The pictorial book of the commodores Author:John Frost Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: RICHAED DALE. ONES' lieutenant in the famous action with the Se- rapis, is the subject of the present memoir. Richard Dale was born on the sixth of No... more »vember, 1756, in Norfolk county, Virginia. He is descended from a family highly respectable, though not wealthy. His parents were both natives of Virginia. His father left five children of whom Richard was the eldest. Having manifested, from an early period of life, a strong predilection for the sea, his friends were induced to 36 IN THE MERCHANT SERVICE. comply with his wishes. Accordingly, when only twelve years of age, he entered on board a vessel commanded by his uncle, with whom he sailed from Norfolk for Liverpool, in November, 1768. He returned the following summer, and remained at home until the spring of 1770, when he was bound apprentice to colonel Thomas Newton, a respectable merchant of Norfolk. Tn the employ of that gentleman he made several voyages to the West Indies, during which nothing of moment occurred, except two accidents, which are worthy of notice only as being the commencement of a series of misfortunes that awaited him. The first was a fall which he received from the spars, lying across the belfry and the gallows, a distance of eighteen or twenty feet, without, however, sustaining any material injury. The other was of a nature no less formidable. As the vessel was going rapidly before the wind, he was knocked overboard by the jib-sheet, and was not, without much difficulty, rescued from so perilous a situation, after having been in the water about an hour. In 1775, we find him the chief officer of a valuable brig belonging to Colonel Newton, in which, to the entire satisfaction of his employer, he continued to the spring of the following year. A period had now arrived that opened to his...« less