Lot Essay
The published Naval General Service Medal rolls confirm a James Conney as a Landsman (and Able Seaman) aboard the Tigre for the defence of Acre and Egypt operations, one of just 51 recipients of the 'Acre 30 May 1799' clasp recorded on the Admiralty roll.
'Early on the morning of 18 March [1799], a Corvette and nine Gunboats were seen from the Tigre, and, after a chase, the whole Flotilla, with the exception of the Corvette, was captured. The Prizes carried 32 guns and 208 men, and were laden with battering guns and every kind of ammunition and stores necessary to prosecute the siege, all of which they had brought from Damietta. The guns were now employed in the defence [of Acre], and the vessels in harassing the enemy'.
'Napoleon confessed to a loss of 3000 men before Acre, and always spoke with bitterness of the defeat inflicted upon him by the English Naval Captain [Sir Sydney Smith], who, he said, 'had made him miss his destiny', which he professed to believe included the subjugation of India. It is related of the Officer who foiled the victor of Austerlitz and Marengo, that during the siege of Acre he challenged this great antagonist to a duel; but the latter sent him a contemptuous refusal, declaring he could only fight an equal, such as Marlborough' (Great Battles of the British Navy, by Lieutenant C.R. Low, R.N., refers).
'Early on the morning of 18 March [1799], a Corvette and nine Gunboats were seen from the Tigre, and, after a chase, the whole Flotilla, with the exception of the Corvette, was captured. The Prizes carried 32 guns and 208 men, and were laden with battering guns and every kind of ammunition and stores necessary to prosecute the siege, all of which they had brought from Damietta. The guns were now employed in the defence [of Acre], and the vessels in harassing the enemy'.
'Napoleon confessed to a loss of 3000 men before Acre, and always spoke with bitterness of the defeat inflicted upon him by the English Naval Captain [Sir Sydney Smith], who, he said, 'had made him miss his destiny', which he professed to believe included the subjugation of India. It is related of the Officer who foiled the victor of Austerlitz and Marengo, that during the siege of Acre he challenged this great antagonist to a duel; but the latter sent him a contemptuous refusal, declaring he could only fight an equal, such as Marlborough' (Great Battles of the British Navy, by Lieutenant C.R. Low, R.N., refers).