Early Career
Hennah was born in January 1768 and baptised on the 7th, the son of Richard Hennah, the vicar of St Austell in Cornwall. He joined the navy as a teenager, following his Cornish hero, the circumnavigator Samuel Wallis into service. Hennah became a lieutenant in the general promotion at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War in 1793, but afterwards had little opportunity for distinction until 1800, when he participated in a boat raid on the Morbihan river in which the French corvette RĂ©loaise was burnt. He reportedly acquitted himself "with great judgement and gallantry", under the command of Lieutenant John Pilfold, another lieutenant who was to command a ship at Trafalgar.
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