Commander Robert Benjamin Young, RN (15 September 1773 – 26 November 1846) was an officer in the Royal Navy. His service in small ships led to his presence observing the battle of Trafalgar in 1805 from the deck of the tiny 10-gun cutter . Following this battle, Young performed well, acting as messenger and rescue boat during the storm, although the honour of carrying the dispatches back to England was given to John Richards Lapenotiere, commander of HMS Pickle; Young maintained that prior to the battle Admiral Nelson had promised this honour to him. Early life Born in 1773 at Douglas on the Isle of Man, Young joined his father's ship, the frigate HMS Severn in 1781, and passed for lieutenant ten years later in the buildup to the French Revolutionary Wars. He was however unable to gain a position of this rank until 1795, when he was sent to the Caribbean on HMS Thorn, and was commended for the capture of the French corvette Courier-National and for an armed landing on the island of St Vincent in which he was embroiled in the thick of the fighting but was unhurt. Sailing in HMS Bonne Citoyenne, he was an observer of the battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797, and was badly wounded by a collapsing spar during a gun action a few weeks later. Returning for duty in 1798, Young participated in the defence of Gibraltar and was present in the aftermath of the Battle of the Nile, aiding in repairs and consolidation of the British fleet. Battle of Trafalgar He returned home on HMS Colossus, and witnessed her shipwreck in the Isles of Scilly before joining the ship of the line HMS Goliath and almost being wrecked on her too, when she was dismasted and almost capsized in the West Indies. Young was commended for his excellent conduct in this operation, and was even able to take some enemy prizes despite the battered nature of his ship. His reward for this was to be given command of the Entreprenante following the Peace of Amiens and to take her as a despatch vessel to Nelson's fleet off Cádiz. Young claimed for the rest of life that when the combined fleet emerged on 21 October, Nelson ordered him to remain close to HMS Victory, so that despatches home could be instantly sent off. No written record has survived of such