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Auction: 26002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 16

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Lissa, Pelagosa 29 Novr. 1811 (George Haye.), very fine

George Haye is a unique name upon the published roll. However, two medals (both with officially impressed naming and with the same combination of clasps) to this recipient are known to be extant: note the example presented here lacks the recipient's rank of Lieutenant which the other example correctly bears. This latter medal was sold in these rooms as part of the Turl Collection of Naval General Service Medals on 22 July 2010, accompanied by the original card box of issue and a large book of original correspondence to and from the recipient.

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 on 13 March 1811. Captain Hoste's squadron captured two enemy frigates, the 40-gun Bellona and 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 on 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 on 29 November 1811.

Approximately 64 'Pelagosa 29 Novr. 1811' clasps issued.

Captain George Haye was born in Callington, Cornwall in April 1788 and joined the Royal Navy as a First Class Volunteer in August 1801. After initial service in H.M.S. Hercule he served as Midshipman and Master's Mate in St. Fiorenzo, mainly in the East Indies, from May 1802 through April 1807. He saw subsequent service after promotion to Lieutenant with H.M. Ships Grampus, St. Albans and Iphigenia. Haye was appointed to H.M.S. Active in June 1809, serving with her 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 February 1811, London Gazette 1811 p. 997).

Nine days later, we find him conspicuously assisting in the boats of the same ships 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, where Active suffered four men killed and twenty-four 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 p. 897). 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 p. 2193). 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 pp. 566-567). 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 in 1821. In this capacity he destroyed the Dandy, a large smuggling cutter, which procured for him the particular notice of the Lords of the Treasury in December 1827. His last appointments where with Erebus and Raleigh on the Mediterranean station. Hayes was promoted Captain in 1829.

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Estimate
£4,000 to £6,000

Starting price
£3500