Captain Lake dismissed for leaving a seamen on a desert island, 1810
An extract from the Naval Chronicle, February 1810.
On Monday and Tuesday, the 5th and 6th of February, a court-martial was held on the Hon. Capt. for having, when he was commander of his Majesty's ship Recruit, on the 13th of December 1807, caused a seaman, by the name of Robert Jeffery, to be put on shore on the desert island of Sombrero in the West Indies.It appeared that in the month of November1807 Jeffery went into the gunner`s cabin and took out a bottle with some rum in it; that on the day he was sent on shore he had broached a cask of spruce beer which had been brewed for the ship`s company, and that his general character was that of a skulker.
The Recruit being off the island of Sombrero, Capt. Lake asked the master what island it was and if there were not some thieves aboard. The master answered "yes, there were two." Capt. Lake then desired him to send Jeffery up to him; the man soon came up and the captain said that he would not keep such a man in his ship and he ordered Lieut. Mould to land the man and return immediately.
As soon as Admiral Cochrane heard of the circumstance, he reprimanded the captain and sent him to take the man off the island. Some of the officers of Recruit landed and explored the island but found nothing on it. It was a barren spot, covered in the middle with a kind of rough grass weed, with no house or inhabitant. It appeared, however, by American newspapers aftewards received, that the man had been taken off the island by an American ship and landed in America.
In his defence Capt. Lake denied that he ever intended putting the man`s life in jeopardy as he thought the island was inhabited. The court agreed that the charge had been proved and Capt. Lake was dismissed from his Majesty`s service.
Many similar Naval History articles can be found in The Portsmouth Telegraph, or Naval and Military Journal in the Naval History section.
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