A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Belsey, Henry
BELSEY. (Lieut., 1812. f-p., 18; h-p., 30.)
Henry Belsey, born 10 May, 1790, at Dover, co. Kent, is nephew, maternally, of Capt. Geo. Sayer, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 25 Feb. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Ulysses 44, armee en flûte, commanded by his uncle Capt. Sayer; removed, in Feb. 1800, to the Regulus 44, Capt. Thos. Pressland; and, on attending the expedition to Egypt, in 1801, assisted at the landing of the troops, was much employed at the signals, and, from constant night-duty in an armed flat-bottomed boat on the river Nile, caught the plague. The Regulus subsequently conveyed the remains of the French army to Marseilles, and was paid off at the peace. In May, 1804, Mr. Belsey joined the Tartarus bomb, Capts. Fras. Temple, Mauritius Adolphus Newton De Starck, and Thos. Withers, and, on that vessel being wrecked on Margate sands in Dec. following, rendered himself particularly useful in conveying away a body of prisoners. On the same occasion he narrowly escaped a watery grave, in consequence of a boat he was in being struck by a heavy sea and dashed to pieces against the side of the ship. He was immediately after the catastrophe voluntarily entered by Capt. Thos. Bayley as a Midshipman on board the Inflexible 64, in which ship he continued to serve until June, 1805, when, owing to her having been run foul of by the St. Albans 64, he was transferred to the Elephant 74, Capt. Geo. Dundas. Proceeding then to the West Indies, Mr. Belsey, on 23 Jan. 1807, had the good fortune to rescue in a boat from off the bowsprit of the Orpheus, when that frigate was wrecked, her Captain, the present Sir Thos. Briggs; and he was on board the Elephant when she subsequently grounded off the Havana, and was only got off after an intense labour of 12 hours, all her water having been previously started, and the shot and 68 of the guns thrown overboard. Between July, 1807, at which period he returned home with convoy, and Aug. 1810, we find him serving, chiefly as Master’s Mate, in the Bulwark 74, Capt. Hon. Chas. Elphinstone Fleeming, Little Belt 18, Capt. John Crispo, and Guerrière 40. Capt. David Lloyd, on the Cadiz, African, and Halifax stations; and during that period acquiring the high praise of Capt. Crispo for the strict attention to his duty when the Little Belt was dismasted and obliged to put into port. He then served for nearly two years as Acting-Lieutenant of the Halifax 18, Capt. Alex. Fraser, and, in the early part of 1811, was detached in command of a detained American tender in a very leaky condition to Halifax, which port, after encountering desperate weather, he only succeeded in reaching through a series of the most skilful manoeuvres. Being at length officially promoted, by commission dated 21 March, 1812, Mr. Belsey next joined, for short periods, the Bold 10, Echo 18, and Bermuda 10, Capts. John Skekel, Thos. Perceval, and Wm. Wolrige, on the Channel and Lisbon stations, from the latter of which vessels he invalided 6 April, 1815. He subsequently held a command in the Coast Guard, from 4 Dec. 1827, until 6 July, 1833; and, while so employed, succeeded in effecting two seizures, and was on one occasion nearly drowned by the capsizing of a boat. He has since been on half-pay.
Lieut. Belsey married, 15 Nov. 1813, Mary Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Capt. Cooke, by whom he has issue nine children. He resided, with permission, from 1816 to 1820, in the Telegraph House near Barham; and, since 1837, has been dwelling in the Semaphore House, at Chatsford Head, Winchester. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.