PMarione Site Admin
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 883
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Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:23 pm Post subject: Vice-Admiral George Edward Watts |
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During the war he had an incredible career.
He was upwards of forty times under fire, received 2 splinters, 8 bayonet and 5 sabre wounds, 18 wounds in all, and captured or destroyed 145 vessels.
He boarded Spanish ships off Gran Canaria.
He helped outshoot and capture a larger Danish frigate.
Towards the end of the war he fought American ships in the Chesapeake and burned property along its shores.
In 1809 he took part in the capture of two small towns at the mouths of the
Elbe and the Weser as part of Britain’s support for the Fifth Coalition against Napoleon.
He and the commander of the landing party decided there was time to chat to two local frauleins.
“The window of their drawing room overlooked the main street of Ritzbuttle, and while diligently employed in playing the agreeable, I by chance looked out, and was surprised by the sudden appearance of two mounted dragoons, with drawn sabres, dashing down the street, closely followed by others.
Accosting Lord George, who was busily engaged in conversation with Miss S- , I asked, ‘where have those German dragoons come from?’ He did not notice the question, and I repeated it. He then turned to look, and
his eye glancing on the lengthening column, the truth flashed on his mind. He sprang on his feet, vehemently exclaiming ‘we are surprised, the French are in the town, and we are all taken.’
More appalling words never saluted my ears; nor was a delightful tete-a-tete ever more abruptly, or disagreeably interrupted. We sought instant safety in flight: he one way, I another.”
One of the girls over-enthusiastically tried to hide Lord George in her bedroom, until he chose to leave in disguise. Captain Watts struggled through the foul mud of a stagnant ditch, crawled through a cornfield and reached the road outside town in a state that much amused the Jack Tars hurrying to his rescue.
They then captured or dispersed the French force.
NAPOLEONIC ENCOUNTERS – THE WALDIES OF FORTH HOUSE, NEWCASTLE
By Peter Livsey |
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