The Naval General Service medal awarded to Philip Lamb for his services as a Landsman on...

The Naval General Service medal awarded to Philip Lamb for his services as a Landsman on board the Boadicea in her action with a French squadron in September 1810 Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Boadicea 18 Sept 1810 (Philip Lamb.) light contact marks, otherwise good very fine £8,000-£10,000 --- Importation Duty This lot is subject to importation duty of 5% on the hammer price unless exported outside the UK --- --- Provenance: Peter Dale Collection, July 2000. 15 clasps issued for Boadicea 18 Septr 1810. Philip Lamb is confirmed on the roll as a Landsman aboard H.M.S. Boadicea. ‘As the thirty-eight gun frigate Boadicea, Captain J. Rowley, the Otter, eighteen-gun sloop, Commander J. Tomkinson, and the Staunch, brig, Lieutenant B. Street, were lying at St. Denis in the Isle of Bourbon, on the morning of August 9th, two French ships with a prize, were discovered in the offing. The French ships were the forty gun frigate Venus, and the sixteen-gun corvette Victor, and their prize was the British thirty-two gun frigate Ceylon, Captain C. Gordon; which after a chase which began the day preceding, and a hot action lasting over three hours, they had captured that morning. In the action the Ceylon had lost her fore and main topmasts, and the Venus her mizzen mast, and fore and main topmasts. The British weighed and made sail in chase of the enemy, who were making the best of their way towards the Isle of France. The Victor took the Ceylon in tow, but finding the British ships gaining rapidly on her, she removed her men from the Ceylon, cast her off, and stood away to the eastward. At twenty minutes to five p.m. the Boadicea got alongside the Venus, and after a smart cannonade of ten minutes, the French frigate struck her colours. On board her were found Major-General Abercrombie and his staff, who had been captured in the Ceylon. The Boadicea took her prize in tow, and the Otter rendered the same service to the Ceylon, while Captain Gordon resumed the command of his recovered ship. The Victor being too far off to be pursued with any chance of success, the British ships returned to the Isle of Bourbon. In this affair, the Boadicea had two men wounded, the loss of the Venus was nine men killed, and fifteen men wounded. She was a fine new ship of one thousand one hundred tons, and was added to the British Navy by the name of Néréide.’ (Medals of the British Navy by W. H. Long refers).