A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Capel, Thomas Bladen
CAPEL, K.C.B. (Vice-Admiral of the Red, 1837. f-p., 28; h-p., 37.)
The Honourable Sir Thomas Bladen Capel, born 25 Aug. 1776, is youngest son of William, fourth Earl of Essex, by his second wife, Harriet, daughter of Col. Thos. Bladen; brother of Lieut.General Hon. Thos. Edw. Capel; and uncle of the present Earl of Essex, and of Commander A. H. C. Capel, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 22 March, 1782, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Phaeton 38, Capt. Waldegrave, on the books of which ship he was borne until April, 1783. He ultimately embarked, 12 April, 1792, on board the Assistance 50, Capt. Mansfield, stationed off Newfoundland; there became Midshipman, 1 March, 1793, of the Syren 32, Capt. John Manley; and was afterwards successively employed, with Capt. Manley, in the Apollo 28, and, with Lord Hugh Seymour, in the Leviathan 74 and Sans Pareil 80, of which latter ship, after participating, 23 July, 1795, in Lord Bridport’s action, he was appointed, 16 May, 1796, an Acting-Lieutenant. On 5 April, 1797, we find Mr. Capel officially promoted into the Cambrian 40, Capt. Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge, employed, similarly with the three ships last named, on the Home station; and next appointed, 12 April, 1798, to the Vanguard 74, flag-ship of Sir Horatio Nelson, by whom, in acknowledgment of his services as Signal-Lieutenant at the battle of the Nile, he was advanced, 4 Aug. 1798, to the command of the Mutine of 16 guns, and sent home in charge of a duplicate of the despatches, and of the sword of M. Blanquet, the Senior French officer surviving.[1] His commission was confirmed by the Admiralty, 20 Oct. following, and his elevation to Post-rank effected, while in command of the Alecto sloop at Spithead, 27 Dec. in the same year. Capt. Capel’s ensuing appointments, until Oct. 1814, appear to have been – 5 Jan. 1799, to the Arab 22, on the West India station – 19 July, 1800, to the Meleager 32, in which he had the misfortune to be wrecked on the Triangle Rocks, in the Gulf of Mexico, 9 June, 1801 – 21 May, 1802, to the Révolutionnaire 38, lying at Spithead – 24 Aug. 1802, to the Phoebe 36, on the Mediterranean station, where, during Nelson’s pursuit of the combined fleets to the West Indies, he was left with 5 frigates and 2 bombs to cover Sardinia, Sicily, and the route to Egypt, from any troops that might be sent to land in those places; after which service he shared in the battle of Trafalgar, and at its close saved from destruction, by his extraordinary exertions, the prizeship-of-the-line Swiftsure[2] – 27 Dec. 1805, to the Endymion 40, in which he conveyed the British Ambassador to and from Constantinople, and lost, during the hostile operations carried on at the Dardanells, where he acted a conspicuous part, and distinguished himself by his zealous attention and assiduity, 3 men killed and 10 wounded[3] – and, 14 Dec. 1811, to La Hogue 74, stationed latterly on the north coast of America, where we find him in command of a small squadron blockading the enemy’s frigates in New London, and sharing generally in the warfare vdth the United States. On 15 Dec. 1821, Capt. Capel, who had been nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815, assumed command of the Royal George yacht, in which, and in the Apollo, another royal yacht, he remained until advanced, 27 May, 1825, to the rank of Rear-Admiral. He was constituted a K.C.B. 20 Feb. 1832; and, from 30 May, 1834, until July, 1837, commanded in chief on the East India station, with his flag in the Winchester 50. He has since been on half-pay. The rank of Vice-Admiral had been conferred on him 10 Jan. 1837.
Sir T. B. Capel was one of the officers who sat on the court-martial appointed, in Dec. 1805, to try Sir Robt. Calder for his conduct on 22 of the previous July.
He married, 10 May, 1816, Harriet Catherine, only daughter of Fras. Geo. Smyth, Esq. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.