Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (S. Hope, Commr) suspension mount slightly bent, severe edge bruising, nearly very fine £800-£1,200

Sackett Hope served as Commander with H.M.S. Revenge during the operations on and off the coast of Syria in 1840.

Sackett Hope was from a naval family, with his brother J. M. Hope employed as a Paymaster and Purser, and his other brother Lieutenant T. Hope who was lost with all hands when his command H.M.S. Pincher sank whilst working into Spithead in 1838.

Hope entered the Royal Navy as a First Class Volunteer in November 1814, and served with H.M.S. Icarus, ‘which vessel, after serving in the Channel escorted Napoleon Buonaparte to St. Helena and was then sent with despatches to the Isle of France and Calcutta. On joining the Liverpool... he accompanied an expedition sent, in 1819, against pirates of the Persian Gulf, where he assisted at the bombardment and destruction of Ras-al-Khyma, their principal stronghold, and was very actively employed both in the gun-boats and on shore. After visiting China and various parts of India, and passing through scenes of great mortality, he returned to England in 1822 on board the Ganges a new teak-built ship.

Having passed his examination in November of the previous year, he was then appointed Mate of the Gloucester, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Edward W. C. R. Owen in the West Indies, on which station we find him cruising in a tender, off the island of Cuba, for the suppression of piracy and of the slave-trade. On his arrival home, Mr. Hope attended the Duke of Clarence on a summer cruise in the Royal Sovereign yacht... and went with the Lords of the Admiralty on a visit of inspection to Plymouth.’ (O’Byrne refers)

Hope was next employed in the suppression of smuggling with H.M.S. Brisk in the North Sea and the Channel. He returned to the West Indies, and between 1825-1826, served with the Ferret and the Scylla. In ‘the boats of the former vessel he once assisted in taking a slaver; and he was in her at a period of so much sickness that 12 out of 75 were all who were enabled to remain on board.’ (Ibid)

Hope served as First Lieutenant of the Ferret before being appointed in the same rank to H.M.S. Arachne in May 1828. He returned to the UK in 1832, before being employed in the Mediterranean station, ‘in April 1833, Lieut. Hope took command of the boats of the Beacon, manned by 36 officers and men, and of a gun-boat with 5 Turks on board, and contrived to effect the capture, near the island of Thasos, not, however, without opposition, of about 140 out of a notorious band of 200 armed pirates, who had become the terror of the Grecian Archipelago. Prize was at the same time made of seven of their vessels. In consequence of the detention of Capt. Copeland at Malta from ill health, Lieut. Hope, in the spring of 1836, was entrusted with the duty of navigating the Beacon to England. On his arrival he was immediately ordered to Greenock to volunteer men for the fleet. After that service had been accomplished he was paid off 4 June, 1836; and on the next day he received instructions to recommission the Beacon. On his removal, as above, to the Inconstant, we find him employed in experimentally cruising, also in performing Particular Service, and in carrying troops to North America. In December 1838, having attained the rank of Commander on 28 of the previous June, he went on half-pay, on which he continued until appointed, 10 May 1839, Second Captain of the Revenge. In that ship he was at first stationed off Lisbon, and then sent to the Mediterranean, where he partook of the operations on the coast of Syria, and was present at the bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre. He was in consequence advanced to Post-rank 4 November 1840; and, since January 1841, when he left the Revenge, has been on half-pay.

Captain Hope is in receipt of a pension of 6l per annum for a very severe injury he sustained in the left hand, attended with the loss of a finger, while endeavouring, H.M.S. Liverpool, to clear a seaman, who by some accident had been jammed.’ (Ibid)