# Royal Naval Biography/Galloway, James

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JAMES GALLOWAY, Esq. [Commander.]
Was made a lieutenant in 1799; presented with the Turkish gold medal for his services during the memorable Egyptian campaign; promoted to his present rank on the 22d Jan. 1806; appointed to the command of the Irish Sea-Fencible Service, Killybegs district, in 1809; and removed from thence ​to the Princess receiving-ship, at Liverpool, in 1810. His next appointment was, Dec. 19th, 1812, to the Despatch of 18 guns, in which sloop we find him very actively employed at the siege of St. Sebastian’s, in 1813. He subsequently commanded the Penelope frigate, armed en flûte, and had the misfortune to lose that ship in a snow-storm, when proceeding to Quebec, April 30th, 1815. The following narrative of this disaster is given by an officer who was then serving under his command:
“We had a favorable passage from Spithead to the Banks of Newfoundland, where we met with ice, fogs, and S.E. gales. On the 27th April, 1815, we entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and on the 29th, saw the coast of Lower Canada, about Cape Rozeare, wind north. On the 30th, we stood to the eastward till the ship broke off to the southward of east; then tacked and stood for the Canadian shore. At sun-set, the ship lay a good course to clear all the land, had not a strong current (unknown to us) been setting in from the S.E.; the weather being thick and cloudy, the lead was kept going, the master ordered not to leave the deck, and the watch to keep a good look-out. At 8 p.m., we sounded in 71 fathoms; and, thirty minutes afterwards, the Penelope was hard and fast: at the moment of her striking on the rocks. Captain Galloway and his first lieutenant were looking at the chart; the line was passing forward, and the ship going about four knots; heavy snow falling, and the wind blowing fresh from N.E.
“The helm having been put down and the sails thrown a-back, the quarter-boats were lowered down and sent away with the stream-anchor, which was dropped on the weather quarter, in six fathoms; the bower anchors were then cut away, in order to lighten the ship forward, but on heaving at the capstan, the stream anchor was found not to hold; and the wind, snow, and cold soon increased to such a degree, that it was with difficulty the crew could be kept on deck, to hoist out boats, and perform other necessary duties; some of them actually got into their hammocks: at midnight, the ship was striking very heavy; and before day-light, the orlop-deck was already full of water.
“All hopes of saving the ship being now at an end, the masts were cut away to ease her, and four successive attempts made to carry the end of a small hawser to the shore; the first boat sent on this duty was swamped and stove long before she got near the shore; and as none of the others returned, the situation of all on board the Penelope became very alarming: it was almost impossible to stand upon the deck; the quarter-deck beams were already giving way; and the sea, breaking into the captain’s cabin, destroyed a few bags of bread, the only article of provisions which there had been time to remove from below; our remaining ​boats were the pinnace, gig, and jolly-boat; but the latter was still on the booms, from whence we could not remove her.
“Captain Galloway being much exhausted, and suffering greatly from rheumatism, was at length prevailed upon to go in the pinnace, with as many men as she could possibly carry, and the end of another hawser to be made fast on shore; scarcely, however, had she cleared the lee of the ship, when a sea half filled her; and shortly afterwards she was thrown empty upon a rock, leaving Captain Galloway and his companions no other means of reaching the shore than by clinging to oars and swimming. Lieutenants Benjamin Hooper and John Massey, with eighteen men, followed in the gig, and landed without any accident; but this boat was also unfortunately upset and stove when making a second trip from the ship to the shore, on which the snow was then lying four feet deep.
“By the latter disaster, about forty poor fellows, still on the wreck of the Penelope, were deprived of their last hope; some of them, indeed, endeavoured to save themselves on gratings, &c. but not one succeeded: the prospect of those on shore was almost equally deplorable, and several hours elapsed before any thing eatable was brought to us by the waves. In the mean time we employed ourselves in making tents with branches of trees and wet blankets, and succeeded, after much perseverance, in kindling a fire.
“The whole of that day we were truly miserable: the cries of the poor sufferers on the wreck were lamentable beyond description; and when night approached they were, if possible, still more dreadful: they were often heard to call the captain and officers by name, to send them assistance, which it was not in human power to render. About midnight, loud screams and three tremendous crashes were distinctly hoard, and shortly after ail was silent: at day-light, the ship was observed to be in three separate pieces, and all on board perished, except David Bruce, seaman, who, with great difficulty, got on shore almost lifeless.
“On the 2d May, forty-seven men and boys deserted us, after plundering every trunk that was washed on shore: the remaining part of the survivors hauled the boats up, and began to repair them in the best manner they could; sails were made from two studding-sails, which were providentially thrown into our possession; a cask of flour was converted into dough, and every preparation began for proceeding to Quebec. On the 3d, a Canadian boat passing near us, was detained, and from the information given by her crew, Captain Galloway decided upon proceeding to Gaspee Bay. With the assistance of the Canadians’ cooking utensils, all the pork that could be found was dressed; and on the 6th, the weather having moderated, the boats were launched, and all hands embarked – the total number 85, including two women. The wind was light, but favorable; and with the help of our oars, we got to Great Fox River that night, where we were hospitably entertained with potatoes in an Indian hut. Next morning we sailed for Gaspee Bay, and in the evening reached Douglas Town. ​After resting a few days, we walked nine miles over the ice, to where three transports lay, leaving the sick behind. Captain Galloway hoisted his pendant on board one of the transports, and divided the officers and men equally amongst the three. In seven days afterwards, the state of the ice enabled us to drop down to Douglas Town, when we found that one of the sick had died and two deserted. On the 23d, we arrived at Quebec, up to which time many of us had not had a change of clothes of any description. Many of the men had been frost-bitten in the feet and hands; some have lost their toes, and ten have been in consequence left behind at the hospital.”
On the 24th July, 1815, a court-martial, assembled at Portsmouth, decided that the loss of the Penelope was occasioned principally by the state of the weather, and the set of the current: that Mr. William Honnor, the master, was not sufficiently attentive to the situation of the ship a short time previous to her running ashore, and did adjudge him to be placed at the bottom of the list: that due attention was not paid by Captain Galloway and the first lieutenant (B. Hooper), to the safety of the ship’s company, by their neglecting to make proper arrangements for getting them on shore; and that great blame was therefore also imputable to the said Captain Galloway and the first lieutenant. The Court thereupon adjudged Captain Galloway, in consideration of his having been afflicted with rheumatism, to be only reprimanded ; Lieutenant Hooper to be severely reprimanded; and that no blame was imputable to the other officers and ship’s company, except Walter Howell, who for drunkenness, disobedience of orders, mutiny, and desertion, was sentenced to receive five hundred lashes. Captain Galloway obtained the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital in Feb. 1830.