A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Bisset, Alexander
BISSET. (Lieutenant, 1808. f-p., 15; h-p., 33.)
Alexander Bisset entered the Navy, 16 July, 1799 as Third-cl. Boy, on board the Weazle 16, Capt. Wm. D’Urban, employed on Particular Services off Jersey and in the Mediterranean; attained the rating of Midshipman 28 Aug. 1801; and, in Oct. 1803, removed, with the same Captain, as Master’s Mate, to the Ambuscade 32, in which we find him assisting, towards the close of 1804, at the capture of a Spanish convoy, with troops, stores, &c., on board, intended for the defence of Minorca. In May, 1807, he became attached to the Ocean 98, bearing the flag of Lord Collingwood, and on 9 Jan. 1808, was appointed Acting-Lieutenant of the Delight 16, Capt. Philip Cosby Handfleld. While endeavouring, on 30 of the same month, to recapture four Sicilian gun-boats, the latter sloop grounded under the batteries of Reggio, and, after losing her Captain, was burnt by the surviving crew to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy; whereupon Mr. Bisset was appointed, also as Acting-Lieutenant, to the Wizard 16, Capt. Abel Ferris. On 1 Aug. following, it having been determined to bring out a convoy of ten deeply-laden coasters lying at anchor, under protection of a gun-boat, close to the beach abreast of the town of Noli, on the coast of Italy, he was detached in command of the Wizard’s boats to co-operate with those of the Kent 74, in effecting their capture. Although the vessels were fastened to the shore by ropes from their keels and mastheads, and were further defended by the fire of two adjacent field-pieces, of a heavy gun in front of the town, and of a continued volley of musketry, yet were they all, together with the gun-boat, boarded and carried by the resistless intrepidity of the British, headed by Lieut. Bisset, and Lieuts. Jas. Lindsay and Fairfax Moresby, of the Kent, while another party, having landed, dislodged a considerable body of regular troops, and took and destroyed the guns.[1] For his gallant conduct on this occasion, Mr. Bisset, on 27 Dec. in the same year, obtained his official promotion. He was subsequently appointed – 19 May, 1809, to the Sabine sloop, Capt. Jas. Donner, also employed in the Mediterranean – 25 Jan. 1810, to the Ulysses 44, Capt. Henry Edw. Reginald Baker, on the Lisbon station, bearing the flag, afterwards, of Vice-Admiral Philip D’Auvergne, Prince de Bouillon, off Jersey – and, 15 Sept. 1812, to be Agent for Transports afloat. He has not been employed since 11 Feb. 1814.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 15.