A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Boxer, James
BOXER. (Captain, 1814. f-p., 17; h-p., 36.)
James Boxer, a native of Dover, is brother of Capt. Edw. Boxer, R.N., and of the late Commander Wm. Boxer, R.N. (1823), who died in the early part of 1842.
This officer entered the Navy, 14 April, 1794, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Diamond 38, Capt. Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, with whom he took part, as Midshipman, in the capture and destruction of the French national ships La Révolutionnaire of 44, L’Assemblée Nationale of 22, and L’Etourdie of 16 guns, Independently of many other dashing affairs and the hazardous service of reconnoitering Brest. On 18 April, 1796, he was in the boats with the gallant Sir Sidney when they were driven with a captured privateer far up the river Seine by the strength of the current, and there taken by the enemy, after an obstinate resistance. Regaining his liberty, however, in the following Aug., he rejoined the Diamond, at that time commanded by Sir Rich. John Strachan, with whom we find him serving off Cherbourg and Havre de Grace until again placed, 7 Aug. 1798, under the orders of Sir W. S. Smith, in the Tigre 80. Previously to the siege of St. Jean d’Acre, in 1799, Mr. Boxer, then Master’s Mate, was detached, in charge of the prize galliot Marianne, to examine minutely the coast east of Alexandria; and, at the investment of the former place by the French, he was very actively employed in command of a gun-boat, particularly on 1 May, in repelling the fourth desperate assault made by the enemy, and on one or two other occasions, when in the conveyance of despatches, he beat off vessels of superior force. Attaining the rank of Lieutenant, 14 Nov. 1800, he next, in 1801, accompanied the expedition to Egypt; and, for his services throughout the whole of the campaign, as Commander of the Tigre’s launch, was presented with the Turkish gold medal. Lieut. Boxer, whose ensuing appointment was, 12 March, 1803, to the Antelope 50, bearing the broad pendant in the North Sea of his friend Sir W. S. Smith, subsequently, on 31 March, 1804, led a division of boats, and was wounded, in a gallant and successful attack on a guard-vessel, the 'Schrik', of 6 guns and 94 men; after which he commanded, from Aug. in the same year until March, 1806, the Courier hired cutter, off Boulogne, Ushant, and Rochefort; and then became First of the Pompée 74, flag-ship in the Mediterranean of his patron, who, in Dec. of the latter year, appointed him to the Bergère sloop of war. In a few months he returned to the Pompée, and after participating, under the immediate orders of Vice-Admiral Hon. Hen. Edwin Stanhope, in the bombardment of Copenhagen, was promoted by the Admiralty to the rank of Commander 13 Oct. 1807. On 7 Nov. 1808, Capt, Boxer was appointed to the Skylark 16, in which sloop he was sent, preparatory to the Walcheren expedition, to ascertain the strength of the enemy’s defences at Flushing. On a later date, 10 Nov. 1811, he had the good fortune, in company with the Locust gun-brig, to capture one, carrying 4 guns and 60 men, and destroy another, of a flotilla of 12 gun-vessels, under a heavy fire of four hours from the enemy’s batteries and musketry near Calais,[1] The Skylark being unfortunately wrecked near Boulogne on 3 May, 1812, he next joined, on 15 Feb. 1814, the Albacore sloop, at Rio Janeiro, where he became Acting-Captain, 22 April following, of the Aquilon 32. He was officially posted on his return to England, by commission dated 19 July in the same year; and on 1 Oct. 1846, was placed upon the half-pay of retirement. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1811, p. 2193.