Sir Edward Codrington

Posted by Brian Stephens on Wednesday 16th of April 2014 19:52

Newspaper - The Tropical Sun, July 22, 1905 p.4
BATTLE OF NAVERINO
In the year 1827 the British Admiral, Omanney, took part in the battle of Naverino, in which the English, French, and Russian ships entered the harbor of Naverino, in Greece, and annihilated the Turkish and Egyptian vessels, which were unable to to leave their moorings. The battle lasted four hours. Admiral Omanney tells this of Sir Edward Codrington, the Admiral in command. His escapes from death were marvelous. So that he might command a good view of the battle, he stood on the poop of the Asia, the most exposed part of the ship. He was talking with the master when a shot came and killed the latter at his side. A shot killed an officer of the marines who was on the quarter deck just below the poop. The Admiral left the poop only once to go forward to talk to the boatswain, and while talking to him the boatswain was also killed at his side. A bullet went through his hat, in which it made two holes and another bullet went through his loose coat sleeve. Another bullet smashed his gold watch. When on the poop he stooped his head under a rolled awning, and while bent like that a shot passed through the awnings folds. At another time he had just turned from a spot on the poop where the place he had been standing was covered with wreckage from aloft, which would have crushed and buried him and yet through out the battle, when men were being slain and wounded everywhere around him, Codrington escaped uninjured.