A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Chads, Henry Ducie
CHADS, C.B. (Captain, 1825. f-p., 27; h-p., 20.)
Henry Ducie Chads is eldest son of Capt. Henry Chads, R.N., who died 10 Oct. 1799.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth 25 Oct. 1800; and embarked, in Sept. 1803, as A.B., on board the Excellent 74, Capt. Frank Sotheron, in which he attained the rating of Midshipman in Aug. 1804, and served, until Aug. 1806, on the Mediterranean station, where he latterly contributed to the defence of Gaeta and the capture of Capri. After an intermediate attachment, on the Home station, to the Zealand 64, Capt. Robt. Hall, and Polyphemus 64, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Geo. Murray, be was promoted, 5 Nov. 1806, into the Illustrious 74, Capts. Wm. Shield and Wm. Robt. Broughton, employed at the blockade of Cadiz; and, in July, 1808, joined the Iphigenia 36, Capt. Henry Lambert, with whom he went to Quebec, and then to India. Passing over many events of minor importance, although fraught with danger, in which Lieut. Chads bore an active part, we find him, in July, 1810, receiving the public thanks of Lieut.-Col. Keating for his conduct at the landing of the troops previous to the conquest of Isle Bourbon; and, on being subsequently lent, with the Iphigenia’s launch and cutter, to the Sirius 36, Capt. Sam. Pym, particularly distinguishing himself at the capture, 13 Aug. following, of l’Ile de la Passe, the key to Grand Port in the Isle of France, on which occasion, Lieut. Wm. Norman [errata 1], the leading officer, having been killed in the onset, he succeeded to the command of the storming party, and had the satisfaction of seeing the enemy fly on all sides.[1] In the course of the same month he assumed a share in a series of gallant but unfortunate operations, which, by the 28th, terminated in the self-destruction of the British frigates Sirius, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Sam. Pym, and Magicienne, the capture of the Nereide, and the surrender to a powerful French squadron of the Iphigenia herself, after incurring an individual loss of at least 5 men killed and 13 wounded, at the entrance of Port Sud-Est. From the date last mentioned, Lieut. Chads remained subject to all the horrors of a dreadful captivity, until released at the subsequent reduction of the Mauritius, when he was re-appointed First of the Iphigenia, Capt. Thos. Gordon Caulfeild, with whom he returned to England, and was paid off in May, 1811. On 6 Dec. ensuing he became attached to the Semiramis 36, Capt. Chas. Richardson, employed off Cork and in the Channel; and, on 17 Aug. following, rejoined Capt. Lambert, as his Senior Lieutenant, in the Java, of 46 guns and a crew of 397 raw and inefficient men, in which ship, with Lieut.-General Thos. Hislop, the newly-appointed Commander-in-Chief at Bombay, on board, and two East Indiamen in escort, he sailed from Spithead 12 Nov. Being off the coast of Brazil on 29 Dec, the Java, whose anomalous crew had by this time been reduced to 377 men, fell in and came to close action with the powerful and ably-equipped American ship Constitution, of 55 guns and a complement of 480 veterans. After a desperate struggle of three hours and forty minutes, in the midst of which, Capt. Lambert being mortally wounded, the command devolved upon Lieut. Chads, the Java, having had 22 ¦ men killed and 102 wounded, and being withal reduced to the state of a sinking hulk, was forced to strike to her comparatively giant antagonist, but not until she had also inflicted a very serious loss.[2] It is scarcely needful here to add that Lieut. Chads and the whole of his surviving officers and men were most honourably acquitted by a court-martial (which, on their return home, in April, 1813, assembled to try them for the loss of their ship) of all blame in that disaster : the former personally obtained the highest encomiums for his “zeal, ability, and bravery,” and was most deservedly rewarded, by commission dated 28 May, 1813, with the command of the Columbia sloop of war. He afterwards signalized himself at the reduction of Guadeloupe in 1815,[3] and, on 24 Nov. in that year, was paid off. We next find Capt. Chads appointed, 22 Nov. 1823, to the Arachne 18, in which he proceeded to India, and there, on his own responsibility, joined in the expedition against Rangoon under Major-General Sir Archibald Campbell, to whom, by his wonderful exertions, he rendered, as Commander-in-Chief for a considerable time of the flotilla on the river Irawady, the most conspicuous and effective cooperation; insomuch, indeed, that he was advanced to Post-rank 25 July, 1825; confirmed in the command of the Alligator of 28 guns, 27 April, 1826; and nominated a C.B. 26 Dec. following; besides calling forth the thanks of the Supreme Government in India, and the praise of the House of Commons at home.[4] Having finally affixed his signature, as Senior Naval Officer and Civil Commissioner, to the treaty of peace concluded with the Burmese, he conveyed the first instalment of the indemnification money paid by them, from Yandaboo to Calcutta; and then, returning to Plymouth, paid the Alligator off, 3 Jan. 1827. He subsequently, from 2 Jan. 1834 until the close of 1837, and from 20 Aug. 1841 until the summer of 1845, commanded, on the East India station, the Andromache 28, and Cambrian 36; in the former of which, when in company with the Imogene, Capt. Price Blackwood, he forced the passage of the Boca Tigris, in China, 7 and 9 Sept. 1834. He has been employed, since 28 Aug. 1845, as Captain-Superintendent of the Royal Naval College, and Captain of the Excellent gunnery-ship.
Capt. Chads married, 26 Nov. 1815, Elizabeth Townshend, eldest daughter of John Pook, Esq., of Fareham, co. Hants, by whom he has issue.