Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Endymion Wh President (John Barnett.) light...

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Endymion Wh President (John Barnett.) light contact marks to obverse, otherwise very fine and better £5,000-£7,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Carlton S. Gifford Collection, Glendining’s, May 1985; E. G. Hawkes Collection, Floyd, Johnson, Payne, 2004. John Barnett is confirmed on the roll as a Supernumerary Private Royal Marines aboard H.M.S. Endymion. 58 clasps issued for this action by Endymion with the American frigate President on 15 January 1815, off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Two other men of this name are shown on the rolls: one as an Ordinary Seaman aboard Renomée at Egypt (Sotheby, February 1921); the other as an Ordinary Seaman aboard Piedmontaise at the capture of Banda Neira (unrecorded). The Endymion frigate - rated at 40 guns but carrying 48, Captain H. Hope, at the beginning of the year 1815 - formed part of a squadron which was watching the port of New York, where an American squadron was lying ready for sea. On 14 January, the American 50-gun frigate President, Commodore Decatur, taking advantage of a storm which blew the blockading ships off the coast, came out and set sail for the West Indies. The next morning she was observed by the British, who gave chase and the Endymion being the fastest sailing ship of the squadron, after a pursuit of 12 hours brought the President to action. An engagement lasting two and a half hours followed when the Endymion, much damaged in her sails and rigging, dropped astern to repair damages, and the American, with her hull pierced and shattered, continued her flight. Just as the Endymion, who had bent new sails and repaired her rigging, had come up again, and was about to renew the action, the Pomona frigate, Captain Lumley, arrived within gunshot, and firing a broadside or two at the President she at once surrendered. Her masts and rigging were much injured, several of her guns disabled, and she had six feet of water in her hold when Captain Hope took possession of her. Nearly 100 of her crew were killed and wounded; the loss of the Endymion was 11 killed and 14 wounded.