Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The N.G.S. medal to Lieutenant William Ryder, Royal Navy, who served in a rocket boat at the bombardment of Stonington in August 1814

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Algiers (W. Ryder, Master’s Mate) good very fine £1400-1800

William Ryder entered the Royal Navy on 2 July 1808 as First Class Volunteer on board the Narcissus 32. In April 1809 he served on shore at the capture of the Saintes. In 1810 he was actively employed in co-operation with the patriots on the north coast of Spain. He landed with a detachment of seamen and marines under Captain Aylmer and had several skirmishes with the enemies troops in the neighbourhood of Santona. He was also for some time engaged on the coast of Labrador and off Greenland in affording protection to the fur-trade and to the whale fisheries. In March 1812 he was removed to the Salvador Del Mundo, lying at Plymouth; he again in July of the same year joined the Narcissus and from the following September until the receipt of his commission, dated 16 September 1816, he served on the Cork, Lisbon, Baltic, Channel, North American and Mediterranean stations, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, in the Alfred 74, Ulysses 44, Pactolus 38, and Severn 40.

In 1813 he was employed in the Ulysses in escorting convoys through the Belts, and came often in her boats in contact with Danish gun-vessels. While Master’s Mate in 1814-15, of the Pactolus, he served in a rocket boat at the bombardment of Stonington, took part in other operations on the coast of North America, and accompanied a highly successful expedition sent to the Gironde in support of the French King. For his conduct in the Severn at Algiers he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Between 1825 and 1831 he held command of different stations in the Coast Guard. From 1831-34 he was employed as an Agent on board the Hope transport in conveying stores and troops to the North Seas, the coast of Portugal and the Mediterranean until his health obliged him to retire. Lieutenant William Ryder died on 19 March 1865.

In August 1814 a squadron of Royal Navy ships led by Trafalgar veteran Captain Thomas Hardy attacked the tiny Connecticut seaport of Stonington. Over the course of four days they barraged the nearly defenseless civilian population with some fifty tons of explosives, but then mysteriously weighed anchor and sailed away. Sold with a copy of James Tertius de Kay’s The Battle of Stonington - Torpedoes, Submarines and Rockets in the War of 1812.