by John Marshall

“ Soon after the death of Admiral Rowley, Oct. 7, 1811, Captain Cumby proceeded to Vera Cruz and Havannah, on his way to England, in the Hyperion of 42 guns, to which ship he had been appointed in the preceding month of March. After refitting at Portsmouth, he was ordered to Davis’s Straits, where he cruised for the protection of the whale fishery during the whole summer of 1812. He subsequently took a convoy from Newfoundland to Barbadoes, and then returned to St. John’s harbour, where his ship was frozen up almost immediately after her arrival. ”

“ Mr. Cumby then joined the Hebe, of 38 guns, and served in that ship, under the command of Captain Alexander Hood, on the Channel station, till Mar. 1792; when he passed his examination for a Lieutenant, and was soon afterwards sent by Lord Mulgrave to the Newfoundland station, in the Assistance 50, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard King, Bart., with whom he returned to England at the commencement of the ensuing winter.
On his arrival at Portsmouth, Mr. Cumby had the grief and mortification to learn that his excellent friend and powerful patron had paid the debt of nature ”

“ By the above statement our readers will observe that the Hyperion had been twice in the West Indies, spent a whole summer amidst icebergs, and commenced a long and severe winter at Newfoundland, all within twelve months: an instance of sudden and repeated change from one extreme of temperature and climate to the other, rarely equalled. ”