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Action at Grabusa

31st January 1828
Part of : Greek War of Independence (1821 - 1830)
Previous action : Battle of Navarino 20.10.1827

 

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

 
Allied Squadron,
Sir Thomas StainesBritish
Naval Sailor
Service 1789-1825
Ship NameCommanderNotes
Isis (50) 1819-1867
British 50 Gun
4th Rate Ship
 Fleet Flagship
Cambrian (40) 1797-1828
British 40 Gun
5th Rate Frigate
Gawen William HamiltonBritish
Naval Sailor
Service 1807-1828
Sunk
Zebra (16) 1815-1840
British 16 Gun
Unrated Sloop
Charles CottonBritish
Naval Sailor
Service 1824-1828
Cameleon (10) 1816-1849
British 10 Gun
Unrated Brig-Corvette
Christopher WyvillBritish
Naval Sailor
Service 1754-1856
  Sunk
 

Notes on Action


DescriptionTRN6
On January 31st, 1828, by the Commander-in-Chief's direction, Commodore Sir Thomas Staines, K.C.B., in the Isis, 50, anchored off Grabusa, with the Cambrian, 48, Captain Gawen William Hamilton, Rattlesnake, 28, Captain the Hon. Charles Orlando Bridgman, Zebra, 18, Commander Charles Cotton (2), Cameleon, 10, and two French corvettes, and found 14 Greek vessels lying in the port, with an Austrian ship, and an Ionian merchantman, their prizes. Staines demanded the surrender of all these, and, receiving no satisfactory reply, fired into, and destroyed most of them. There was no resistance. Unfortunately, while the British ships were retiring, the Isis and the Cambrian fouled one another in the narrow channel; and the latter, paying off on the wrong tack, presently fell broadside on to a reef of rocks, where she was lost. Her people were saved; but Commander Cotton, of the Zebra, exerted himself so violently and continuously on the occasion as to bring on brain fever, from which he died. The court-martial fully exonerated Captain Hamilton.

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