A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Bayly, Peter
BAYLY. (Lieut., 1809. f-p., 15; h-p., 32.)
Peter Bayly is brother of Commander Jas. Bayly, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 8 April, 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Camilla 26, Capts. Robt. Larkan and Edw. Brace. After serving for some time off Newfoundland, and being obliged to put, in great distress, into Cork, in consequence of the Camilla having overset, he became successively attached, as Midshipman, between 1802 and 1809, to the Penelope 36, Capt. Hon. Henry Blackwood, Hercule 74, Capt. Solomon Ferris, Leda 38, Capt. Robt. Honyman, Zealand 64, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Bartholomew Sam. Rowley, Monmouth 74, Capt. Edw. Dumford King, and Solebay 32, Commodore Edw. Henry Columbine. While in the Leda, Mr. Bayly was present, 29 April, 1803, in a successful attack on a division of gun-boats off Boulogne – co-operated in the reduction, in Jan. 1806, of the Cape of Good Hope – witnessed the capture, 21 Feb. and 4 March following, of the Rolla brig and Volontaire frigate, in Table Bay – and, accompanying Sir Home Popham to the Rio de la Plata, took an active part in all the operations which preceded the final evacuation of Spanish America by the British in the summer of 1807. On the occasion of the re-capture of Buenos Ayres by its original possessors he narrowly escaped being involved in the destruction of a prize-schooner which he had set on fire; and at the storming of Monte Video, where he commanded a party of 40 seamen employed to co-operate with the troops, he was wounded in the face while assisting an officer of the Royal Artillery to hoist the union-jack on the citadel. During his continuance in the Leda, Mr. Bayly on one occasion fell from the main-yard into the waist, in consequence of which he was for several weeks speechless; and on another, he tripped from the maindeck head foremost into an empty peas-cask in the after hold, and was taken out apparently lifeless. He afterwards, in the Zealand, acted as Secretary to Admiral Rowley; made a voyage, in the Monmouth, to the East Indies; and in his passage to England in 1808, after having participated in the capture of a valuable Dutch settlement, broke his collar-bone in three places, and was for a twelvemonth deprived of the use of his right arm. He was ultimately confirmed to a Lieutenancy, 31 Aug. 1809, in the Derwent 20, Capt. John Tetley, and on his return home from the coast of Africa was appointed, towards the close of the same year, to the Curaçoa 26, Capt. John Tower. Continuing to serve in that frigate for a period of six years, he commanded a squadron of gun-boats at the taking of Genoa in April, 1814; and on one occasion succeeded, in a six-oared gig with 8 men, in boarding and capturing, when six other boats had failed, a French brig lying at anchor under a heavy battery. While hastening, however, to rejoin his ship, the prize was unfortunately struck by a shot under water, and immediately went down, scarcely affording time to himself and crew to effect their escape. On at length reaching the Curaçoa, the Captain presented him, in presence of the officers and crew, with the colours he had brought off and gave him every hope of promotion. The coming peace, however, blighted his expectations. He was paid off in Sept. 1815, and has not since been afloat.
Lieut. Bayly had the honour of dining with Buonaparte when King of Elba, and frequently with King Murat, by whom he was presented with an elegant diamond ring valued at 260l. He married 20 Jan. 1816, and has issue four sons and a daughter. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.