The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-12 00:00:00

NAV 44. L INTELLIGENCE.

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PORTSMOUTH, JaN. 11.
The Simoom, 18, iron troop-ship, Captain Smith, dis-
embarked the first battalion of the rifle brigade at the
dockyard this morning. The band of the second bat-
talion, the 35th and 79th regiments, played them to the
railway station at Landport, where a special train was
in waiting to convey them to Dover.
The Serpent, 12, Commander Lambert (acting), was
inspected this morning by the Commander-in-Chief,
Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, K.C.8., at Spithead.
She will be paid off at this port.
The Apollo storeship arrived at Spithead
.this morn-
ing from Sheerness.
The Banshee steamvessel, Lieutenant-Commander
Reynolds, went out to Spithead again this afternoon to
receive orders. She has replenished with fuel, and her
crew have been paid Wages.
ipirn
ge,lh,
Thec
and Fairy Royal steam yacht, Master-Commander
was removed from the steam basin this morn-
placed in No. 7 dock, to allow of the factory
artizans working upon her bottom.
The Oberon and Echo steamvessels were placed in the
steam basin this morning, the latter to undergo a tho-
rough repair.
steam tu went out this morning to render
assirishteanFciegTol the Manageuvrer, naval ligiter, which got
ashore off Langstone Harbour.

WOOLWICH, JAL 1'
APPOINTMENTS.

Lieutenant Alleyne Bland (1845), to the Pique, 40,
atD
g_Master Frederick B. Youel (Second-Master,
evonport.
A ctin
1846), to the Racehorse, 14, sloop, at Devonport.
Rear-Admiral Hon. Richard Saunders flundas, C. 8.,
one of the Lords of the Admiralty, arrived at 11 o'clock
a.m. to-day at the barracks of the Woolwich division of
the Royal Marines, and was received by Colonel Ellis,
C. 8., commandant of the division, with the officers and
the non-commissioned officers and men drawn up in line.
After a short inspection of the corps, the gallant admi-
ral proceeded to the staff-officer's to inspect the books
and accounts of the division.
The Medea 'paddle-wheel steam-sloop, Commander
Augustus Phillimore, arrived at Woolwich to-day, and
is to be taken into dock at this port to have the injuries
she recently sustained repaired, and be again made ready
for sea.

CAPTAIN -UMFREVILLE'S SERVICES.
The following is O'Byrne's account of the services of
Captain Umfreville, whose promotion to the reserved
half-pay list we announced in yesterday's Sun :
" Samuel Charles Umfreville was born Bth of June,
1794. This officer entered the navy, 10th January,
1805, as 2d class boy, on board the Malta, 84, Cap-
tains Edward Buller and W. Shields ; and on 22d July
following was present in Sir Robert Calder's action
HACKNEY CAB TRADE.—Last night a meeting of the ! with the combined fleets of France and Spain off Cape
proprietors of hackney cabs was held at their usual Finisterre. He sailed afterwards for the Mediterra-
place of meeting, the Cranbourne Hotel. When the ' nean, where be served chiefly at the blockade of Tou-
proceedings were about to commence, the managers of lon, until transferred, in August, 1808, as midship-
the meeting, having consulted for some time, announced , man (a rating he had attained in August, 1806) to
to the reporters present that one of the objects of the the Montagu, 74, Captains Richard Hussey Moubray
meeting was to consider the propriety of appealing to and John Halliday. While in that ship he was
the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the abolition of the frequently engaged in boat skirmishing with the
cab license duty, as the existing scale of fares, based on enemy, and was afforded an opportunity of assisting,
the calculation of oats not rising beyond 20s. per quay- jin April, 1810, at the reduction of Santa Maura. On
ter, was not, in the present state of the fodder market, I his return to England in May, 1811, he joined, as a
sufficiently remunerative ; but that, as they were in supernumerary, the Aquilon, 32, Capt. William Bowles,.
themselves a very irregular body, they suspected their at Sheerness ; he passed his examination in the en-
proceedings [night 1)0 found to partakc I itc same cha- suing uiy ; and in September of the ~arno year he wailranter, and be prejudicial to them if reported. Under received ou board the Atudia of 48 guns, Captain lion.
circumstances, they said they had to request the repre- i Fred. Paul Irby. Proceeding in her, as master's mate,
"011tatiTie of the press to withdraw. (to the coast of Aldo*, lie there, in July, 1842, witnessed

the destruction of the town of Winnebah ; the natives
at which place had treacherously seized and murdered
the governor of a fort by which they had been often
themselves protected, and which the British simulta-
neously demolished. On 7th Feb., 1813, at 7h.45 m.
p.m., being off the Iles de Los, the Amelia, with
an emaciated crew on board of 300 men, came to close
action with a French frigate, L'Arethuse,* of 44 guns
(24-pounders on her main deck) and 340 men in the full
vigour of health ; and maintained it with an interval
until 11 h. 21 m. ; when the combatants separated, the
enemy with a loss of 105 men killed and wounded, the
British of 141 killed and wounded. After the conflict
had been raging for about two hours, Captain Irby
having been obliged by a severe wound in the elbow to
quit the deck, the first and second lieutenants being
killed, and the crew falling fast, it was recommended by
the master and the third lieutenant, as the Ameba's fire
too had at the moment ceased, that her colours should
be hauled down. Scarcely had this suggestion been
made to the captain, when the third lieutenant, in as-
cending the quarter-deck ladder, was himself added to
the number of the slain. Just then Captain Irby, with
his arm in a sling, came on deck, and mentioned the ad-
vice he had received—advice which was at the same time
repeated by the master, who stated that a fresh ship was
in sight, coming up on the Amelia's lee-quarter, and
that a renewal of the fight would but involve a useless
sacrifice of life. At this juncture Mr. Umfreville stepping
forward, promised that if the captain would allow him
again to man the guns and resume the action, the ship
should never strike, but should go down first.' Being
told by Captain Irby to do his best, he set to work ac-
cordingly, and had the honour of fighting L'Ar6thuse
for upwards of an hour, until indeed*: at the time above
stated, the enemy, in the words of the official letter,
bore up.' Although he was thus the means of support-
ing the credit of the British flag' and of preserving to the
navy one of its finest frigates,± Mr. Umfreville's gallant
conduct was not, that we are aware (and as it assuredly
ought to have been), reported ; nor was he alluded to
in his captain's narrative, in other terms than as a de-
serving and valuable officer.'l: He continued in com-
mand, as acting lieutenant, of the Amelia (deducting a
few days that it was held by Lieut. Reeve, an officer in-
valided from the Kangaroo sloop) until she arrived at
Spithead, 221 March, 1813. On the 25th of that month,
as he had been the only passed midshipman in the action
he was officially promoted. His next appointment was,
14th March, 1814, to the Fly, 16, Captains Sir William
George Parker and John Baldwin ; in which vessel we
find him, 18th July, 1815, present, in company with a
squadron under the orders of Captain Charles Maleolin,
at the cutting-out, from the harbour of Corrijou, near
A.bervrach, on the coast of Bretagne, of an armed cutter,
a praam brig, and a gun-vessel, together with a convoy
reposing under the protection of a fort. which was
stormed and carried. He left the fly 14th March, 1816 ;
and, with the exception of a few months, was afterwards,
from Bth Feb., 1821, until advanced for his services to
the rank hi now holds, 29th Jan., 1838, employed either
in command of a station in the Coast Guard, or of the
Mermaid and Eagle§ revenue vessels ; and from 10th
Nov., in the latter year until 1848, again, as an inspect-
ing commander in the Coast Guard.
" Commander U'infreville married, in Feb., 1817,
Miss Jane Clark, of Kingsand, Devon, the niece of a
anous government pilot at that place, by whom he has
ssue two sons and six daughters."

* L'Arethuse had been observed, the evening previously,
to be in company with Le Rubio, a ship of similar force.
t The Amelia had on board a quantity of ivory and gold-
dust on merchants' account.
1: Vide Gazette, 1813, p. 583.
§ He commanded the Eagle from the 18th of March,
1834, until March, 1837.

SHEERNESS, JAN. 9.

- -
COURT-MARTIAL ON AN UNLICENSED PILOT. —THE
MEDEA, 6, PADDEE-WHEEL STEAM-SLOOP, COMMANDER
AUGUSTUS PIIILLIMORE.—The Queen's pilot residing at
Deal (Mr. Richard Lambert), who had charge of the
sloop from the Downs for Hull, and afterwards to this
port (the sloop being ordered here in consequence of her
having been on shore), has this day been tried by a court
martial on board her Majesty's ship Waterloo, 121, flag
ship at the Note. Captain-Superintendent Hope, of her
Majesty's ship Monarch, 84, guard-ship in ordinary,
presided. After hearing the evidence, the Court adjudged
the following sentence :—" The Court are of opinion
that the accident happened owing to the prisoner mis-
judging the distance he was from the Lights ; and,
taking into consideration the very high testimonials he
has produced, and the favourable statement given by
the witnesses before the Court, they recommend him to
be more cautious for the future, and they hereby repri-
mand and admonish him, and he is hereby reprimanded
and admonished accordingly." The Medea will leave
here to-morrow for Woolwich, to be docked there instead
of at this yard.