Orders, Decorations and Medals

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Acre 30 May 1799 (William Swanson.) with a good length of original ribbon, dark toned, minor edge bruising, otherwise good very fine and scarce £3500-4000

A total of 40 clasps issued for ‘Acre 30 May 1799’, including 8 single clasp medals, and only 3 clasps to this ship which was not present at any other actions that qualified for a clasp to the N.G.S. medal.

William Swanson is confirmed on the rolls as an Able Seaman aboard H.M.S. Alliance at the defence of Acre.

The Alliance was formerly the Dutch frigate Alliantie, launched in Amsterdam in 1788. She was captured by H.M.S. Stag on 22 August 1795 in an action off the coast of Danish Norway and taken into the service of the Royal Navy as H.M.S. Alliance. She was commissioned as a storeship of 22 guns in December 1795. Alliance, Captain D. Wilmot, formed part of Captain Sir Thomas Troubridge’s squadron which arrived at Alexandria on 2 February 1799, and then proceeded to Acre, in Syria, where she arrived on 24 March, with orders from Troubridge to discharge her cargo and return immediately to Alexandria. However, upon her arrival, Alliance was commandeered by Sir Sydney Smith and actively employed in the defence of the town of Acre.

In April 1799 Sir Sydney Smith anchored Tigre and Theseus, one on each side of the town, so their broadsides could assist the defence. Alliance and some gun-vessels he had captured were of shallower draft and so could come in closer. In spite of the fire from the ships, gun-vessels and the ramparts, the French made repeated assaults on the town which were repelled with great gallantry. However, on 8 April, Captain Wilmot, of the Alliance, received a mortal shot through the neck as he gallantly mounted a howitzer on the breach in the wall of the town of Acre. Additionally, Alliance had three men wounded on the day before. The French pushed on their approaches until, on 9 April, the garrison, aided by a detachment of seamen and marines, made a successful sortie, and almost destroyed the works of the besiegers. The siege continued into May and on the 7th a strong body of Turkish troops arrived by sea to reinforce the beleaguered town. The French immediately launched a most furious assault in the hope of carrying the town before the reinforcements could be landed. So critical was the situation, that Sir Sydney landed his boats’ crews, and at their head, defended the breach until the arrival of the Turks, when the assailants were driven back with great slaughter. Another attack the same night being defeated, the French grenadiers refused to mount the breach again over the decaying bodies of their former comrades. All hope of success being at an end, Napoleon raised the siege on the night of 20 May, destroyed his siege train and retreated towards Egypt.