(Q24020695)

Sir Home Riggs Popham was born at Gibraltar in 1762. For some years previous to the late war he was employed in surveys on the coast of Africa and in the East Indies, and rendered services for which he was thanked by the Government and the Court of Directors of the East India Company. In 1798 he commanded, in conjunction with Major-General Coote, an expedition sent to destroy the locks and sluice-gates of the Bruges Canal; in 1799 he accompanied Sir Andrew Mitchell to the Coast of Holland; and in 1601 he assisted, from the Red Sea, in driving the French out of Egypt. In 1802 Sir Home was returned to Parliament as Member for the Borough of Yarmouth. Through Lord Melville’s patronage he was appointed to the superintendence of a scheme for destroying a fleet by means never before heard of. This experiment was ludicrously called the ‘Catamaran expedition,’ and two vessels were destroyed by it off Boulogne in 1804. An attack on a larger scale was subsequently attempted at Fort Conge, but did not succeed. In the course of 1806 we find Sir Home Popham commanding the naval force employed at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope and the capture of Buenos Ayres. He afterwards joined in the expedition of 1809 to the Scheldt; and in 1812 commanded a squadron employed in co-operation with the patriots on the North coast of Spain. From 1817 to 1820 he commanded in chief at Jamaica. Devoted to the service of Government for forty years in the East and West Indies, Africa, America, and .. (English)

published in

A Naval Biographical Dictionary

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