A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Coates, George Lewis
COATES. (Lieut., 1812. f-p., 9; h-p., 34.)
George Lewis Coates, born 20 March, 1784, is brother of Edw. Coates, Esq., Surgeon R.N., who died while serving in the East Indies in 1822.
This officer entered the Navy (from the merchant service), 3 Aug. 1804, as Midshipman, on board the St. Alban’s 64, Capt. John Temple; removed, as Master’s Mate, in March, 1805, to the Volcano bomb, Capt. Edw. Killwick, by whom he was much employed on boat service against the French flotilla at Dunkerque, Calais, and Boulogne; and, having joined in March, 1806, the Leveret 18, Capts. Geo. Burgoyne Salt and Jas. Rich. Lawrence O’Connor, attended the expedition to Copenhagen in Aug. and Sept. 1807, and was wrecked, 10 Nov. following, on the Galloper Rock, on which occasion he was among the last to leave the vessel, although rapidly sinking. Being draughted next into the Leonidas 38, Capts. Jas. Dunbar, Henry Hope, and Anselm John Griffiths, he served for two years under those officers in various parts of the Mediterranean; and then, in Dec. 1809, joined, on the same station, the Espoir 18, Capt. Robt. Mitford. Besides officiating as Prize-Master of several captures, Mr. Coates, on 4 April, 1810, assisted, as Master’s Mate, and was reported in the highest terms for his conduct, at the destruction, by the boats of the Success 32, and Espoir, under Lieut. Geo. Rose Sartorius, of several vessels, well protected on the beach abreast of Castiglione;[1] and he subsequently contributed, with the boats of the latter sloop and of the Spartan 38, to the capture of other craft from beneath the fire of a battery and musketry at Terracina. We afterwards find him for short periods attached to the San Josef 110, flag-ship of Sir Chas. Cotton, Rodney 74, Capt. Geo. Burlton, Halcyon 16, Capt. Thos. Stamp, and Nautilus 18, Capt. Thos. Dench. While on board the Halcyon, Mr. Coates was present with the Bustard in an attack on several small vessels on the coast of Catalonia; and, when in the Nautilus, he took a privateer of more than 100 men, off the island of Sardinia. Having received his commission 21 March, 1812, he obtained an appointment, 11 Aug. 1813, to the Blenheim 74, Capt. Sam. Warren, with whom he served in the North Sea, and again in the Mediterranean, until the close of 1814; since which period he has been on half-pay.
Lieut. Coates married, 10 June, 1836, Miss Harriet Elizabeth Adams, and has issue two daughters.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1138.