Free Frigate Commander by Tom Wareham

realizing that the promotion should have been his.
    By January 1792, after eight months without employment, Moore was again debating whether to request an interview at the Admiralty, but could not choose which station would be the most advantageous and decided it would be best to ‘lie upon my oars for a while’. It was as well he did, for his romantic interests took a turn for the better. Attending a ball in Dorking, Moore’s attention was caught by two pretty young women who turned out to be the daughters of a rich London merchant, Joseph Dennison. A short while later, he and his friend Charles Locke (who he described warmly as ‘exceedingly eccentric’ ) paid a visit to Denbies, the Dennison’s country estate, which lay only a few miles from Locke’s. There, in the grounds, the two young men became involved in a flirtatious game of hide-and-seek, with Maria and Elizabeth Dennison apparently attempting to avoid them, but somehow contriving to bump into them at every turn. Eventually, Locke decided they should present themselves at the house and ask after their tormentors. On announcing themselves at the front door of the house, Moore and Locke were aware of feet running on the stairs in excitement, but, when the two young ladies obeyed the summons to present themselves, they teasingly pretended never to have seen the two young men before. The elder of the two was twenty years of age and to Moore ‘the most exquisite creature I have ever seen’ ; the younger sister was eighteen.
    Another of Moore’s close acquaintances at this time was Captain Edward Riou, a naval officer who had achieved great acclaim by bringing his severely damaged frigate, the Guardian , back to Cape Town after it had run into an iceberg en route to Australia loaded with convicts. Riou had remained on board the ship with the convicts and a small number of the crew and, after an extremely arduous voyage, brought everyone to safety. It was Riou who was later credited with establishing the principle that it was the Captain’s responsibility to either remain with the ship – or be the last to leave. Riou was at times a serious and melancholic character, and it is easy to understand how Moore would have been drawn to him. Together they went to see
Lawrence the excellent Portrait Painter, he was so struck with Riou’s manly countenance that he earnestly requested him to allow him to make a Portrait of him. Riou thanked him but politely excused himself. This is a man of whose acquaintance I am proud, I always thought him a superior man even before he distinguished himself in the Guardian . He is certainly very different from the common rout. 27
    Then, at the end of January, Moore was unexpectedly summoned to the Admiralty for an interview with the First Lord. Chatham explained that Captain Harry Burrard 28 of the Orestes , who was also a Member of Parliament, was urgently required in the House (where the government needed his vote). Moore could, therefore, have temporary command of his ship on smuggling patrol until a better position became available. Moore leapt at the chance and hurried down to Portsmouth to join his new command. The Orestes was an unusual looking brig-sloop with a high sweeping stern. She had been built by the Dutch as a privateer and had been captured by the Royal Navy in 1781. She carried 18 nine-pounder guns and a crew of 120 men. Moore recorded his immediate impression:
She is the finest vessel of the kind I ever saw mount eighteen nine pounders and is pierced for 24. Sir Harry Burrard thinks that the nines strain her too much, and has applied for sixes. I shall sail as soon as my things arrive from London.
    Moore’s baggage arrived on board on 4 February and he sailed immediately into a foggy English Channel to patrol along the Dorset coast where smuggling was rife. Almost immediately they gave chase to a suspicious vessel, and although they lost her in the fog, Moore was pleased with the performance of both ship and crew: