Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A journal of the proceedings of H.M. Ships “Spiteful” (December 1851 to December 1852), “Imperieuse” (December 1852 to December 1854), and “Agamemnon” (January to June 1856), as kept by Commander M. B. Cockraft, R.N., said proceedings including service in the Baltic operations; together with a quantity of further career documentation, including two printed ship’s “flimsies” and several letters of reference written by former captains, a letter appointing him C.O. of the steam vessel Albert, off Africa, and what appears to be an agreement to employ several kroomen in the same ship, dated January 1844, and an official copy of a letter of commendation to Their Lordships for Cockraft’s actions after an outbreak of cholera in H.M.S. Boscawen in October 1866, generally in good condition (Lot)

MacLeod Baynes Cockraft, who was born in March 1819, entered the Royal Navy as a Mate in October 1840. During the course of his subsequent appointment in that rank aboard H.M.S. Dolphin, in May-September 1842, he was officially reported for saving the lives of three kroomen off Whydah, an incident recorded in the following terms by O’Byrne:

‘Mr. Cockraft attracted official notice for his conduct in saving, on the occasion of a Spanish slaver being driven ashore, the lives of three kroomen who had swum to the vessel for the purpose of preserving their papers; in the execution of which service he had charge of the Dolphin’s boats, and was for eight hours exposed to a fire from the enemy.’

Advanced to Acting Lieutenant while commanding the steam vessel Albert in the period October 1842 to October 1844, he saw further action in the Rio Nunez, between French Senegal and British Sierra Leone. O’Byrne takes up the story:

‘In October 1842 ... he was appointed to the command of the Albert steam vessel, in order to co-operate in the suppression of the slave-trade, and the protection of British interests on the different rivers to the northward of Sierra Leone, where, from illness and mortality among the engineers, it was frequently found impossible to move the ship. While so employed in the River Nunez, Mr. Cockraft had an opportunity, after two months of skirmishing and a loss to his small party of four men killed and eight wounded, of capturing and destroying the stockaded town of Casakabouli, mounting several 18, 24 and 32-pounders - a measure which had been rendered necessary from the circumstances of a native attack having been made on the British factories, a fire opened on the Albert’s boats, and an attempt made to seize Mr. Cockraft’s person. In acknowledgment of his services on this occasion he was presented by the residents, under the sanction of the Admiralty, with a sword valued at a hundred guineas.’

Confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant on the same occasion, and having served in Spiteful from October 1849 to December 1852, Cockraft removed to the Imperieuse in December 1852, in which latter ship he was present at the blockade of Sveaborg and other operations in the Baltic in 1854 (Medal). Next appointed to the command of the Agamemnon in the rank of Commander, he transferred to the Coast Guard in June 1858, and was advanced to Captain in October 1867. Cockraft, who was placed on the Retired List in October 1873, died in April 1886.