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Auction: 1025 - The Turl Collection of Naval General Service Medals 1793 - 1840
Lot: 43

The Scarce ´Victorious and Rivoli´ N.G.S. to Francis Rich, Who Was Wounded in the Epic Four and a Half Hour Running Battle With the French 74 Gun Rivoli in the Adriatic, When 140 Men Were Killed and Wounded in the British Ship and Over 400 in the Rivoli. The Frenchman Who Received a Helpful Double Broadside from H.M.S. Weazel Towards the Battle´s End, Was Escorted into Port St. George, With Her Mizzen Mast Shot Away and Her Hull Shot to Pieces Naval General Service 1793-1840, one clasp, Victorious With Rivoli (Francis Rich.), nearly extremely fine Estimate £ 5,500-6,000 Francis Rich served as Carpenter´s Crew in H.M.S. Victorious during the action in conjunction with H.M.S. Weazel against a French squadron off the Istrian Coast of Croatia in the Adriatic, which included the capture of the 74-gun Rivoli and the destruction of the brig Mercure, 22.2.1812. The Captain of H.M.S Victorious, John Talbot, received a Small Naval Gold Medal for this action. Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew´s Despatch of 29.3.1812 gives the following, ´Having by my last report of the state of the enemy´s ships, apprised their Lordships that the Rivoli of seventy-four guns, recently launched at Venice, was in readiness to put to sea; I have now great satisfaction in announcing her capture by His Majesty´s ship Victorious, after a severe contest of five hours, on the 21st ultimo.... The great disparity of force sufficiently bespeaks the merits of the captors, the Rivoli having eight hundred and sixty-two men at the commencement of the action, while the crew of the Victorious was reduced to five hundred and six, of whom sixty were in the sick list...... The loss has been very severe on both sides, upwards of four hundred having been killed and wounded on the part of the enemy, and forty-two men killed, and ninety-nine wounded, on the part of the Victorious Francis Rich was one of the Victorious´ ninety-nine men wounded during this most violent of actions (Captain Talbot´s Despatch of 9.5.1812, refers) Provenance: J.B. Hayward June 1975 Spink September 2001

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