Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Comus 15 Augt 1807 (William Finley.) toned, nearly very fine and rare £14,000-£18,000

Provenance: Hayward’s Gazette, August 1973.

William Finley is confirmed on the roll as an Able Seaman aboard H.M.S. Comus.

10 clasps were issued for this action with the Danish frigate Frederiksværn on 15 August 1807.

A Danish frigate having put to sea from Elsineur, on the night of August 12th, Admiral J. Gambier dispatched the Defence 74, Captain C., Ekins, and the Comus 22, Captain E. Heywood, in quest of her. On the 14th, the Comus having been ordered to make sail ahead, discovered the enemy, and about midnight got within hail of the frigate Frederiksværn 32, which refused to heave to. A warm action commenced and continued for forty-five minutes, when the Danish ship, from the disabled state of her rigging, fell on board the Comus. The moment the ships touched, a party from the Comus headed by Lieutenants Watt and Knight, boarded the Frederiksværn, and after a short resistance, carried her. Her loss was twelve men killed, and twenty wounded. The Comus received but little damage, and had but one man wounded.

Sold with extracts from Hayward’s Gazette which give detailed research on William Finley carried out by the late Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris, together with ship’s musters.