Captain Sir Robert Mends (c. 1767 – 4 September 1823) was a prominent British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

officer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, who lost an arm in the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, caught in an explosion at the

Battle of Groix The Battle of Groix (, ) took place on 23 June 1795 off the island of Groix in the Bay of Biscay during the War of the First Coalition. It was fought between elements of the British Channel Fleet and the French Ponant Fleet, Atlantic Fleet, whi ...

in 1795 and wounded again at the action of 6 April 1809. In 1815 he was made a Spanish knight for his services in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

and was awarded a pension of £300 a year from the British government. He remained in service at the end of the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

and in 1821 was made commodore on the West African station, on which he died in 1823.

Life

Robert Mends was born into a prominent

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

family in the late 1760s, probably 1767. He joined the

in 1779, serving on HMS ''Culloden'' under Captain George Balfour during the

. Mends was almost instantly in action, ''Culloden'' fighting at the Battle of Cape St Vincent and at the

Great Siege of Gibraltar The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Enlightenment in Spain, Spain and Kingdom of France, France to capture Gibraltar from the Kingdom of Great Britain, British during the American Revolutionary War. It was the largest ba ...

in 1780. The following year, Mends joined the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

HMS ''Guadeloupe'' and was in action at the

Battle of Cape Henry The Battle of Cape Henry was a naval battle in the American War of Independence which took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on 16 March 1781 between a British squadron under Vice-admiral Mariot Arbuthnot and a French squadron under Admira ...

in March 1781 before participating in the

Siege of Yorktown The siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown and the surrender at Yorktown, was the final battle of the American Revolutionary War. It was won decisively by the Continental Army, led by George Washington, with support from the Ma ...

. During the fighting, ''Guadeloupe'' was destroyed and Mends wounded in the right arm and left knee. Although his leg wound healed, Mends' arm had to be amputated. He was awarded a pension of £7 a year to compensate for his lost limb.Mends, Sir Robert
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'', J. K. Laughton, (subscription required), Retrieved 25 January 2009 Recovering from his wounds, Mends joined HMS ''Conqueror'' and fought at the Battle of Dominica, where he was again seriously wounded after being struck in the head by a wooden splinter. Mends remained in service at the end of the war and joined HMS ''Grampus'' in 1786, under Commodore Edward Thompson off the African coast. In 1789 he was promoted to lieutenant and spent time on the

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...

HMS ''Childers'' in the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. At the outbreak of the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...

in 1793, Mends was serving on the ship of the line HMS ''Colossus'' in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and was present at the

Siege of Toulon The siege of Toulon (29 August – 19 December 1793) was a military engagement that took place during the Federalist revolts and the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. It was undertaken by forces of the French Re ...

. In 1795, ''Colossus'' joined the

Channel Fleet The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915. History Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history th ...

and fought at the

, at which Mends was caught in a large explosion that left him very badly burned. Recovering from his injuries, Mends was promoted commander and took charge of the 16-gun brig HMS ''Diligence'' in the West Indies. In May 1800 he was made a

post captain Post-captain or post captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy. The term "post-captain" was descriptive only; it was never used as a title in the form "Post-Captain John Smith". The term served to di ...

and served in a number of ships, including HMS ''Abergavenny'', HMS ''Thunderer'', HMS ''Quebec'' and HMS ''Nereide'', before the

Peace of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France, the Spanish Empire, and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it set t ...

in 1802. After the outbreak of the

in 1803, Mends was made commander of the

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

sea fencibles and in 1808 given command of the frigate HMS ''Arethusa'' in the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay ( ) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward ...

. With ''Arethusa'', Mends served on the blockade of the Northern Spanish ports during the

and also fought at the action of 6 April 1809, in which Mends was wounded again. Between 1808 and 1811, Mends operated extensively against French-held harbours and coastal shipping on the Northern Spanish coast. Commanding a small English squadron in the area, Oman, Charles (1908)
''A History of the Peninsular War'', Vol. III, p. 486.
''Project Gutenberg''. Retrieved 21 May 2023. his operations, including the Cantabrian Expedition (1810),. González Fernández, Marcelino
"Blas Salcedo y Salcedo".

Real Academia de la Historia The Royal Academy of History (, RAH) is a Spanish institution in Madrid that studies history "ancient and modern, political, civil, ecclesiastical, military, scientific, of letters and arts, that is to say, the different branches of life, of c ...

. Retrieved 21 May 2023. were a serious nuisance to the French and he was consequently thanked by the Spanish Junta and made a nominal Spanish major general. Between 1811 and 1814, Mends was recalled to Britain and served as superintendent of the

prison hulks A prison ship, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. Some prison ships were hulked. While many nations have deployed pr ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

harbour. In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Mends was made a knight of the Spanish

Order of Charles III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III (, originally ; Abbreviation, Abbr.: OC3) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent Order of merit, orders of merit bes ...

, a title he was permitted to wear in British service, but which did not grant him the privileges of a British knight. The following year his pension was increased to £300 a year. In 1821, Mends became commander-in-chief of the West African Station in the frigate HMS ''Iphigenia'', later transferring to HMS ''Owen Glendower''. Mends died in September 1823, succumbing to fever on ''Owen Glendower'' off the Gold Coast. Lieutenant

Pringle Stokes Pringle Stokes (23 April 1793 – 12 August 1828) was a British naval officer who served in HMS '' Owen Glendower'' on a voyage around Cape Horn to the Pacific coast of South America, and on the West African coast fighting the African slave trad ...

took charge of the ship. Commander

John Filmore John Filmore ( – 24 May 1839) was an officer in the British Navy who commanded the African Station for a year, responsible for suppressing the slave trade. Early years John Filmore was born around 1788. He joined the navy as a boy, enlisting ...

arrived soon after, appointed himself to command the station and transferred to the frigate ''

Owen Glendower Owen may refer to: People and fictional characters * Owen (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Places United States * Owen, Missouri, a ghost town * Owen, Wisconsin * Owen County, Indiana ...

''. Mends' eldest son died three months later on the same commission at

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

. Mends had married in 1802 and had two other sons, Captain James Augustus Mends, who died in 1875 and Vice-Admiral

George Clarke Mends George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorg ...

who died in 1885. His younger brother, William Bowen Mends, also joined the Navy and died as a full admiral in 1864, while his nephew Admiral Sir

William Robert Mends Sir William Robert Mends, (27 February 1812 – 26 June 1897), was a British admiral of the Royal Navy, eldest son of Admiral William Bowen Mends and nephew of Captain Robert Mends. William Mends was born at Plymouth into a naval family. He ma ...

died in 1897.

Notes

References

*
Mends, Sir Robert
''

'', J. K. Laughton, (subscription required), Retrieved 25 January 2009 *

Life

Notes

References

See also