Orders, Decorations and Medals

A particularly fine Naval General Service Medal 1793-1840 awarded to Captain G. Cheyne, Royal Navy, who, having been taken prisoner following the Seagull’s ‘glorious resistance of 2 hours and 30 minutes’ against a far superior Danish flotilla off Norway in June 1808, was ‘employed with the Army under the Duke of Wellington near Bayonne’ in February-August 1814 - but only after he had managed to pass ‘the fearful bar of the Adour in an open boat with five men’, an example of ‘dashing intrepidity’ that won the admiration of his Admiral

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Algiers (George Cheyne, Lieut., R.N.) edge nicks, better than very fine £2000-2500

George Cheyne was baptized at St. Andrew’s Church, Edinburgh in March 1788 and entered the Royal Navy as a Midshipman in the Texel in October 1804. Removing to the Seagull of 16 guns and 94 men, as Master’s Mate, under Commander Robert Cathcart, in September 1805, he was subsequently present at her loss off Norway:

‘The latter vessel was captured off the coast of Norway 19 June 1808, by a powerful Danish force, consisting of the Lougen, of 20 guns and 160 men, and of six gunboats, all heavily armed and manned, after a glorious resistance of two hours and 30 minutes, in which she lost eight men killed and 20 wounded, and was reduced to a sinking state. Mr. Cheyne was, with the rest of his shipmates, taken prisoner and confined until the following October’ (O’Byrne refers).

A rather more informative account of this action, namely the official report submitted by Commander Cathcart, was published in the London Gazette of 17-20 September 1808:

‘I beg leave to acquaint you, that in His Majesty’s sloop Seagull, under my command, yesterday at 2 p.m., off Norway bearing W.N.W. seven or eight leagues, I discovered a brig inshore running to the eastward, and immediately made all sail in chase of her; at half-past four we came within gunshot and hoisted our Colours, which she answered by hoisting Danish Colours and opening fire on the starboard side. At this time it became nearly calm from a fresh breeze we had at W.S.W. and which obliged us to get our sweeps out, in order to get between her and the shore. At five we got within musket-shot of the enemy and commenced action; having now most of our sweeps shot away and a great part of the rigging. At twenty minutes past five we discovered several gunboats coming towards us, which had been concealed behind the rocks; and it being perfect calm, they had every advantage they could with in placing them. They took their position on each quarter, raking us every shot, while the brig had the same advantage on the larboard bow. At half-past six five of our carronades were dismounted on the larboard side (the only side we could bring to bear on the enemy), and several of the officers and crew killed or wounded. Every method was used to get the Seagull round, so as to bring the starboard guns to bear, but without effect; with our sweeps being all shot away, the gunboats hulling us every shot they fired, five feet of water in the hold, and all our sails and rigging cut to pieces, at half-past seven, from the sinking state of the ship, and also the great slaughter made by the gunboats, I considered it an indispensable duty for the preservation of the surviving officers and crew, to order the Colours to be hauled down. I have the satisfaction to acquaint you, there was scarcely sufficient time to remove the wounded out of the Seagull before she sunk. The force opposed to her was the danish brig of war Lougen, mounting 20 guns (18 long-18-pounders and two long-6-pounders); six gunboats, most of them carrying two 20-pounders and from 50 to 70 men each. The action was fought close to the mouth of the harbour of Christiansand.

I cannot speak in terms adequate to the defence of every officer and man under my command on this trying occasion. I received that support from Mr. Hatton, the First Lieutenant, I had every reason to expect from his general good conduct; and the officers and crew have my warmfelt thanks for their cool and steady behaviour; and I consider it a duty I owe them, to add, that never was more British valour displayed than on this occasion, although opposed to so very superior a force.

The enemy must have suffered very considerably, but I have not been able to ascertain to what extent. Several of the Danes perished on board the Seagull, so precipitately did she go down; I herewith send to you a list of the killed and wounded on board the said sloop.’

Following his release in October 1808, Cheyne joined the Nightingale, under Captain William Wilkinson, while his subsequent appointments in the Ganymede (1809-10) and Alexandria (1810-11) were under his old C.O., Robert Cathcart, the whole on the Home or Baltic Stations; so, too, his time in the Victory under Sir James Saumarez (1812). Advanced to Lieutenant in the Defiance in December 1813, he removed in the same month to the Porcupine, under Captain John Coode and, in February 1814, to the sloop Woodlark. And it was in this latter capacity, using a Spanish boat ‘destined to assist the operations of the Army under Marquess of Wellington’, that he made his courageous crossing of the ‘fearful bar’ of the Adour (Rear-Admiral Penrose’s despatch, as per London Gazette 15 March 1814, refers). Those duties discharged, Cheyne joined the Queen in the Mediterranean that September, prior to removing to another command of John Coode, the Albion, in December 1815, and in her was present at the bombardment of Algiers.

Cheyne came ashore when the Albion was paid-off in May 1819, was advanced to Commander that August and, on half-pay, to post-rank in April 1832.