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Auction: 1025 - The Turl Collection of Naval General Service Medals 1793 - 1840
Lot: 75

A Superb, Well Documented ´Lissa and Pelagosa´ Award N.G.S. to Captain George Haye, Royal Navy, Who Was Variously Mentioned and Commended For His Gallant Conduct and Meritorious Service On a Number of Occasions Which Included The Action Off Lissa in March 1813, and That Off Pelagosa in November of That Year, When as Lieutenant in Acting-Command of H.M.S. Active He Was Severely Wounded Together With His Captain and First Lieutenant; For the Capture of Four Venetian Vessels in the Adriatic, 1809; For Conspicuously Assisting in Various Boat Service Cutting Out Operations; For Volunteering to Assist in the Capture of 28 Merchantmen, Heavily Defended in a Creek Off the Island of Ragasnisa By 300 Troops and 3 Gun Vessels. Mr. Haye Was Advanced to Commander in May 1812 as a Reward For His Continuous Distinguished Services Naval General Service 1793-1840, two clasps, Lissa, Pelagosa 29 Novr. 1811 (George Haye, Lieut.), darkly toned, extremely fine, with the following contemporary related items: - Original card box of issue, named to recipient, and additionally penned ´For my son Tho. Davey Haye´ - Recipient´s Letter Book, covering the period 1840s-1850s, mostly of an accounts nature but interestingly from a numismatic point of view with the following entries, 6.6.1847 ´With reference to the Admiralty circular of the 1st Instant, I beg leave to state that I was second Lieutenant of the Active in the Battle of Lissa on the 13th March 1811 and in the action of 29 of November following & I beg to refer to Rear Admiral Sir Jas. Alex. Gordon KCB for my conduct in those engagements which I hope will be considered a just claim of the medals which are to be distributed for distinguished actions´ and again in 1849 ´From the Newspaper report of Lord Auckland´s answer to a question put to him in the House of Lords by Lord Hardwicke on the subject of the medals, I beg leave to request that you will lay before the Committee of Flag Officers my claim for a medal for each of the following services that I had the good fortune to be engaged in....´ Estimate £ 6,000-8,000 George Haye served as Lieutenant in H.M.S. Active as part of the British squadron which engaged a Franco-Venetian squadron off the Island of Lissa, in the Adriatic, 13.3.1811. Captain Hoste´s squadron captured two enemy frigates, the 40-gun Bellona, the 40-gun Corona and destroyed the 40-gun frigate Favorite. The combined loss to the British squadron amounted to 190 killed and wounded against an enemy loss of about 430. The original British force was approximately 886 seaman and marines against at least 2,500 Franco-Venetian allies with less than half their gun superiority. Four Small Naval Gold Medals were awarded for this action; Haye later served as Lieutenant in acting-command H.M.S. Active when she in company with H.M. Ships Unité and Alceste engaged three French frigates, capturing two, off the Island of Pelagosa in the Adriatic, 29.11.1811. Approximately 64 ´Pelagosa 29 Novr. 1811´ clasps issued. Captain George Haye, R.N. born Callington, Cornwall, April 1788; joined the Royal Navy, as First Class Volunteer, August 1801; after initial service in H.M.S. Hercule (Captain W. Luke) he served as Midshipman and Master´s Mate in the St. Fiorenzo (Captains J. Bingham, J. Batt, H. Lambert and G.N. Hardinge) mainly in the East Indies, May 1802-April 1807; susbsequent service after promotion to Lieutenant included in H.M. Ships Grampus, St. Albans and Iphigenia; appointed to H.M.S. Active (Captain J.A. Gordon), June 1809; served with the latter in the Adriatic and, ´commanded the barges of his own frigate and of the Cerberus at the capture of four Venetian trabaccolos, under a heavy fire of musketry from a body of troops quartered at Pestichi [Mentioned in Captain H. Whitby´s Despatch, 4.2.1811, London Gazette 1811 p997]; nine days after which event we find him conspicuously assisting in the boats of the same ships, under Lieut. Jas. Dickinson, at the cutting-out, near the town of Ortano (where two important magazines were at the same time destroyed), and in the face of teasing fire, which was kept up for five hours, on a convoy of 10 sail, protected by trabaccolo of 6 guns´ (O´Byrne refers); after service in the action off Lissa, when the Active suffered 4 men killed and 24 wounded, Haye ´was placed on board the Corona, one of the prize frigates, and for his exertions in extinguishing a fire which soon afterwards threatened the destruction of that ship, he appears to have elicited the warmest thanks of Capt. Wm. Hoste, the senior officer of the British squadron, and to have been strongly recommended by him to the Commander in Chief [London Gazette 1811 p897]. On 27 July, 1811 Mr. Haye, who had been severely burnt on the latter occasion, and had not yet recovered, very handsomely volunteered to assist, which he accordingly did, at the capture of a convoy of 28 merchantmen, defended, in a creek off the island of Ragosniza, by 300 troops and three gun-vessels [London Gazette 1811 p2193]. He subsequently on 29 Nov. in the same year (Capt. Gordon and the First Lieutenant, Mr. Wm. Bateman Dashwood, having been put hors-de-combat), succeeded to the command of the Active, and was himself slightly hurt in the course of a hard-fought action of an hour and 40 minutes, which in rendering that frigate captor of La Pomone, of 44 guns and 332 men, 50 of whom were killed and wounded, occasioned her a loss of 8 killed and 27 wounded [Mentioned in Captain M. Murray´s Despatch, London Gazette 1812 pp566-567]. As a reward for his highly-lauded gallantry in these and other instances, Mr. Haye was ultimately, on 19 May, 1812, promoted to the rank of Commander´ (O´Byrne refers); Haye served in the Pelter on the North American station, before taking a position with the Coast Guard service in Ireland, 1821, with whom he destroyed the Dandy a large smuggling cutter, which procured for him the particular notice of the Lords of the Treasury, December 1827; his last appointments where with the Erebus and the Raleigh on the Mediterranean station; promoted Captain 1829. Another medal is known with the same clasps to ´George Haye´ without rank. The medal listed here was sold by family descendants of Captain Haye in 2007.

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£9,000