 29 March and found that Martinique had already fallen. He anchored his small force off the Iles des Saintes, off Guadeloupe, where they were spotted by patrolling British warships. Admiral Cochrane, on learning of this, ordered that men and heavy guns be landed on the islands to drive the French out to sea, where they could be pursued and brought to action. Operations on the islands commenced on 14 April 1809 and by 8 p.m. that day, fire from the guns landed by the British had the desired effect and Troude ordered his ships to weigh anchor and put to sea. This had been seen by the Hazard 18 and reported to the blockading squadron which comprised of the flagship Neptune with York, Pompee, Polyphemus and Recruit. By 10 p.m., Pompee and Recruit had caught up with the rear-most French ship, the 74 gun ship-of-the-line D’Haultpoult. Pompee fired two broadsides into D’Haultpoult without effect and the French ship continued on without returning fire. At 8.15 p.m., Commander Napier managed to manoeuvre his vessel under the stern of the D’Haultpoult and opened fire. Napier was displaying a level of courage bordering on the insane. The D’Haultpoult was after all, almost six times the size of his vessel and was several orders of magnitude more powerful. At 30 minutes past midnight, Neptune got close enough to open fire and her broadside killed one and wounded four of D’Haultpoult’s men. At 4 a.m., Recruit got close enough to fire another broadside into the French ship. Pompee opened fire from long range with her bow-chasers and throughout the night, Recruit continued to harass the French ship. At 10.45 a.m., the French ship's commander decided to do something about Recruit's fire, so he briefly turned his ship into the wind and fired a full broadside at the relatively small British vessel. This damaged Recruit's rigging on the port side, but did no significant damage and caused no casualties. Napier was not intimidated by this and as soon as d'Haultport had resumed her course, he continued with his attacks, pulling up to the Frenchman's stern and letting them have two broadsides through the stern. This continued throughout the day, with Pompee joining in the running battle while she was able to. By daybreak on the 16 April, Recruit had been forced to drop astern of d'Haultport as a result of the damage to her rigging. In the meantime, the chase had been joined by Latona, an 18-pdr armed 38-gun frigate and the Castor, a 12-pdr armed 32-gun frigate. Castor took Recruit's place off D’Haultpoult’s stern and continued to harass the larger French ship until Pompee closed the range sufficiently to bring her to action properly. The harassing from Recruit and then Castor had slowed the French ship enough for Pompee to come alongside and batter her into surrender.

On 12 June 1809, Sellon joined the Intrepid 64, and on 23 October, the Horatio 38, Captain George Scott, in which vessel he was present on 21 February 1810, at the surrender, after a long chase and a running fight of one hour, of La Nécessité, pierced for 40 guns but not mounting more than 28, with a complement on board of 186 men, laden with naval stores and provisions, from Brest bound for the Isle of France. While attached to the Swiftsure he distinguished himself in numerous boat affairs, and on one occasion in particular, on 26 November 1813, when with four boats containing 58 men, he boarded and carried, off Cape Rouse, in the island of Corsica, Le Charlemagne privateer, of 8 guns, pierced for 16, and 93 men, a vessel whose fierce resistance occasioned a loss to the British, out of 58 men, of 5 killed and 15 wounded. Referring to this exploit, Sir Edward Pellew, the Commander-in-Chief, thus expressed himself in a letter to Captain Littlehales: “I am happy to inform you that your friend Mr. Smith [Sellon} has signalled himself in boarding a privateer, in a manner much above the common practise. His Captain and those that were with him gave him the loudest praise. Indeed it was a gallant and great achievement, and, what was far more honourable in him, he interceded for mercy with his companions, who were irritated at their loss and the obstinate resistance they had met with. I shall send my mite of praise with Captain Dickson’s to their Lordships, and earnestly hope it will lead to his promotion.” This, however, it did not do, nor did Lieutenant Smith receive any other reward for his gallantry than an assurance of their Lordships’ approbation and an expression of their sincere concern at the loss experienced on the occasion. He resigned command of the Swan on account of family affairs, 27 June 1817, and saw no further service afloat. On 24 July 1844, he accepted the rank of Commander on the Retired List and was still alive in 1858.