# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Arabin, Septimus

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​ARABIN. (Captain, 1823. f-p., 20; h-p., 28.)
Septimus Arabin, descended from one of the oldest families of Provence, in France, a branch of which settled in England at the period of the Revolution in 1688, is son of the late Henry Arabin, Esq., by Ann Grant, of the Grants of Ballendallack. One of his brothers, George, died a Captain in H.M. 54th regiment; another, Frederick, became a Captain in the Royal Artillery; and a third, Augustus, died a Lieutenant, R.N. (1815), in Sept. 1839.
This officer entered the Navy, 27 April, 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Tigre 80, Capt., afterwards Rear-Admiral, Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, under whom, with the exception of a few months during the peace, he continued to serve, in the same ship, and in the Antelope 50, and Pompée 74, until the summer of 1807. During the latter part of the war he appears to have been much employed in co-operation with the Turks on the coast of Syria; and we subsequently find him, on the renewal of hostilities, coming into frequent collision with the enemy in the Channel and North Sea, particularly on 24 March, 1804, when he acquired the public thanks of Sir Sidney Smith for the gallant and judicious manner in which, after, every officer senior to himself had been wounded, he boarded, in the Antelope’s boats, and carried, although he had been exposed for 45 minutes, to a heavy fire, a Dutch armed schuyt, moored at the entrance of the East Scheldt, and in every way prepared, for an obstinate resistance. On his removal, as Master’s Mate, in 1806, to the Pompée, Mr. Ajabin was invested by his patron with the command of a Sicilian armed vessel, in which he conveyed the first supply of ammunition to Gaeta, during its siege by the French. He assisted also in disarming the coasts of Naples and Calabria, from the gulf of Salerno to Scylla; and was present at the capture of the latter fortress. Attending afterwards the expedition to the Dardanells, he there witnessed, in the capacity of Acting-Lieutenant, Sir Sidney Smith’s destruction of a Turkish squadron, and for his gallantry in cutting out a gun-boat, and the assistance he afforded in consummating the destruction of a battery of 31 guns, was a second time publicly thanked by Sir Sidney, and formed one of the only two Lieutenants whose names were mentioned in Sir John Duckworth’s first despatch. During the operations against Copenhagen in Aug. and Sept. 1807, Mr. Arabin, who still continued to serve in the Pompée, under the flag of Hon. Henry Edwin Stanhope, commanded a division of boats at the landing of the army, took part in many smart encounters with the enemy’s flotilla, and, in acknowledgment of his services throughout, was personally presented by the above officer to Lord Gambler, and earnestly recommended for promotion. In the mean time, however, he had been officially promoted into the Pompée by commission, dated 4 Aug. 1807. His subsequent appointments were – 6 Feb. 1808, to the Foudroyant 80, bearing the flag of Sir W. S. Smith, in South America – 5 Feb. 1810, to the Theseus 74, Capt. Wm. Prowse, stationed in the North Sea – and, in the course of 1812, to the Tremendous 74, and Hibernia 110, as Flag-Lieutenant to Sir W. S. Smith, in the Mediterranean. After witnessing Sir Edw. Pellew’s two partial actions with the French fleet off Toulon, he was promoted to the rank of Commander 27 July, 1814; but, unsuccessful in his applications for employment, remained on half-pay from that period until 2 July, 1821, when he at length obtained an appointment to the Argus 18, on the Halifax station. Acquiring Post-rank 20 March, 1823, Capt. Arabin next, on 23 Dec. 1825, ​joined the North Star 28, in which frigate he suhsequently captured several Spanish and Brazilian slavers, and ultimately returned to Portsmouth with Viscount Strangford, Envoy-Extraordinary at Rio Janeiro. He paid the North Star off in 1829, and accepted the retired half-pay, 1 Oct. 1846. Capt. Arabin married Maria, second daughter of the late Sir Geo. Berryman Rumbold, Bart., Consul-General at Hamburgh, afterwards step-daughter of Admiral Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, K.C.B., and aunt of the present Sir Cavendish Stuart Rumbold, Bart. Agent – J. Hinxman.