# Royal Naval Biography/Hardyman, Lucius

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LUCIUS HARDYMAN, Esq A Companion of the most Honourable Military Order of the Bath. [Post-Captain of 1800.]
This officer is a son of the late Captain Hardyman, of Portsmouth, and a brother of Major-General Hardyman, who died in India Nov. 28, 1821. We find no mention of him previous to March 1, 1799; on which day he greatly distinguished himself as first Lieutenant of the Sybille frigate, in an action with la Forte of 52 guns, the command of which ship was afterwards conferred upon him by Vice-Admiral Rainier. His post commission bears date Jan. 27, 1800.
​La Forte was wrecked in the Red Sea about June 1801; but fortunately her crew were saved. Captain Hardyman ​subsequently commanded the Unicorn frigate, on the West India station, and at the reduction of Monte Video, by Rear-Admiral Stirling, and Brigadier-General Auchmuty. He also assisted at the destruction of a French squadron in Aix Roads, April 11, 1809. His next appointment was to the Armicle of 38 guns, employed cruising off the French coast.
On the 4th May, 1801, Captain Hardyman sent .the boats of that ship, assisted by those of the Cadmus, Daring, and Monkey, to attack a number of the enemy’s armed and coasting vessels, at the isle of Rhé; thirteen of which were destroyed under a heavy fire from the batteries, and four others driven on shore.
Captain Hardyman was nominated a C.B. in 1815. He married, Dec. 29, 1810, Charlotte, youngest daughter of the late John Travers, Esq., of Bedford Place, London.
Agent.– Sir F. M. Ommanney, M.P.
* ↑ The Sybille, commanded by Captain Edward Cooke, whilst at Madras, received intelligence that la Forte was cruising in the bay of Bengal, and capturing with impunity every vessel that came in her way. The Sybille, though of much inferior force, immediately proceeded in search of the enemy; had the good fortune to meet her in Balasore roads about midnight on the 28th Feb.; soon after brought her to close action; and in less than two hours compelled her to surrender. The late Captain James Kingston Tuckey, who fell a victim to the climate of Africa, whilst employed in exploring the river Congo, in Sept. 1816, was a volunteer on board the Sybille; and in a letter which he wrote on the occasion of la Forte’s capture, stated the force of the combatants, and their respective loss, as follows: British 44 guns, and 370 men; French 52 guns, and 420 men. The Sybille 5 killed and 17 wounded; la Forte 81 killed and 93 wounded. Lieutenant Hardyman, who succeeded to the command in consequence of his gallant commander being dangerously wounded, says, " The scene which presented itself on la Forte’s deck was shocking; the number she had killed cannot be accurately ascertained, as many had been thrown overboard during the action; but from every calculation I have been able to make, the number killed must be from 150 to 160 men, and 70 wounded; the first and second Captain, the first Lieutenant, with several other officers, are among the number killed. The Sybille had only 3 men killed and 19 wounded, 2 of whom afterwards died.” The Sybille’s complement having been much reduced by deaths, and debilitated by severe illness contracted at Calcutta in the preceding year, a company of the Scotch brigade had been embarked by order of the Governor-General; a party of men belonging to the Fox frigate also joined her as volunteers at Madras, and, together with some military officers passengers, probably made up the number said by Captain Tuckey to have been in the action; but it should be remembered, that most of her old and valuable crew were in a weak state of convalescence. The prisoners landed at Calcutta were 340 in number, from which we conclude Captain Tuckey did not assign the French ship a weaker crew than she actually had on board at the commencement of the battle. Schomberg, whose errors are very numerous, gives her 700 men. The Sybille had long eighteens on her main-deck; la Forte mounted 24-pounders. Captain Cooke lingered under the painful effects of his wound till the 23d May, when he expired at Calcutta, beloved and respected by all who knew him. The following garrison-orders were given out by the Deputy-Governor, previous to the funeral, in which is a just panegyric to his character: “Captain Cooke, of his Majesty’s ship the Sybille, after a painful and lingering illness, in the course of which the ardent hopes of the settlement were sanguinely fixed on his recovery, having expired this morning, in consequence of the wound he received in the action with the Freni-h national frigate la Forte; it is the painful duty of the Deputy-Governor to order the last tribute of military honors to be paid to the remains of that gallant officer, by whose premature death in the defence of the interests of the British nation in general, aud of the East India Company in particular, our gracious Sovereign has lost a zealous, brave, and active officer, whose intrepid and skilful conduct in a contest with a vessel of far superior force, has added another glorious triumph to the many obtained this war by the valour of the British navy, of which, had Providence spared his life, he would have, become one of the brightest ornaments. “His Majesty’s 76th regiment will form the funeral party, and attend the remains of Captain Cooke, with every mark of solemnity and. respect that is in their power to shew, from the house of Mr. Mnir, at Chouringhee, to the place of interment, at six o’clock this evening; and as there is no officer of the rank of Colonel with that corps, Colonel Greene is directed to parade with it on this occasion. “During the procession, miuute guns are to be fired from Fort William, and the colours to be hoisted half staff high.” Captain Cooke was the officer who undertook the hazardous negociatiou between Lord Hood and the Magistrates of Toulon, previous to the allied forces taking possession of that place in 1793. An account of his proceedings in the neighbourhood of Manilla one year previous to his death, will be found in our first volume, at p. 584, et seq. A monument to his memory was subsequently erected at Calcutta, by order of the Honorable Court of Directors.
* ↑ See Captain Samuel Roberts.