A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Crouch, Edward Thomas
CROUCH. (Commander, 1821. f-p., 26; h-p., 23.)
Edward Thomas Crouch died in Dec. 1846.
This officer entered the Navy, 16 June, 1798, as A.B., on board the Royal Oak 74, Capt. Thos. Rowe, lying at Portsmouth, where he attained the rating of Midshipman 16 Dec. 1799. He became attached, in June, 1801, to the Malta 80, Capt. Albemarle Bertie, employed on Channel service; was wrecked, while afterwards serving on board the Apollo 36, Capt. John Wm. Taylor Dixon, off the coast of Portugal, 1 April, 1804; then joined the Puissant 74, Capt. John Irwin, guard-ship at Spithead; was appointed, 19 March, 1805, Sub-Lieutenant of the Growler gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Jonas Rose; and, on 7 May following, obtained a full Lieutenancy in the Warrior 74, Capts. Sam. Hood Linzee, Michael Seymour, and John Wm. Spranger. Rejoining Capt. Seymour, 13 June, 1807, in the Amethyst, of 42 guns and 261 men, Mr. Crouch won the official praise of that gallant Commander by his admirable exertions at the capture, 11 Nov. 1808, off L’Orient, of the French frigate La Thetis, of 44 guns and 436 men, including troops, which was boarded and carried at the close of a furious contest of more than three hours, in which the British lost 19 men killed and 51 wounded, and the enemy 135 killed and 102 wounded.[1] On 6 April, 1809, he also took part in a severe intermittent action of about four hours, which terminated in the capture, with a loss to the Amethyst of 8 men killed and 37 wounded, of another of the enemy’s frigates, Le Niemen, of 46 guns and 339 men, of whom 47 were slain and 73 wounded. After attending the expedition to Flushing, Mr. Crouch, in Sept. 1809, accompanied Capt. Seymour, as First-Lieutenant, into his prize, the Niemen, which had been added to the British Navy as a 38-gun frigate; and, on 13 April, 1812, he again followed him, in a similar capacity, into the Hannibal 74. While cruizing off Cherbourg, in March, 1814, we further discover him assisting at the capture, and conducting as Prize-Master into Portsmouth, the 40-gun frigate Sultane. From 10 Sept. 1818, until his attainment of Commander’s rank, 19 July, 1821, Lieut. Crouch served, with Sir M. Seymour and Capt. Thos. Harvey, as Senior of the Northumberland 78, guard-ship in the river Medway; after which he held a command in the Coast Guard from 1825 until 1828; and officiated as Secretary, in 1833-4, to his friend Sir M. Seymour, then Commander-in-Chief on the South American station, and, from the early part of 1842, until 18 Jan. 1844, to Sir Edw. Brace, Commander-in-Chief at the Nore. He died Superintendent of the Packet service at Southampton, to which he had been but just appointed.
He married, 4 Dec. 1814, the only daughter of Capt. Rich. Runwa Bowyer (1798), who died 11 Feb. 1823; and has left, with other issue, a son, the present Commander Edw. Crouch, R.N. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1808, p. 1555.