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FRANK ABNEY HASTINGS (1794-1828)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 55 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRANK ABNEY See also:HASTINGS (1794-1828)  , See also:British See also:naval officer and Philhellene, was the son of Lieut.-See also:general See also:Sir See also:Charles See also:Hastings, a natural son of See also:Francis Hastings, tenth See also:earl of See also:Huntingdon . He entered the See also:navy in 1805, and was in the " See also:Neptune " (See also:loo) at the See also:battle of See also:Trafalgar; but in 182o a See also:quarrel with his See also:flag See also:captain led to his leaving the service . The revolutionary troubles of the See also:time offered chances of See also:foreign employment . Hastings spent a See also:year on the See also:continent to learn See also:French, and sailed for See also:Greece on the 12th of See also:March 1822 from See also:Marseilles . On the 3rd of See also:April he reached See also:Hydra . For two years he took See also:part in the naval operations of the Greeks in the Gulf of See also:Smyrna and elsewhere . He saw that the See also:light squadrons of the Greeks must in the end be overpowered by the heavier See also:Turkish navy, clumsy as it was; and in 1823 he See also:drew up and presented to See also:Lord See also:Byron a very able memorandum which he laid before the See also:Greek See also:government in 1824 . This See also:paper is of See also:peculiar See also:interest apart from its importance in the Greek insurrection, for it contains the germs of the See also:great revolution which has since been effected in naval gunnery and See also:tactics . In substance the memorandum advocated the use of steamers in preference to sailing See also:ships, and of See also:direct See also:fire with shells and hot shot, as a more trustworthy means of destroying the Turkish See also:fleet than fire-ships . It will be found in See also:Finlay's See also:History of the Greek Revolution, vol. ii. appendix i . The application of Hastings's ideas led necessarily to the disuse of sailing ships, and the introduction of See also:armour . The incompetence of the Greek government and the corrupt See also:waste of its resources prevented the full application of Hastings's bold and far-seeing plans .

But largely by the use of his own See also:

money, of which he is said to have spent £7000, he was able to some extent to carry them out . In 1824 he came to See also:England to obtain a steamer, and in 1825 he had fitted out a small steamer named the " Karteria " (Perseverance), manned by Englishmen, Swedes and Greeks, and provided with apparatus for the See also:discharge of See also:shell and hot shot . He did enough to show that if his See also:advice had been vigorously followed the See also:Turks would have been driven off the See also:sea See also:long before the date of the battle of See also:Navarino . The great effect produced by his shells in an attack on the sea-See also:line of communication of the Turkish See also:army, then besieging See also:Athens at See also:Oropus and See also:Volo in March and April 1827, was a clear See also:proof that much more could have been done . Military mismanagement caused the defeat of the Greeks See also:round Athens . But Hastings, in co-operation with General Sir R . See also:Church (q.v.), shifted the See also:scene of the attack to western Greece . Here his destruction of a small Turkish See also:squadron at Salona See also:Bay in the Gulf of See also:Corinth (29th of See also:September 1827) provoked See also:Ibrahim See also:Pasha into the aggressive movements which led to the destruction of his fleet by the See also:allies at Navarino (q.v.) on the 20th of See also:October 1827 . On the 25th of May 1828 he was wounded in an attack on Anatolikon, and he died in the See also:harbour of See also:Zante on the 1st of See also:June . General See also:Gordon, who served in the See also:war and wrote its history, says of him: " If ever there was a disinterested and really .useful Philhellene it was Hastings . He received no pay, and had expended most of his slender See also:fortune in keeping the ` Karteria ' afloat for the last six months . His See also:ship, too, was the only one in the Greek navy where See also:regular discipline was maintained." See See also:Thomas Gordon, History of the Greek Revolution (See also:London, 1832); See also:George Finlay, History of the Greek Revolution (See also:Edinburgh, 1861) .

End of Article: FRANK ABNEY HASTINGS (1794-1828)
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