Monday, November 20

Lt. Arthur Farquhar


Today continues the weekly series wherein we introduce to you some of the REAL Acastas, the men who served aboard at some point between the period from her launch in 1797 to her final year in service to the Crown in 1815. Stop back every Monday to meet an all-new and REAL Acasta!

Arthur Farquhar, Esq.
Acasta Lieutenant under Capt. Lane, c. 1798, aged approx. 26 years.

A Companion of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath; Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order; and Knight of the Swedish Order of the Sword.

This officer is the sixth son of the late Robert Farquhar, of Kincardineshire, N. B. Esq.-by Agnes, daughter of James Morison, of Elsich, Esq. who was Provost of Aberdeen in the memorable year 1745, and who particularly distinguished himself at that trying period, by his firm attachment to the illustrious House of Brunswick.

Mr. Arthur Farquhar was born at Newhall, a small paternal estate in the above county, and educated there under a private family tutor. He commenced his naval career in Oct. 1787, and served his time as a Midshipman on board the Lowestoffe frigate, Hyeana of 24 guns, and Alcide 74; the two former employed as cruisers on the Channel, Mediterranean, Milford, and Irish stations ; the latter a guard-ship at Portsmouth, commanded by his earliest and principal professional patron, the late Sir Andrew Snape Douglas.

After passing the usual examination for a Lieutenant, Mr. Farquhar was induced to quit the royal navy, and proceed to the East Indies as a free mariner; but he had scarcely arrived there when a war broke out between Great Britain and the French Republic, which caused him to change his plans, and seek an opportunity of returning to the King’s service : it was some time, however, before he succeeded in accomplishing his intention.

The first man of war which Mr. Farquhar joined in India was the Hobart, a ship-sloop, commanded by Captain B. W. Page; from which he was soon removed into the Suffolk 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Rainier, commander-in-chief on that station. in the early part of 1796, we find him assisting at the capture of the Harlingen, Dutch national brig, of 14 guns and 45 men; also at the reduction of Amboyna and Banda, on which latter service he held the rank of Lieutenant, in a Dutch armed vessel under his command.

Mr. Farquhar subsequently served as a supernumerary Lieutenant on board the above mentioned brig, which had been purchased for government, named the Amboyna, and commissioned by Lieutenant Dobbie. His good conduct a commanding officer of that vessel, when attacked by a large party of Ladrones, near Macao, will be noticed in the memoir already referred to. He was afterwards appointed in succession to the Swift sloop of war, and Carysfort and Heroine frigates, in which latter ship he returned home, as first Lieutenant, under the command of the Hon. John Murray, in July 1798.

From this period, Lieutenant Farquhar appears to have been actively employed in the Superb 74, Aeolus 32, and Acasta 40, on the Channel, Mediterranean, Baltic, and North Sea stations, until advanced to the rank of Commander, April 29, 1802.

Captain Farquhar’s first appointment after this promotion was, Jan. 16, 1804, to the Acheron bomb, in which vessel he made a most heroic defence against an enemy of overwhelming superiority, on the 4th Feb. 1805, as will be seen by reference to our memoir of his gallant colleague, Captain Richard Budd Vincent…

Source: "Royal Naval Biography; Or, Memoirs of the Services of All the Flag-officers, Superannuated Rear-admirals, Retired-captains, Post-captains, and Commanders, Whose Names Appeared on the Admiralty List of Sea Officers at the Commencement of the Present Year, Or who Have Since Been Promoted; Illustrated by a Series of Historical and Explanatory Notes"
by John Marshall
Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1825

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