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Auction: 25112 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 2

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Navarino (William Organ) some light edge bruising otherwise very fine

William Organ is a unique name upon the rolls, and this is one of only three NGSMs issued to the rank of Carpenter's Yeoman which appear on the roll.

Organ served as a Carpenter's Yeoman aboard the third rate 74-gun ship of the line H.M.S. Genoa during the Battle of Navarino. Genoa had begun life as Brilliant with the French Navy but was captured by the British at the fall of Genoa while still under construction. She was completed and launched by the British the following year in April 1815. She later sailed to Lisbon where she was listed as the flagship and, under the command of Captain Walter Bathurst, she was brought into the Mediterranean Fleet, with whom she sailed for the Greek Archipelago in August 1827 to fight at Navarino.

The Battle of Navarino was fought on 20 October 1827 during the Greek War of Independence (1821-29). A combined Turkish and Egyptian armada under Tahir Pasha was destroyed by Admiral Sir Edward Codrington's allied British, French, and Russian naval force at the port of Navarino (now Pylos), in southern Greece. The Allied ships were better armed than their Egyptian and Turkish enemies and their crews better trained, resulting in a quick victory despite being vastly outnumbered.

While not a single European vessel was sunk, Genoa sustained the highest number of British casualties during the battle after taking an active role in support of the flagship H.M.S. Asia. She suffered 33 men wounded and 26 killed, a number which included her Captain who succumbed to his wounds after the battle. The losses of the Allied forces amounted to 661 killed or wounded, while the Turkish armada lost 55 of their ships and about 4,000 men. This decisive defeat led to the Turks' evacuation of Greece and the creation of the independent Kingdom of Greece a few years later in 1832. After the battle, Genoa sailed for Plymouth where she was paid off in January 1828; sold together with copied research.



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Sold for
£850

Starting price
£700