Sir Robert Laurie, 6th Baronet
Encyclopedia
Sir Robert Laurie, 6th Baronet KCB
(25 May 1764 – 7 January 1848) was an officer of the Royal Navy
who served during the French Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars
. He rose through the ranks after his entry, fighting as a lieutenant under Howe
at the Glorious First of June
, and being wounded in the action. Shortly after he served in the West Indies and off the American coast, where he operated successfully against enemy raiders and privateers, he was rewarded with the command of the frigate , and in 1805 fought an action with a superior French opponent, Ville de Milan. He was forced to surrender his ship after several hours of fighting, but so heavily damaged the Frenchman that both she and the captured British vessel were taken shortly afterwards when another British frigate , arrived on the scene. Rewarded for his valour and honourably acquitted for the loss of his ship, he served throughout the rest of the Napoleonic Wars. He rose to flag rank after the end of the wars, eventually dying in 1848 with the rank of Admiral of the White
. He inherited a baronetcy in 1804, but this became extinct upon his death.
before being promoted to lieutenant in 1790. He was a lieutenant aboard the 90-gun second rate and fought in the Glorious First of June
in 1794, during which action he was wounded.
. He served in the North Sea
before being ordered to the Leeward Islands
towards the end of 1796. While sailing there he came across the 12-gun privateer
Refléche and captured her on 8 January 1797. He went on to take part in the reduction of Trinidad
in February 1797, making several other captures of privateers during the rest of the year; the 4-gun Vengeur des Français on 16 June, the 6-gun Légère on 6 July and the 2-gun Va-Tout on 8 July. On 17 July 1798 Laurie received a promotion to post-captain
.
He was removed into in 1799 and spent the next several years serving on the North American and Jamaica stations. He took a Spanish gunboat
off Cuba
on 22 March 1801 in company with the 32-gun , and after a spell in the Bahamas in 1803, returned to the English Channel
in 1804. Laurie then transferred to take command of the Cleopatra in summer 1804. Laurie succeeded to the baronetcy on 10 September 1804 with the death of his father, the fifth baronet. Cleopatra spent some time in the West Indies, and was homeward bound in February 1805.
on 16 February Cleopatra sighted a sail; this was the 40-gun French frigate Ville de Milan
which had sailed from Martinique
on 28 January under Captain Jean-Marie Renaud, bound for France with important despatches. Despite identifying his quarry as a superior opponent, Laurie ordered a chase. Renaud had orders to avoid combat and pressed on sail to escape Laurie. The chase covered 180 miles and lasted until the following morning, when Renaud reluctantly came about to meet the Cleopatra, which was overhauling the Ville de Milan. The engagement began in earnest at 2.30pm, and a heavy cannonade was maintained between the two frigates until 5pm, when the Cleopatra had her wheel shot away and her rudder jammed. The Ville de Milan approached from windward and ran aboard the Cleopatra, jamming her bowsprit over the quarterdeck of the British ship and raked her decks with musket fire. The British resisted one attempt to board, but on being unable to break free, were forced to surrender to a second boarding party. The Cleopatra had 22 killed and 36 wounded, with the loss of her foremast, mainmast and bowsprit. The Ville de Milan had probably about 30 killed and wounded, with Captain Renaud among the dead. She also lost her mainmast and mizzenmast. Three days were spent transferring a prize crew and prisoners, and patching up the ships, before the two got underway on 21 February.
However on 23 February they were discovered by the 50-gun , under Captain John Talbot
. Leander ran up to them, whereupon they separated. Talbot chased Cleopatra, brought her to with a shot and took possession. The freed crew reported the situation to Talbot, and left him to pursue the fleeing Ville de Milan. Talbot soon overtook her and she surrendered without a fight. Laurie took back command of the Celopatra and all three ships sailed to Halifax, where the Ville de Milan was taken into service as HMS Milan. Laurie's engagement with the superior opponent had initially cost him his ship, but had rendered her easy prey to any other Royal Navy frigate in the vicinity. Had he not brought her to battle, the Ville de Milan could have easily outsailed the Leander or even engaged her on fairly equal terms. Instead the damage and losses incurred in breaking down the Cleopatra had left her helpless to resist.
A court-martial
honourably acquitted Laurie of any blame for the loss of his ship, and the Patriotic Fund presented him with a 100-guinea sword 'as a well-merited compliment to his great bravery and skill'. Laurie was duly appointed to command the Milan. He was then appointed to command the 74-gun third rate towards the end of 1811, and spent the rest of the war in the Mediterranean.
in 1836. He died unmarried with the rank of Admiral of the White on 7 January 1848 at his seat of Maxwelton House, Dumfriesshire
. He had no issue, and the baronetcy became extinct upon his death.
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(25 May 1764 – 7 January 1848) was an officer of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
who served during the French Revolutionary
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. He rose through the ranks after his entry, fighting as a lieutenant under Howe
Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe
Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe KG was a British naval officer, notable in particular for his service during the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars. He was the brother of William Howe and George Howe.Howe joined the navy at the age of thirteen and served...
at the Glorious First of June
Glorious First of June
The Glorious First of June [Note A] of 1794 was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars...
, and being wounded in the action. Shortly after he served in the West Indies and off the American coast, where he operated successfully against enemy raiders and privateers, he was rewarded with the command of the frigate , and in 1805 fought an action with a superior French opponent, Ville de Milan. He was forced to surrender his ship after several hours of fighting, but so heavily damaged the Frenchman that both she and the captured British vessel were taken shortly afterwards when another British frigate , arrived on the scene. Rewarded for his valour and honourably acquitted for the loss of his ship, he served throughout the rest of the Napoleonic Wars. He rose to flag rank after the end of the wars, eventually dying in 1848 with the rank of Admiral of the White
Admiral (United Kingdom)
Admiral is a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-9, outranked only by the rank Admiral of the Fleet...
. He inherited a baronetcy in 1804, but this became extinct upon his death.
Family and early life
Robert Laurie was born on 25 May 1764, the son of Sir Robert Laurie and his wife Mary Elizabeth Ruthven. He entered the navy in 1780, spending 10 years as midshipmanMidshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
before being promoted to lieutenant in 1790. He was a lieutenant aboard the 90-gun second rate and fought in the Glorious First of June
Glorious First of June
The Glorious First of June [Note A] of 1794 was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars...
in 1794, during which action he was wounded.
Command
He received a promotion in June the following year, rising to the rank of commander and being given the sloopSloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
. He served in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
before being ordered to the Leeward Islands
Leeward Islands
The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...
towards the end of 1796. While sailing there he came across the 12-gun privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
Refléche and captured her on 8 January 1797. He went on to take part in the reduction of Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
in February 1797, making several other captures of privateers during the rest of the year; the 4-gun Vengeur des Français on 16 June, the 6-gun Légère on 6 July and the 2-gun Va-Tout on 8 July. On 17 July 1798 Laurie received a promotion to post-captain
Post-Captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy.The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:...
.
He was removed into in 1799 and spent the next several years serving on the North American and Jamaica stations. He took a Spanish gunboat
Gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...
off Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
on 22 March 1801 in company with the 32-gun , and after a spell in the Bahamas in 1803, returned to the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
in 1804. Laurie then transferred to take command of the Cleopatra in summer 1804. Laurie succeeded to the baronetcy on 10 September 1804 with the death of his father, the fifth baronet. Cleopatra spent some time in the West Indies, and was homeward bound in February 1805.
Fighting the Ville de Milan
While sailing off BermudaBermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
on 16 February Cleopatra sighted a sail; this was the 40-gun French frigate Ville de Milan
HMS Milan (1805)
HMS Milan was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had previously been the Ville de Milan, a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, but served for only a year before being chased down and engaged by the smaller 32-gun frigate...
which had sailed from Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
on 28 January under Captain Jean-Marie Renaud, bound for France with important despatches. Despite identifying his quarry as a superior opponent, Laurie ordered a chase. Renaud had orders to avoid combat and pressed on sail to escape Laurie. The chase covered 180 miles and lasted until the following morning, when Renaud reluctantly came about to meet the Cleopatra, which was overhauling the Ville de Milan. The engagement began in earnest at 2.30pm, and a heavy cannonade was maintained between the two frigates until 5pm, when the Cleopatra had her wheel shot away and her rudder jammed. The Ville de Milan approached from windward and ran aboard the Cleopatra, jamming her bowsprit over the quarterdeck of the British ship and raked her decks with musket fire. The British resisted one attempt to board, but on being unable to break free, were forced to surrender to a second boarding party. The Cleopatra had 22 killed and 36 wounded, with the loss of her foremast, mainmast and bowsprit. The Ville de Milan had probably about 30 killed and wounded, with Captain Renaud among the dead. She also lost her mainmast and mizzenmast. Three days were spent transferring a prize crew and prisoners, and patching up the ships, before the two got underway on 21 February.
John Talbot (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Sir John Talbot, GCB was a senior British Royal Navy officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was engaged in several prominent single ship actions, all of which were successful...
. Leander ran up to them, whereupon they separated. Talbot chased Cleopatra, brought her to with a shot and took possession. The freed crew reported the situation to Talbot, and left him to pursue the fleeing Ville de Milan. Talbot soon overtook her and she surrendered without a fight. Laurie took back command of the Celopatra and all three ships sailed to Halifax, where the Ville de Milan was taken into service as HMS Milan. Laurie's engagement with the superior opponent had initially cost him his ship, but had rendered her easy prey to any other Royal Navy frigate in the vicinity. Had he not brought her to battle, the Ville de Milan could have easily outsailed the Leander or even engaged her on fairly equal terms. Instead the damage and losses incurred in breaking down the Cleopatra had left her helpless to resist.
A court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
honourably acquitted Laurie of any blame for the loss of his ship, and the Patriotic Fund presented him with a 100-guinea sword 'as a well-merited compliment to his great bravery and skill'. Laurie was duly appointed to command the Milan. He was then appointed to command the 74-gun third rate towards the end of 1811, and spent the rest of the war in the Mediterranean.
Later life
Laurie was promoted to rear-admiral on 19 July 1821, vice-admiral on 10 January 1837 and a full admiral on 9 November 1846. He was nominated a Knight Commander of the BathOrder of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
in 1836. He died unmarried with the rank of Admiral of the White on 7 January 1848 at his seat of Maxwelton House, Dumfriesshire
Dumfriesshire
Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries is a registration county of Scotland. The lieutenancy area of Dumfries has similar boundaries.Until 1975 it was a county. Its county town was Dumfries...
. He had no issue, and the baronetcy became extinct upon his death.