Robert Traill Spence

Robert Traill Spence (1785-1827) was also fighting in Tripoli when his father Keith was captured. When his ship, gun-boat Number 8, was blown up, he continued firing his gun until it sank underneath him. He married Mary Clare Carroll of Baltimore, member of a very distinguished family whose home, Mount Clare, is an historic building in Baltimore.

He was a post-captain by the time he was 27 and was given command of the West India fleet in 1826 but died the following year.

His son Carroll Spence(1818-1896) was US Minister Resident to the Sublime Porte (Constantinople) for four years (1853-57) and negotiated the first treaty between US and Persia.

Robert had a destroyer named after him, the USS Spence, which was launched in 1942 and served with distinction in the Pacific before being sunk by a typhoon in 1944.