Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Baltic 1854-55 (J. F. Beckett Master H.M.S. Vulture.) contemporary engraved naming, good very fine £260-£300

James Flowers Beckett was the son of Lieutenant Flowers Beckett, R.N., and the brother of Paymaster Leonard Edward Beckett, R.N. This officer passed his examination for Second-Master 9 November 1842, and between that period and the date of his promotion to the rank of Master, 9 November 1846, served on the Home and Pacific stations in the Thunderer, 84, Captain Daniel Pring, in the Lightning, Master and Commander William Roberts, and the America, 50, Captain the Honourable John Gordon. His succeeding appointments were, 31 December 1846 to the Avon, steam surveying vessel, Lieutenant-Commanders John Richard Harward and John Bertie Cator, from which he was paid off, 5 April 1849, 17 June 1852, to the Vulture, 6-gun paddle steam frigate, in which he was actively employed in the Baltic, under Captain Frederick Henry Hastings Glasse, during the campaign of 1854, and 3 January 1855, to the Coast Guard, wherein he served at Pagham, Pevensey and Galley Hill until 1857. Mr Beckett has received the Baltic Medal (O’Byrne’s Naval Biography (1861 edition) refers).

H.M.S. Vulture was prominent during the Baltic campaign, taking part in a wide variety of operations, including the disastrous foray into the Finnish port of Gamla Carleby. The boats from Vulture and Odin made the mistake of attacking the port out of sight of their own ships, and thus without supporting gunfire. Once inside the port, the ship’s boats were met with heavy fire from Russian infantry and Finnish militia, losing 50 men killed, wounded and captured, along with a boat, a flag and a gun.

On 20 June 1854, whilst sailing to join the rest of the fleet, Vulture was struck by what was then known as an infernal, a primitive form of mine, but without loss. The following day, boats from the fleet fished up several more infernals, and both Admirals Dundas and Seymour inspected them aboard their flagships. Dundas managed to extract 9 or 10 pounds of powder from the mine he was inspecting before setting off the prussic acid and detonating the powder fuse in his face. Admiral Seymour, for his part, fired the complete charge, leaving him blind in one eye and seriously wounding several of his crew. Later Admiral Dundas admitted that his experiment had provided him with a ‘complete insight... to the method of explosion.’