In 1796, the Dutton came home to Plymouth after seven weeks at sea carrying five hundred passengers, civilian and military, only to run aground beneath the Hoe in a storm. Her officers, who were already ashore, refused to help evacuate her; but Captain Edward Pellew, paying a social call nearby, saw the ship’s distress and took the responsibility upon himself.

After he had been hauled through the sea and aboard ship by rope, Pellew calmed the sick civilians and put the fear of cold steel into the indisciplined troops before evacuating them all in an orderly fashion. But he could not have done it without teenager Jeremiah Coghlan, a merchant seaman who braved the storm to come to their aid.

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