Biography of Frank Abney-Hastings 1794-1828

On 14th February 1794 Frank Abney-Hastings was born to Charles Hastings 1st Baronet (age 41) and Parnel Abney.

In 1819 Frank Abney-Hastings (age 24) was discharged from the Navy.

On 12th March 1822 Frank Abney-Hastings (age 28) from Marseilles. On 3 April he reached Hydra. For two years he took part in the naval operations of the Greeks in the Gulf of Smyrna and elsewhere.

Before September 1823 [his father] Charles Hastings 1st Baronet (age 71) and [his mother] Parnel Abney were married. He the illegitmate son of [his grandfather] Francis Hastings 10th Earl Huntingdon.

In September 1823 [his father] Charles Hastings 1st Baronet (age 71) committed suicide. His son [his brother] Charles (age 30) succeeded 2nd Baronet Hastings of Willesley Hall in Derbyshire.

On 25th May 1828 Frank Abney-Hastings (age 34) was wounded in an attempt to reclaim Missolonghi. On 1st June 1828 Frank Abney-Hastings died from his injuries in Zakynthos. Greece held a national funeral in honor of him. He was laid to rest beneath the arsenal of Poros, today a Hellenic Naval Academy, and his heart is preserved in the Anglican Church in Athens. Multiple monuments in Greece were built in his honor, and several streets were named after him.

History of the Greek Revolution Book V Chapter III by Thomas Gordon. In the autumn of 1824, Captain Hastings returned to London, after two years' service in Greece, bringing letters from the Executive Council, recommending the deputies to adopt a suggestion of his for equipping an armed steam-vessel. As the funds of the first loan were then nearly spent, they declined doing so; but on the conclusion of a second one, authorized Messrs Ricardo (March 5th 1825), to appropriate £10,000 to the above purpose. The vessel (a corvette of 400 tons, called the Perseverance) was well and speedily built in Mr Brent's yard; and Galloway, the engineer, undertook to provide the machinery, so that she might be ready for sea by the middle of August; but not being bound under a penalty, kept his word so ill, that she could not sail until May 1826.

History of the Greek Revolution Book VI Chapter II by Thomas Gordon. For some months their hopes were fanned by the sight of merchantmen entering the port of Nauplla, and laden with coal, gunpowder, and heavy guns for his flotilla, and by the reception of successive letters from London, each positively stating that Captain Hastings was on the point of sailing in the Perseverance, and that his lordship would quickly follow. Tantalized by so many broken promises, the Greeks at last concluded that Galloway had sold them to the Pasha of Egypt, with whom they knew he had dealings, and despaired of ever seeing either Cochrane, the American frigates, or the steamers. Their ideas on this subject were confirmed in July, by a letter from Hastings, announcing, that in consequence of the Perseverance's engine failing, he had been forced to put into Cagliari, and would require six weeks to repair it. Soon afterwards they learned that Lord Cochrane was actually in the Mediterranean, on board a schooner; but as none of Iiig steam vessels were as yet nearly completedt there seemed not the most distant chance of his taking a part in the operations of the present campaign.

History of the Greek Revolution Book VII Chapter II by Thomas Gordon. The affair of Khaidari having demonstrated how little chance there was of Greeks being able to beat Kutahi in a general action, the European officers, consulted by Zaimis, gave it as their opinion, that the only way of raising the siege was to cut off his communications, and act in his rear with a combined military and naval force; but the government had a project of its own for seizing the Piraeus, and would hear of nothing else. According to this plan, as much opposed to the rules of strategy as the dictates of good sense, the army was divided into two bodies, Bourbacki, Vasso, and Panaighy Notaras, being instructed to assail the enemy from Eleusis, while the corps of John Notaras, that of Makriyani, the regulars, and foreign auxiliaries, should land at port Phalerus, under the nose of Reshid Pasha; the latter delicate operation the Executive committed to a Philhellene, who received the temporary rank of brigadier. Captain Hastings commanded, as commodore, the naval part of the expedition, consisting of the Karteria steam corvette, carrying eight sixty-four pounders, one Psarrian brig of sixteen, and another of twelve guns, five armed launches, and a mistik. To the brigade were attached five heavy cannon, (eighteen and twelve pounders,) four six, and six three pounders, directed by two German officers of artillery, and served by a company of twenty-five Philhellenes the gunners of the regular corps, and fifty Psarrian bruloteers; Count Porro performed with his usual assiduity the functions of intendant-general to the army of Attica. Every preparation being completed by the 2d of February, Vasso, Bourbacki, and Panaighy Notaras, assembled their troops at Eleusia; at the same time, those intended for Piræus passed from Megara into the isle of Salamis, where the ovens, depots, hospital, and magazines were established; the shipping congregated in the roadstead of Ambelaki.

History of the Greek Revolution Book III Chapter II by George Finlay. The prudence of Miaoulis, and the skill with which he contrived to introduce some degree of order into the fleet under his command during this cruise, afforded hope of further improvements in the Greek navy which were never realised. The skill of the captains in handling their ships received well-merited praise from all naval officers of every nation who witnessed their manoeuvres. But their ignorance of military science, and their awkwardness in the use of their imperfect artillery, did not allow them to derive any very decided advantage from their superior seaman-ship. The necessity of effecting a complete change in the naval system of the Greeks made a strong impression on an English officer who served as a volunteer at this time, and who made several proposals to attain the desired end by introducing steam-ships¹. His name was Frank Abney Hastings.

Note 1. General Gordon says, i. 364, "It was then that Frank Hastings commenced that course of honourable service which must ever connect his name with the emancipation of Greece." See also page 870, where it is mentioned that Hastings saved a vessel. He did so by going out on the bowsprit under a heavy fire of musketry. - Vol. ii. 441. Gordon adds, "If ever there was a disinterested and really useful Philhellene it was Hastings: he received no pay, and had expended most of his slender fortune in keeping the Karteria afloat for the last six months .... His ship, too, was the only one in the Greek navy where regular discipline was maintained." The sum expended by Hastings in the cause of Greece eventually exceeded £7000.

History of the Greek Revolution Book III Chapter III by Thomas Gordon. No sooner had the Greek general put his hand to it, than with the same pen he signed an order for the contingents of Canea and Kissamos to occupy the defiles and thus intercept them, while with the Sfakiotes, Seliniote Greeks, and his auxiliaries from the continent, he should pursue and fall upon their rear. The Mohammedans marched off at three o'cIock in the afternoon men, women, children, and cattle being huddled together; by half past four Khadeno was evacuated, and two hours later Tomhazi set out in pursuit: only two individuals (the Philhellenes Hastings and Hane) refused to follow him, declaring their detestation of such treachery. Notwithstanding its probahility of success, the authors of the abominable scheme in question were disappointed, for the Turks, being on their guard, sent forward a detachinent of picked men, who turned and defeated with slaughter the Greeks in the defiles; and although continually harassed, and obliged to abandon many females and a portion of their cattle, they mostly got into Canea. They had left at Khadeno 200 sick, recommending them to the humanity of the Christians; but the latter, as soon as they were in full possession of the place, set fire to a mosque that served as a hospital, and burned or stifled them all. By his perfidy on this occasion, Tombazi entirely effaced the moral effect his conduct at Kissamos had produced, and to which he owed the easy reduction of Selino.

History of the Greek Revolution Book III Chapter III by Thomas Gordon. That he might arrive in the island at the head of a respectable force, the wealthiest Cretans subscribed money for the purpose of levying troops and procuring warlike stores; Tombazi himself furnished a large sum, though on very hard terms, for he stipulated that the Candiote deputies attending the Congress should recognise the debt as a public one, that he should receive a heavy interest, and be enabled to repay himself the capital, by holding a monopoly of the oil crop. After the settling of these preliminaries, the next thing to be done was the raising troops, which at first went on slowly, because Colocotroni, apprehensive of a design to wrest Nauplia from him, would not allow any recruiting in that town, the resort of all idle soldiery in Greece. Indeed Tombazi did not seem anxious to enter on his command, until he saw what turn politics were likely to take subsequently to the conclusion of the assembly of Astros. He then made preparations in earnest, hired shipping, and getting permission from Colocotroni to set up bayraks in Napoli, enrolled about 1200 men, including Roumeliotes, Moreotes, a corps of Bulgarians, attracted to Greece by love of adventure and hatred to the Turks, and a company of Kranidiotes destined to serve the artillery, which last department of the expedition was confided to the direction of Captain Hastings.