A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Bennet, Martin
BENNET. (Lieut., 1811. f-p., 24; h-p., 23.)
Martin Bennet was born 24 March, 1789.
This officer entered the Navy, 24 April, 1800, as a Boy, on board the Haughty gun-brig, Lieut.Commander Wm. Field, on the North Sea station, where, in Dec. 1801, he attained the rating of Midshipman in the Pylades 18, Capt. Wm. Boorder. We next find him, during an attachment of nearly six years to the Illustrious 74, Capts. Sir Chas. Hamilton, Michael Seymour, Wm. Sheild, Wm. Robt. Broughton, and Edw. Chetham, commanding a boat at the destruction of the French shipping in Basque Roads in April, 1809, and intrusted, in the ensuing expedition to the Walcheren, with the direction of two flat-bottomed boats and a cutter up the East Scheldt. Proceeding then to the West Indies in the Sceptre 74, Capt. Sam. Jas. Ballard, he witnessed the destruction, on 18 Dec. in the same year, of the French frigates Loire and Seine, in Anse la Barque, Guadeloupe, and on that occasion commanded the boats forming part of the force under Capt. Hugh Cameron, who was killed by his side, at the gallant storming of the fort by which they were protected. After serving for some months with Sir Alex. Cochrane in the Pompée 74, and Neptune 98, and witnessing in the former ship the reduction of Guadeloupe, Mr. Bennet rejoined the Sceptre, in the capacity of Acting-Lieutenant, 16 July, 1810. He was eventually, while employed on board the Barfleur 98, flagship in the Tagus of Hon. Geo. Cranfleld Berkeley, awarded a commission, dated 2 Nov. 1811; and on 18 of the following Dec. was appointed to the Elizabeth 74, Capt. Edw. Leveson Gower, stationed in the Mediterranean. He there, during the performance of much valuable service, came 17 times into conflict with the enemy, participated in the capture of the towns of Umago, Dignano, Fiumé, Porto Rea, Bocca Rea, Citta Nuova, and Rovigno, as also of the forts of Cantalazo and Cavo, and assisted at the blockade of Venice, Trieste, and Ragusa. At Umago he in part commanded the boats at the destruction of a 2-gun battery and the capture of 4 vessels, loaded with wine, that had been scuttled, 8 June, 1813; and on the occasion of the ensuing capture of Dignano he landed in charge of a party of seamen, and obtained great praise for his conduct.[1] From 15 June to 16 Aug. 1814, Mr. Bennet next officiated as Agent for Transports afloat; after which, on 1 Dec. in the same year, he became First of the Niobe troop-ship, Capt. Henry Collins Deacon, and co-operated in the reduction, in 1815, of Martinique and Guadeloupe. He left the Niobe 12 March, 1816, and since 17 April, 1838, has been employed in the Coast Guard.
Lieut. Bennet is married.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 2010.