Jump to content

A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Blake, George Hans

From Wikisource
1637568A Naval Biographical Dictionary — Blake, George HansWilliam Richard O'Byrne

BLAKE. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 15; h-p., 28.)

George Hans Blake, born in Aug. 1791, is son of the late Capt. Geo. Blake, R.N. (1802), who died in April, 1822.

This officer entered the Navy, in Aug. 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Lively 38, Capts. Graham Eden Hamond and Geo. M‘Kinley. On 5 Oct. following we find him present, under Capt. Hamond, at the capture of three Spanish frigates laden with treasure, and the destruction of a fourth, off Cape St. Mary; and on 29 May, 1805, participating in the Lively’s single-handed and self-sought skirmish with the Spanish 74-gun ship Glorioso. While in charge, as Midshipman, of a prize, Mr. Blake was unfortunately, on 14 Oct. 1807, captured and taken to France, where he was detained a prisoner until the conclusion of the war in 1814. He then successively joined the Prince 98, flagship at Portsmouth of Sir Richard Bickerston, and Leviathan 74, Capts. Adam Drummond and Thos. Briggs, attached to the fleet in the Mediterranean, whence, having been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 22 of the preceding Feb., he returned to England in Dec. 1815. His next appointments were – 18 March, 1817, to the Martin 16, Capt. Andw. Mitchell, in which vessel he was wrecked off the coast of Ireland on 8 Dec. in the same year – and, 5 Aug. 1819, to the Severn 50, Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch, lying in the Downs for the purposes of the Coast Blockade. He left that service in April, 1822, and has since been on half-pay.

Lieut. Blake married, 17 March, 1827, Harriette, second daughter of the late Wm. Leeke, Esq., and grand-daughter of the late Rear-Admiral Isaac Vaillant.