# Royal Naval Biography/Lambert, Henry

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HENRY LAMBERT, Esq. [Post-Captain of 1825.]
This gallant and lamented officer, of whom we have spoken in the preceding memoir, entered the royal navy as midshipman, under the late Admiral Robert Man; and afterwards served on board la Virginie frigate. Captain Anthony Hunt, with whom he sailed for the East Indies in the beginning of 1798. We there find him joining the Suffolk 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, who gave him his first commission, and in due time promoted him to the command of the Wilhelmina, formerly a Dutch 32-gun frigate, but then mounting only eighteen long nine pounders, two sixes, and one twelve-pounder carronade (used as a shifting gun), with a complement of 124 officers, men, and boys. In this ship he fought a very severe action with la Psyche French privateer (formerly a national frigate), mounting twenty-four long twelve-pounders, two sixes, and ten eighteen-pounder carronades, with a crew of 250 men and boys, commanded by Mons. Trogoff, who, in the eastern hemisphere, the chief scene of his exploits, bore the character of a brave, skilful, and enterprising officer. This affair took place on the 11th of April, 1804; and is thus described, by Mr. James, in the third volume of his naval history:–
“At 5-30 a.m., being on the larboard tack, the Wilhelmina passed about fifty yards to windward of the Pysché, then close hauled on the opposite tack. After a mutual broadside, accompanied on the part of the French ship by a bail to surrender, the Pysché tacked, and the Wilhelmina wore, each ship continuing to fire as her guns could be brought to bear. The plan adopted by the Psyché, of pointing every alternate gun upon the broadside at her opponent’s rigging, occasioned the Wilhelmina, from the loss of bowlines and braces, to come to the wind on the starboard tack with every sail aback. While she lay in this unmanageable state, the French ship passed under her stern, and raking the Wilhelmina, shot away the main-top-mast, badly wounded the main-yard, and did considerable damage to her rigging and sails.
“Having at length paid off and got before the wind, the Wilhelmina brought her larboard broadside to hear, and presently the Psyché evinced an intention to board her upon the quarter; but seeing that she was ​prepared to repel the attempt, the enemy put her helm hard a-starboard and sheered off, A furious cannonade was now maintained on both sides, the yard-arms nearly locking, until the Psyché, ranging a-head, crossed her opponent’s bows. In practising this manoeuvre, the Psyché brought herself in the wind; but by throwing her headsails aback, and keeping her after-yards square or shivering, the French ship paid off; not, however, until the Wilhelmina, with her starboard guns, had poured in a raking fire astern. After this, the two ships again got parallel to each other, and again engaged so closely that their yards were overhanging; when, at 7 a.m., profiting by her more perfect state aloft, and her very superior sailing, the Psyché ceased firing, crowded all the canvass she could spread, and stood away.
“Ill calculated, indeed, was the Wilhelmina for a chase. Her maintop-mast was down, her bowsprit wounded in two places, and her foremast in ten; her fore and main-yards, and her main and mizen-masts, were also wounded, and her lower rigging and all her boats more or less damaged. A Captain Wright, of the India service, was on board the Psyché during the engagement, and subsequently mentioned, that the Wilhelmina’s shot, comparatively small as they were, had reduced the privateer to nearly a sinking state; the latter, at the close of the action, having seven feet water in her hold, a circumstance that sufficiently explains the manner of its termination.”
Of 134 men and boys, including ten belonging to another ship, “the Wilhelmina had four mortally and six slightly wounded. La Psyché, according to the statement of the above officer, had her second captain and ten men slain, and her commander and thirty-two men wounded, thirteen of them mortally, and Mons. Trogoff dangerously.”
“With such a disparity of force as evidently existed against the Wilhelmina, this was an action highly honorable to the British ship. It is true that her opponent was a privateer; but the Psyché, by all accounts, was a better appointed, better manned, and better disciplined ship, than many frigates of the same force in the French navy.” Captain Lambert’s commission as commander had been confirmed by the Admiralty on the 5th April, 1803; and his gallantry on this occasion was rewarded, as it well merited, by promotion to post rank, on the 10th of April, 1805.
After quitting the Wilhelmina, la Psyché proceeded with all haste, pumping day and night, to the Isle of France, where she was purchased for the national navy, and placed under the command of Mons. Bergeret, already known to us ​as the gallant captain of la Virginie, in April, 1796. The subsequent capture of la Psyché by Captain Lambert, then commanding the St. Fiorenzo frigate, has been officially described in our memoir of his first lieutenant, now Sir Bentinck C. Doyle, (p. 346 et seq. of Suppl. Part II.) On the 9th of Mar. 1806, the commander-in-chief of the squadron on the East India station, wrote to the Admiralty as follows:
“I feel the highest gratification in having the pleasure to enclose a copy of a letter I have very recently received from Captain Henry Lambert, containing the particulars of his success in taking the French national frigate la Psyché, Captain Jacques Bergeret, preceded by a very active pursuit. The loss of men on both sides is great; but, as usual, much more so on board the enemy. I cannot help expressing myself much pleased with the animated and spirited resolution taken by Captain Lambert, for renewing the attack, which was only prevented by victory. All the trading part of his Majesty’s subjects throughout India, rejoice on the occasion of this capture, as being more apprehensive of depredations on their trade from Captain Bergeret’s abilities and activity, than from the whole remaining force of the French navy at present in these seas united.
(Signed)“Peter Rainier.”
From this period we find no particular mention of Captain Lambert until his appointment to the Iphigenia frigate, about July, 1808. The manner in which he was subsequently employed has been shewn under the head of Captain Chads; and that of his much lamented death is thus described by the surgeon of the gallantly defended Java:–
“Captain Lambert was wounded about the middle of the action, by a musket-ball fired from the main-top of the Constitution. I saw him almost immediately afterwards, and found that the ball had entered the left side under the clavicle, fracturing the first rib, splinters of which had severely lacerated the lungs. I put my finger in the wound, detached and extracted several pieces of bone; the haemorrhage was particularly trifling; his pulse became very quick and weak; the respiratory organs did not appear much affected; he said he felt no annoyance from the wound in his breast, but complained of pain extending the whole length of the spine. In a short time he became very restless, his pulse hardly perceptible, and his countenance assumed a most piteous appearance of anxious solicitude: from this state of irritability he became exhausted, and ​gradually full into a partial one of asphixia, from which I hardly expected him to recover.
“My opinion concerning the nature of his wound was now demanded of me by General Hislop and other officers; ocular demonstration too plainly convinced me that a vital part had been most dreadfully injured, not only by the hall, but by large splinters of bone; the former of which I suspected had lodged in the back, and produced that distress which he generally complained of: the inferior extremities lost their vitality; they were cold, and insensible to the touch. I had no hesitation in pronouncing it mortal.
“In the course of the night his sensitive faculties returned; he took a little nourishment, talked rationally, but the circulatory system remained exceedingly weak; and what I thought rather singular, the powers of respiration unimpeded: he slept a little towards the morning of the following day, and appeared better than I could have expected. About noon he was conveyed on board the Constitution – the task was a painful one; the sea was very high, and with difficulty we removed him from the wreck. I sent my assistant, with most of the wounded men, in the evening, and remained myself in the Java till within a few minutes of her being set on fire.
“Dec. 31st. I found Captain Lambert more animated; he slept a little the early part of the night, but was much worse next morning. We succeeded in safely landing him at St. Salvador, the 2d of January; – to the morning of the 3d he had intervals of ease, and signs of improvement, which though transitory, I several times ventured to hope would have a happy termination. He talked incoherently during the greater part of the fifth day; our unhappy situation seemed to produce reflections which existed uppermost in his disordered mind, on which he raved till he was completely exhausted: at night he became totally insensible, and fell into a disturbed slumber; the organs of respiration performed their office with difficulty; at every gasp the air issued from the wound with a peculiar noise; his pulse grew faint, and a few minutes before ten o’clock, he breathed his last sigh.
(Signed)“Thomas Cooke Jones.”
Thus terminated the brilliant career of Captain Henry Lambert. “In him,” said Lieutenant Chads, when reporting the sad event to the Admiralty, “the country has lost a most gallant and valuable officer, and myself (who have served under his command some years), the officers, and crew, a kind friend. His remains were interred on the 5th of January (1813) with military honors, in Fort St. Pedro; and it is with much satisfaction I add, that every respect was shewn on this occasion by the Conde Dos Arcas (Governor of St. Salvador), and the Portuguese in general.” At a later period, ​we find Lieutenant Chads again publicly expressing himself on this mournful subject, as follows: – “Standing before this honorable court, to answer for the loss and capture by the enemy, of H.M. late ship Java, I cannot but feel myself deeply impressed at the great responsibility that attaches to me, which cannot but affect my mind with the deepest anxiety and solicitude, increased to distress by the untimely fate, and to me the irreparable loss, of my ever-to-be-lamented commander. In this situation. Sirs, I could not bear up, did I not feel the cheering though still anxious hope that I shall, with the surviving officers and ship’s company, be considered by this honorable court, as having made every effort within the power of human exertion to defend and save His Majesty’s ship. I feel also great consolation in believing, that in the detail of the action, which I shall lay before this honorable court, the skill and determined bravery of my beloved captain, will be most conspicuous, and that in this last action of his life, although success has not crowned his exertions, his character will be unsullied and his memory honored and revered.” The following lines on Captain Lambert were written by George Wrattislaw, Esq. of Magdalen College, Oxford, in May, 1813:–
“A gentle spirit, yet a dauntless heart, “Where worth and valor claim’d an equal part; “In whom the hero, friend, and husband shone “And all the virtues mingled into one; “Whose every action spoke an honest zeal, “And foremost in his thoughts his country’s weal; “Such once was Lambert: – once the good and brave, “Now sunk, alas I in glory’s honor’d grave; “While the lone Mourner, in her widow’d state, “Bewails the sad severity of fate; “And the rough seaman wets his manly eye, “Where, cold in death, the hero’s ashes lie; “Or, as he sighing, quits the fatal shore, “Turns his last ling’ring look to ‘Salvador.’”
The subject of the foregoing sketch left four brothers, all of whom are now alive, and in His Majesty’s service, viz. – ​Robert, a Vice-Admiral; John, a Lieutenant-General and K.C.B.; Samuel, a Colonel in the Grenadier Guards; and George Robert, a Captain R.N. His only child died previous to the Java’s action.
* ↑ See Suppl. Part II. pp. 245–250.
* ↑ See Vol. I. Part I. p. 217.