A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Austen, Charles John
AUSTEN. (Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 1846. f-p., 31; h-p., 25.)
Charles John Austen, born in 1779, is a younger brother of Vice-Admiral Sir Fras. Wm. Austen, K.C.B.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy in July, 1791, and embarked, in Sept. 1794, as Midshipman, on board the Daedalus 32, Capt. Thos. Williams, whom he successively followed into the Unicorn 32, and Endymion 44. He was consequently present in the Unicorn at the capture of the Dutch brig-of-war Comet, of 18 guns, also of the French frigate La Tribune, of 44 guns and 339 men, and of the troop-ship La Ville de l’Orient. For his conduct in the Endymion, in driving into Helvoetsluys the Dutch line-of-battle ship Brutus, he was promoted to a Lieutenancy, 13 Dec. 1797, in the Scorpion 16, Capt. John Tremayne Rodd. After assisting at the capture of the Courier Dutch brig, carrying 6 guns and several swivels, Mr. Austen removed, in Dec. 1798, to the Tamar frigate, Capt. Thos. Western, and, on 16 Feb. 1799, was re-appointed to the Endymion; in which frigate, commanded successively by Capts. Sir T. Williams, Philip Chas. Durham, Henry Garrett, and John Larmour, he came into frequent contact with the enemy’s gun-boats off Algesiras, and assisted in making prize of several privateers. On the occasion, particularly, of the capture of the Scipio, of 18 guns and 140 men, which surrendered during a violent gale, he very intrepidly put off in a boat with only four men, and, having boarded the vessel, succeeded in retaining possession of her until the following day. In April, 1803, he again joined the Endymion, which frigate had been paid off at the peace, and continued to serve as her First Lieutenant until promoted, on the recommendation of his Captain, the Hon. Chas. Paget, for his conduct at the capture of three men-of-war and two privateers, to the command, 10 Oct. 1804, of the Indian sloop.[1] After a successful servitude of more than five years on the North America station, Capt. Austen was posted 10 May, 1810, into the Swiftsure 74, Sir John Borlase Warren’s flag-ship, from which he removed, 25 Sept. following, to the Cleopatra 32. From 20 Nov. 1811, until 30 Sept. 1814, we next find him discharging the arduous duties, in the Namur 74, of Flag-Captain to his patron, Sir Thos. Williams, Commander-in-Chief at the Nore. Being then appointed to the Phoenix 36, he proceeded to the Mediterranean, where, on the renewal of hostilities consequent on Buonaparte’s escape from Elba, he was sent, with the Undaunted 38, and Oakland 22, under his orders, in pursuit of a Neapolitan squadron, supposed to be in the Adriatic. Subsequently to the surrender of Naples, Capt. Austen, who had detached the Undaunted to scour the coast, instituted a close blockade of the harbour of Brindisi, and soon induced both the castle and two of the enemy’s largest frigates, then lying in the port, to hoist the colours of their restored monarch. Having acquired the unqualified approbation of Lord Exmouth throughout the whole of these operations, he was next despatched in search of a French squadron; but a cessation of hostilities intervening, he turned his attention to the suppression of piracy in the Archipelago, which he completely effected by the capture of two pirate vessels in the port of Pavos. On 20 Feb. 1816, the Phosenix was at length unavoidably wrecked during a hurricane near Smyrna, a disaster solely attributable to the ignorance of her pilots. Capt. Austen, who was therefore fully acquitted of all blame on the occasion, afterwards joined, 2 June, 1826, the Aurora 46, in which frigate he proceeded, as second in command, to the Jamaica station, where his exertions in crushing the slave-trade appear to have been most successful. On the paying off of the Aurora, in Dec. 1828, it was found that, during the two years and a half of her servitude under Capt. Austen’s command, she had not lost a single man by sickness or otherwise, and so favourable was the official report of her state of discipline and efficiency, that the subject of this memoir was at once nominated by Sir Edw. Griffith Colpoys to be his Flag-Captain in the Winchester 52, on the North America and West India station, where he continued until obliged to invalid, from the effects of a very severe accident, in Dec. 1830. His next appointment was, on 14 April, 1838, to the Bellerophon 80, in which ship he returned to the Mediterranean, where his exertions at the bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre, 3 Nov. 1840, procured him the Companionship of the Bath. On 2 Dec. following the Bellerophon was attacked by a violent storm, and nothing under Providence but the unparalleled exertions of the officers and crew, guided by Capt. Austen’s able management, preserved her from being cast away on the iron-bound shore of Syria, where, had she been wrecked, not a soul could have been saved. Since the paying off of the Bellerophon, in June, 1841, Capt. Austen (to whom the good-service pension had been awarded 28 Aug. 1840) was advanced to Flag-rank, 9 Nov. 1846.
He married, first, in 1807, Frances, youngest daughter of the late J. G. Palmer, Esq., Attorney-General at Bermuda, by whom he had issue three daughters; and, secondly, in 1820, Harriet, second daughter of the same gentleman, by whom he has two sons, both in the service of their county – the one in the army, the other, Charles John, a Lieutenant in the Navy. The youngest of the Rear-Admiral’s daughters is married to her cousin. Commander F. W. Austen, R.N. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.
- ↑ The Indian, on 19 June, 1808, captured La Jeune Estelle privateer, of 4 guns and 25 men.