GREEK INDEPENDENCE. 1829-1831


In letters written from Stockholm to his father and brother in the
autumn of 1828, Captain Yorke expresses very urgently his desire to find
himself again on active service. 'I see the Lord High Admiral is out,'
he wrote to Sir Joseph in September of that year, 'and whoever comes in,
pray try and get me to the Mediterranean if it is possible.' A month
later his brother, the Rev. Henry Yorke, is reminded of the same wish.
'Since the Russians have blockaded the Dardanelles and old Melville has
again taken up the cudgels, I do not know what to think, and I anxiously
await a line from England. Employment is what I most wish, and now more
than ever, for England will be at war ere long. I trust in God my
friends will stir for me.'

Captain Yorke's anticipation of a war in which England should be
involved was not fulfilled, but the chafing at a life of inaction by the
ardent sailor which appears so clearly in his letters was soon relieved
by his appointment to the command of the brig _Alligator_ in
November or December of 1828.

After some short service in home waters, during which he visited the
Orkneys, Captain Yorke was ordered to take the _Alligator_ to the
Mediterranean station, where it doubtless occurred to the authorities
that the energy and ability he had shown when in command of the
_Alacrity_ in Greek waters a few years earlier would be of service
in the new circumstances which had arisen in that part of the world. The
Greek War of Independence, which was in full progress when Captain Yorke
was engaged in suppressing the piracy of which it was a chief cause in