A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Burt, Edward
BURT. (Commander, 1808. f-p., 15; h-p., 37.)
Edward Burt is half-brother of the late Lieut. Chas. Burt, R.N., who, when Midshipman, was the messmate and companion of Nelson and Troubridge in India.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 Aug. 1795, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Queen Charlotte 100, Capt. Sir Andrew Snape Douglas, flag-ship in the Channel of Lords Bridport and Howe, and, about June, 1797, removed, as Midshipman, to the Hydra 38, Capt. Sir Fras. Laforey. For many months afterwards he was constantly in action with the batteries and mortar-boats near Havre-de-Grace; and, on 1 May, 1798, he was present when the Hydra, in company with the Vesuvius bomb and Trial cutter, drove on shore, after an engagement of three-quarters of an hour, and by her boats destroyed, the French frigate La Confiante, of 36 guns and 300 men, besides putting to flight La Vésuve corvette, of 20 guns. He next joined, in succession, the Sans Pareil 80, and Quebec 32, both flagships of Lord Hugh Seymour in the West Indies, where, having passed his examination in 1801, he was promoted into the Elephant 74, bearing the flag of Sir John Thos. Duckworth, 28 Dec. 1802. Under Capts. Wm. Cumberland and Henry Whitby he subsequently, until July, 1804, served in the Pique and Desirée, and in those frigates assisted at the blockade of Cape François and in an action with the Duguay Trouin. He then joined Rear-Admiral Jas. Rich. Dacres in the Theseus 74, and, on 29 June, 1805, was transferred from the Hercule 74, into which ship that officer had shifted his flag, to the command of the Redbridge schooner, of 12 guns. In the latter vessel Lieut. Burt was afterwards shot through the hand while chasing a privateer into a port of Cuba; and, on 4 Nov. 1806, when off New Providence, he had the misfortune to be wrecked – a calamity, however, of any share in which he was by court-martial fully acquitted. His next appointments were – 1 May, 1807, to the command of the Sandwich schooner, and, 1 April, 1808, to that of the Shark sloop – on 18 of the same month, as Acting-Captain, to the Garland frigate – and, on 25 May following, to the Sparrow 16. During the long blockade of the city of St. Domingo, which ultimately capitulated on 6 July, 1809, he frequently signalized himself by his “great promptitude, zeal, and ability,” both under Capts. Stephen Thos. Digby and Wm. Pryce Cumby, but especially on two occasions – the first, in landing, through a tremendous surf, eight of the lower-deck guns, two of which he conveyed to the east battery, a distance of nearly 30 miles, over an almost impassable country[1] – and the second, in gallantly attacking and silencing the fire of a fort to the westward. Commander Burt, who afterwards escorted a convoy to England, and returned with another to Jamaica, was obliged to invalid, in 1810, from the effects of long service in a tropical climate. He has since that period been on half-pay.
Commander Burt, the only officer of his rank bearing a commission of 1808, was awarded the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 25 June, 1842. He has an eldest daughter, Charlotte Elizabeth, married to Commander L. H. Wray, R.N.; and a second, Anna, married, 28 Feb. 1842, to John Lewis, Esq., of the Madras Army, son of the late Rear-Admiral J. M. Lewis.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1420.