A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Chapman, Isham Fleming
CHAPMAN. (Captain, 1824. f-p., 24; h-p., 31.)
Isham Fleming Chapman is son of the late Isham Chapman, Esq., who, for more than half a century, held an appointment under the Board of Customs.
This officer entered the Navy, in Nov. 1792, as Midshipman, on board the Rattler sloop, in which he sailed for the South Seas on a voyage of discovery. In 1797 he joined the Diana 38, Capt. Jonathan Faulknor, on the Irish station; and, from 1798, until May, 1802, he served in the West Indies, latterly as Acting-Lieutenant, on board the Brunswick 74, flag-ship of Vice-Admiral Rich. Rodney Bligh, Décade, Capt. Wm. Geo. Rutherford, and Fortunée 36, Capt. Henry Vansittart. While in the Décade he was wounded in the course of a cutting-out expedition : in the Fortunée he assisted, with the boats, at the capture of a privateer of 100 men. On 11 Feb. 1808, he was promoted to a Lieutenancy, in the Invincible 74, Capts. Ross Donnelly and Chas. Adam, under the former of whom, when at the siege of Cadiz in 1810, he signalised himself by the handsome manner in which he volunteered his services at the defence of Fort Matagorda, and was again wounded.[1] We afterwards find him appointed, in succession, as First-Lieutenant – 12 Nov. 1810, and 19 Dec. 1811, to the Téméraire 98 and Royal George 100, flag-ships off Toulon of Rear-Admiral Fras. Pickmore – 14 Oct. 1813, to the Curaçoa 36, Capt. John Tower, under whom he assisted at the reduction of Genoa – 22 April, 1814, to the Edinburgh 74, Capt. Hon. Geo. Heneage Lawrence Dundas, of which ship he became for a short time Acting-Captain – and next, to the Maeander 38, Capt. Burton, Queen 74, flagship of Rear-Admiral Chas. Vinicombe Penrose, Malta 84, Capt. Wm. Chas. Fahie (under whom he beheld the fall of Gaeta), and Bombay 74, Capt. Henry Bazely. Having attained the rank of Commander, 31 Aug. 1815, Capt. Chapman, on 29 Dec. 1818, joined the Nautilus 18, fitting at Deptford for the St. Helena station, from which vessel he was for a brief period transferred, 30 Dec. 1820, as Acting-Captain to the Euryalus 42, at Jamaica; and, on 29 Dec. 1824, he was posted, from L’Espiègle 18, in which he had been surveying the western coast of Africa, into the Ariadne 26, attached to the force at the Cape of Good Hope. Capt. Chapman, who had not been employed since Jan. 1826, accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 674.