 |
George Anson entered the navy at an early age and became a commander in 1722, and captain in 1724. He was for a long time on the South Carolina station. In 1740 he was made commander of a fleet sent to the South Sea, directed against the trade and colonies of Spain. The expedition consisted of five men-of-war and three smaller vessels, which carried 1400 men. After much suffering and many stirring adventures he reached the coast of Peru, made several prizes, and captured and burned the city of Paita. His squadron was now reduced to one ship, the Centurion, but with it he took the Spanish treasure galleon from Acapulco, and arrived in England in 1744, with treasure to the amount of £500,000, having circumnavigated the globe. His adventures and discoveries are described in the well-known Anson's Voyage, compiled from materials furnished by Anson. A few days after his return he was made rear-admiral of the blue, and not long after rear-admiral of the white. | |
| Lord George Anson, celebrated English navigator; born 1697, died 1762. |
Lord, Edward Hawke, a celebrated naval commander, born in 17O5, died 1781. He entered the navy as a midshipman,
in 1734 received the command of the Wolf, and in 1747 he became commander of a squadron, and defeated the French
fleet at Belleisle. Hawke was in consequence made a K,C.B., and vice-admiral of the blue. In 1759 he defeated the
French at Quiberon. Hawke was, in 1765, appointed vice-admiral of Britain, and was elevated to the peerage in 1776.
The Navy was controlled
by the Navy Discipline Act of 1660, which was, at the end of the war of the Austrian Succession, supplemented by
an Act of George II's reign.
John Byng, British admiral, born 1704, entered the navy in 1727, and served under his father, Admiral George Byng. He was sent to relieve Minorca, blockaded by a French fleet, but failed, it was thought, through hesitation in engaging the enemy. The public odium of the failure was such that the ministry allowed Byng, who was condemned by a court-martial, to be shot at Portsmouth. March 14. 1757.
Richard Howe, Earl Howe, English admiral, was the second son of Emanuel Scrope, second Viscount Howe, and was born in 1725, died 1799. He joined the navy at the age of fourteen, and served under Anson till 1745, when, though only twenty years of age, he obtained the command of the Baltimore sloop of war, in which he took part in the siege of Fort William, during the last Jacobite rebellion. In 1758 he reduced Cherbourg, and in the same year succeeded to the title of Viscount Howe. Having greatly distinguished himself on many occasions, and risen to be vice admiral of the blue, he was in 1782 created an earl. In the course of the same year he sailed to the relief of Gibraltar, which he effected in spite of the combined fleets of the enemy. In 1783 he accepted the post of first lord of the admiralty, which, with a partial intermission, he continued to hold until 1793, when, on the breaking out of the war with France, he took the command of the British fleet, and bringing the enemy to an action on June, 1, 1794, he obtained over them a decisive victory, for which he received the thanks of parliament and other honours. In 1797 Lord Howe exerted him. self with great success to quell the mutiny among the seamen at Portsmouth.
John Jervis Vincent, Earl Of St. a distinguished naval commander, descended
of a respectable family in Staffordshire, was born in 1734. He entered the navy at an early age, and commanded
the Foudroyant in the action between Admiral Keppel and the
French fleet in July 1778. In 1794 he commanded a squadron in the West Indies, and reduced Martinique, Guadeloupe,
and St. Lucia. On the 14th Feb.1797, in command of the Mediterranean squadron of fifteen sail, he defeated twenty-seven
Spanish ships of the line off Cape St Vincent, and was created a peer with the title of Baron Jervis and Earl of
St. Vincent, and a pension of £3000 a year. In 1799 he became admiral; in 1801 first lord of the admiralty;
and in 1821 admiral of the fleet He died in 1823.
Charles Napier entered the navy as midshipman in 1799, was
promoted lieutenant in 1805, and sent to the West Indies, where he served in the operations against the French.
He was promoted commander by Admiral Cochrane in August 1809, and in 1811 was employed in Portugal and along the
coast of Southern Italy.
In 1813 he was attached to the North American squadron, and in August of the following year he led the expedition
up the Potomac river. At the conclusion of the war he was made a C.B. In 1833 he accepted the command of the Portuguese
Constitutional fleet, and effected the establishment of Donna Maria on the throne. Returning to England, he was
appointed in 1839 to the command of the Powerful, and ordered to the Mediterranean, where, on the outbreak of the
war between Mehemet Ali and the Porte, and the co-operation of Britain with Russia and Austria on behalf of the
latter power, Sir Charles Napier performed some of his most gallant exploits, including the storming of Sidon and
the capture of Acre.
Admiral Sir Charles Napier, naval commander, cousin of Sir Charles James
and Sir William Napier, was born in 1786; died in 1860.
Having blockaded Alexandria, he concluded
on his own responsibility a convention with Mehemet Ali, by which the latter and his family were guaranteed in
the hereditary sovereignty of Egypt on resigning all claim to Syria.
On his return to England
he was created K.C.B. In 1841 he was elected member for Marylebone. In 1847 he received the command of the Channel
Fleet as rear-admiral; and in 1854, on the commencement of the Russian war, he was nominated to the command of
the Baltic fleet, being now a rear-admiral. In this capacity he accomplished little beyond the capture of Bomarsund.
He sat in parliament as member for Southwark from 1855 till his death. He published a series of Letters to Lord
Melville on the State of the Navy; an account of the War in Portugal and of the War in Syria; and numerous contributions
