A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Criswick, Charles
CRISWICK. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 10; h-p., 32.)
Charles Criswick entered the Navy, 17 March, 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Dreadnought 98, Capt. Edw. Rotheram, bearing the flag off Cadiz of Vice-Admiral Collingwood; and, on accompanying those officers into the Royal Sovereign 100, took part in the battle of Trafalgar, 21 Oct. 1805. In Nov. following he removed with Capt. Rotheram, as Midshipman, to the Bellerophon 74, commanded afterwards in the Baltic and North Sea by Capts. Sam. Warren, Wm. Henry Dillon, and John Halsted, with whom he continued until transferred, in Feb. 1811, to the Southampton, of 38 guns and 212 men, Capt. Sir Jas. Lucas Yeo. On 3 Feb. 1812, he assisted at the capture of the Haytian frigate Amthyste, of 44 guns and 700 men, at the close of a sharp contest, in which the enemy had 105 men killed and 120 wounded, and the British only 1 man killed and 10 wounded. The Southampton, after making prize of the United States brig Vixen 14, was eventually wrecked on a reef of rocks near Conception island, 27 Nov. 1812. From May, 1813, until Sept. 1814, Mr. Criswick appears to have been next employed on the Canadian lakes in the capacity of Acting-Lieutenant. In March of the latter year, while commanding a division of gun-boats under Capt. Dan. Pring, he co-operated with Major Handcock in the defence of La Cole Mill, by forwarding stores and landing guns, as also by effectually obstructing the passage of General Wilkinson’s army across the river;[1] and, on 11 Sept. following, he was on board the Confiance, of 37 guns and 270 men, Capt. Geo. Downie, when that ship and several others were taken beneath the hostile batteries of Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain, by a greatly superior American squadron under Commodore Macdonough, on which occasion the loss of the Confiance amounted to 41 killed, including Capt. Downie, and 60 wounded. Mr. Criswick, whose commission is dated 9 March, 1815, has not since been employed.
He is married, and has issue.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 1366.