A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Bluett, Buckland Sterling
BLUETT, K.H. (Captain, 1812. f-p., 14; h-p., 42.)
Buckland Sterling Bluett died in Nov. 1845. He was of the family of Bluett, of Halcombe Court, co. Devon, and was son of the late Lieut. John Bluett, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 23 Dec. 1789, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Salisbury 50, Capt. Wm. Domett; served next, with Sir Andrew Snape Hamond, in the Vanguard and Bedford 74’s; and, after an unemployed interval of three years and a half, became Midshipman, in Sept. 1797, of the Marlborough 74, Capts. Joseph Ellison and Thos. Sotheby, in which ship he continued to be employed, on the Mediterranean station, until Aug. 1800. He then joined, for very brief periods, the Royal George and Ville de Paris, flag-ships, off Brest, of Earl St. Vincent, by whom, for his previous conduct in a night-encounter in the boats with some Spanish gun-vessels off Cadiz, he was promoted, 14 Nov. following, to a Lieutenancy in the St. George 98, Capt. Sampson Edwards. He was confirmed, on 24 of the same month, into the Seagull sloop, Capts. Thos. Lane and John Wainwright, and while in that vessel was frequently engaged in landing emissaries on the coast of France, where on one occasion he was wounded. He subsequently joined, on 3 Sept. 1802, the Resistance frigate, commanded in the Mediterranean by Capt. Hon. Philip Wodehouse, and, on 22 Nov. 1803, the Scorpion 18, Capt. Geo. Nicholas Hardinge. In the boats of the latter vessel, and of the Beaver 14, led in person by Capt. Hardinge, Lieut. Bluett assisted, on 31 March, 1804, in capturing, in the Vlie Passage, after a most spirited and determined conflict, the Dutch brig Atalante of 16 long 12-pounders and 76 men, which, however, owing to the tempestuous state of the weather and the intricacy of the navigation, it took three days of intense labour to bring out. The enemy in the affair lost their captain and 3 seamen killed, and 11 others severely wounded; the British only 5 wounded, including Lieut. Bluett, whom the Patriotic Society in consequence presented with a sword valued at 50l., and the Admiralty rewarded with a Commander’s commission, dated 10 April, the day the intelligence reached England. His subsequent appointments were – 28 Sept. 1805, to the Wasp 18, on the Leeward Islands station, whither he proceeded in charge of convoy, from Cork, and where he captured, 24 May, 1806, Le Napoléon French privateer of 14 guns, which, together with her consort, L’Imperiale, had been sent from Guadeloupe the night before to cut out some merchantmen lying in Rosseau Bay, Dominica – 25 Oct. 1806, to the command pro tem, of the Merlin [errata 1] sloop – 13 March, 1809, to the Saracen brig, in which he took, 12 Oct. 1810, on the Jamaica station, La Caroline, another French privateer, of 1 gun and 42 men – 14 July, 1812, to the Childers sloop, lying at Portsmouth, where he was superseded on advancement to Post-rank, 12 Aug. following – and, 4 Jan. 1815, to the Leven of 24 guns, in which ship we find him for some time very actively engaged in assisting the Royalists of La Vendée, and supplying them with arms and ammunition. He went on half-pay in Nov. 1815, and was not afterwards employed.
Capt. Bluett was nominated a K.H. 25 Jan. 1836. He married, 11 March, 1813, Emily, daughter of T. Powell, Esq., of Hammersmith, co. Middlesex, and by that lady has left issue.