March 11th Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford (Death)

This day marks the death of the Boconnoc-born Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford (1775 – 1804), a naval officer and wastrel, best known for the troubles he caused George Vancouver during and after that explorer’s great voyage and for the manner of his death.


Pitt signed on to serve as an able seaman on HMS Discovery.  In Tahiti, Pitt was flogged for trying to trade a broken piece of iron for an island woman and was flogged again for unauthorised trading and for breaking the glass cover of a compass. He was also placed in irons for sleeping whilst on watch. 

Left in Hawaii by the captain of his next ship, HMS Resistance, he did eventually make his way back to England.  Pitt’s relatives and peers treated Vancouver badly and Pitt challenged him to a duel.  When Vancouver refused on the grounds that his duties in a public role could not be resolved privately, Pitt stalked and assaulted him in London.  Subsequently, Pitt was court martialled for shooting dead a different  fellow officer but was acquitted. 

Following his resignation from the Navy, Pitt quarrelled with a friend, Captain Best RN resulting in a duel (7th 1804) with pistols. 

Pitt missed his target but was mortally wounded by Best and died three days later and, having no heir, the title became extinct.
 


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