Able Seaman George Brace, who witnessed the destruction of the Danish 74 Prindts Christian Frederick as a Landsman in the Stately, and afterwards, in the boats of the Princess Caroline, shared in a bloody encounter with Russian gun-boats in the Gulf of Finland

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Stately 22 March 1808 [31], 25 July Boat Service 1809 [36] (Geo. Brace.) minor edge bruises and scratching in both fields, otherwise good very fine £6000-7000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The John Goddard Collection of Important Naval Medals and Nelson Letters.

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Provenance: Sotheby, November 1894; Debenham’s, December 1897; W. E. Gray Collection 1898; Glendining’s, May 1920, November 1952, July 1956, and March 1973; Christie’s, November 1985; Glendining’s, September 1991.

Stately 22 March 1808 [31 issued] - 15 medals known, including examples in the National Maritime Museum; Royal Marines Museum; Honeyman Collection (Huntington Library, U.S.A.); and the Patiala Collection (2), (Sheesh Mahal Museum, India).

25 July Boat Service 1809 [36 issued] - 14 medals known, including examples in the National Maritime Museum (2), the Royal Naval Museum, and the Patiala Collection (Sheesh Mahal Museum, India).

George Brace is confirmed on the rolls as a Landsman on board the Stately at her action with the Danish 74-gun Prindts Christian Frederick in March 1808, and in the same rate on board the Princess Carolina for her boat action of 25 July 1809.

George Brace was born in London and joined the Navy on 3 July 1807, being taken on board the Stately as a Landsman on 29 October of the same year, aged 20 years. His next ship was the Princess Caroline which he joined on 22 September 1808, being advanced to Ordinary Seaman in February 1810, and to Able Seaman in April 1811. He left the Princess Caroline on 21 September 1814, to join the Tanais in which ship he served until paid off on 31 May 1816. Sold with copied muster lists and statement of service.

Stately and Nassau destroy the 74-gun Danish ship of the line Prindts Christian Frederick

On 22 March 1808, at 2 p.m., the British 64-gun ships Stately, Captain George Parker, and Nassau, Captain Robert Campbell, proceeding towards the Great Belt, descried and chased a strange sail. At 4 p.m., off the Jutland coast, the stranger was made out to be an enemy, and at 5 p.m., a Danish ship of the line, which evidently intended to run herself ashore, if no other means of escape presented itself.

At 7.40 p.m. the Nassau got up with, and opened fire upon the Danish 74-gun ship Prindts Christian Frederick, Captain Jessen, and, in a few minutes afterwards, the Stately closed and did the same. A running fight was thus maintained, with great obstinacy on the part of the 74, until 9.30 p.m., when the Prindts Christian Frederick struck her colours. At this time the latter was within less than 500 yards of the shore of Zealand, and, before the first lieutenant of the Stately, who had gone on board to take possession, could cut away her anchor, the prize grounded. The two British ships, fortunately for them, had already brought up near her. The remaining part of the night was employed in removing the prisoners, but it was found impossible to get the captured ship afloat. In the evening of the 23rd, as the Danes were preparing their artillery on the coast, and as the wind blew strong on the shore and a good deal of sea was running, the Prindts Christian Frederick was set on fire by her captors, and in a short time blew up.

The loss on the part of the Stately was two seamen and two marines killed, and one lieutenant, the boatswain, one master's mate, 23 seamen and two marines wounded. The Nassau had one seaman killed and one missing, and one first-class volunteer, 10 seamen and five marines wounded; the total British loss amounting to five killed and 45 wounded and missing. The Prindts Christian Frederick, out of a complement on board of 576 men and boys, had 55 killed and 88 wounded.

The boats of a British squadron capture three Russian gun-boats in a most sanguinary affair off the Gulf of Finland

O 25 July 1809, Captain Charles Dudley Paten, commanding a British squadron, composed of his own ship the Princess Caroline 74, the Minotaur 74, Captain John Barrett, the 18-pounder 32-gun frigate Cerberus, Captain Henry Whitby, and the 18-gun ship-sloop Prometheus, Captain Thomas Forrest, permitted the latter to lead the boats of the squadron, 17 in number, to the attack of four Russian gun-boats and an armed brig, lying at Fredericksham, near Apso roads, in the gulf of Finland. After dark the boats, commanded by Captain Forrest, pushed off from the squadron, and at 10.30 p.m. commenced the attack. After a most desperate and sanguinary conflict, three of the gun-boats, mounting two long 38-pounders each, and having on board between them 137 men, besides an armed transport brig, with 23 men, were captured and brought off.

Costly, indeed, were the prizes. The British loss amounted to one lieutenant, one second lieutenant of marines, one midshipman, and six seamen and marines killed; Captain Forrest himself, one lieutenant, three midshipmen, and 46 seamen and marines wounded. The Russians, on their side, acknowledged a loss of 28 killed and 59 wounded, making a total of 47 men killed and 110 wounded, in obtaining possession of three gun-boats. One of these gun-boats, No. 62, was so obstinately defended, that every man of her 44-man crew was either killed or wounded before she surrendered, 24 of these being killed. The result of this enterprise was a defeat to the Russians certainly, but under circumstances that reflected the brightest honour upon the character of their navy. For the gallantry he had shown on the occasion, Captain Forrest was promoted to post-rank.