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See also: British See also: naval officer and Philhellene, was the son of Lieut.-general See also: Sir See also: Charles Hastings, a natural son of
See also: Francis Hastings, tenth See also: earl of 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 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 continent to learn 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 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 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 tactics
.
In substance the memorandum advocated the use of steamers in preference to sailing See also: ships, and of See also: direct 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 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 discharge of See also: shell and hot shot
.
He did enough to show that if his advice had been vigorously followed the See also: Turks would have been driven off the See also: sea 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 army, then besieging Athens at See also: Oropus and See also: Volo in March and April 1827, was a clear proof that much more could have been done
.
Military mismanagement caused the defeat of the Greeks round Athens
.
But Hastings, in co-operation with General Sir R
.
See also: Church (q.v.), shifted the 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 harbour of See also: Zante on the 1st of See also: June
.
General See also: Gordon, who served in the 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)
.
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