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Auction: 1025 - The Turl Collection of Naval General Service Medals 1793 - 1840
Lot: 52

Naval General Service 1793-1840, one clasp, Hebrus With L´Etoile (Gerard Highton.), nearly very fine Estimate £ 4,000-4,500 Gerard Highton served as Corporal, Royal Marines in H.M.S. Hebrus, 38 guns (Captain E. Palmer) during the capture of the French 44-gun frigate L´Etoile, off Cape La Hogue, near the island of Alderney, 27.3.1814. After a chase of 120 miles and an action lasting over two hours, the Frenchman, her mizzen-mast shot away, her hull shattered and with four feet of water in her hold, struck her colours. The action was fought within range of a gun battery on shore which opened a heavy fire upon the British ship and her prize until the tide fortunately set them round Pointe Jobourg. L´Etoile was added to the Royal Navy as H.M.S. Topaze. She had suffered losses of forty killed and over seventy wounded, many of whom died the next day. Captain Palmer was awarded a Small Naval Gold Medal for this action. Approximately 40 clasps issued for this action. Gerard Highton born Laigh, Lancaster; enlisted Royal Marines at Hull, April 1808; discharged June 1815.

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£3,600