Naval General Service clasp Trafalgar,
Robert Ludgutter
Unique name of the medal roll.
Black toned, lovely medal
Served as Pte. Royal Marines on H.M.S. Prince
Prov. Hayward 1973 , Spink 360 Anniversary Sale December 2025 c £8875 (yes ! same medal, with envelope of sale) part ex. due to a serious upgraded purchase.
The 98-gun Prince, which had been in the rear of the British formation and was the last British ship to open fire, later spotted Achille and fired several broadsides into her, bringing down her remaining masts. Landing amidships, the sails caught on fire and set fire to the ship’s boats. The ship’s water pumps already having been disabled by British shells, the crew began abandoning ship. Prince, the schooner Pickle, the cutter Entreprenante and the frigate Naiad all sent boats to rescue the French sailors from the water, although the boats made no attempt to close within 200 yards of the burning ship until after her magazine exploded around 1730.
An officer serving in Defence wrote,
‘It was a sight the most awful and grand that can be conceived. In a moment the hull burst into a cloud of smoke and fire. A column of vivid flame shot up to an enormous height in the atmosphere and terminated by expanding into an immense globe, representing for a few seconds, a prodigious tree in flames, specked with many dark spots, which the pieces of timber and bodies of men occasioned while they were suspended in the clouds.’
Robert Ludgutter was serving as late as 1827. Given the unusual name should be a reasonable research project
