Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Hebrus with L’Etoile (Gerard Highton.) edge bruise and overall wear, therefore nearly very fine £4000-5000

Provenance: Turl Collection 2010.

Approximately 40 clasps issued for ‘Hebrus with L’Etoile’. Gerard Highton is confirmed as a Corporal, Royal Marines, on board the Hebrus 38, at the capture of the French 44-gun frigate L’Etoile, off Cape La Hogue, near the island of Alderney.

In January 1814, the French frigates L’Etoile and La Sultane being on a cruise near the Cape Verde Islands, met with the British frigates Astraea and Creole, with which they fought a severe but drawn action. The French made sail away, their opponents being too much disabled in their rigging to follow. On 26 March, as they were nearing the coast of France, they fell in with the British ships Hannibal 74, Captain Sir Michael Seymour, Hebrus 38, Captain Edmund Palmer, and Sparrow 16, Captain Lock. The British immediately chased, and the Hannibal coming up with La Sultane she surrendered.

After a chase of one hundred and twenty miles on the morning of the 27th, the Hebrus brought L’Etoile to action near Cape La Hogue, and to prevent her escape passed between her and the shore, within musket shot of the land. The engagement lasted two hours and a quarter, when L’Etoile, her mizen mast shot away, her hull much shattered, and four feet of water in her hold, struck her colours. Of her crew of three hundred and twenty men, forty were killed and over seventy wounded, many of whom died the next day. The Hebrus lost her fore topmast and fore yard, and all her masts were shot through, but her killed and wounded together were less than forty. The action was fought within range of a battery on shore, which, on the surrender of L’Etoile opened a heavy fire. on her and her conqueror.

Captain Palmer brought his prize into Plymouth Sound on 29 March, and declined the honour of knighthood which was offered him as a reward for his services. He did, however, receive a Captain’s Gold Medal, the penultimate such award of the war, and was made a Companion of the Bath in 1815.

Gerard Highton was born at Laigh, Lancaster, and attested for the Royal Marines at Hull on 18 April 1808, aged 21. He was discharged from the Royal Marines on 13 June 1815, on reduction of the Corps.