A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Curlewis, William Edward
CURLEWIS. (Commander, 1841. f-p., 29; h-p., 15.)
William Edward Curlewis was born, 30 July, 1789, in London, and died about the commencement of 1847.
This officer entered the Navy, 21 May, 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Cerberus 32, Capt. Wm. Selby, and in Sept. following assisted, under the flag of Sir Jas. Saumarez, at the bombardment of Granville. On subsequently proceeding to the West Indies, we find him wounded while serving in the boats under Lieut. Wm. Coote, and extolled for his unsurpassable bravery, at the cutting out, on the night of 2 Jan. 1807, of two of the enemy’s vessels, defended by a most Tremendous fire from the batteries, near Pearl Rock, Martinique, which killed 2 men and wounded 10.[1] After witnessing the surrender to the Cerberus of the islands of Marie-galante and Deseada, Mr. Curlewis, in 1808, joined the Leviathan 74, Capt. John Harvey, and under that officer was present, 26 Oct. 1809, at the self-destruction, in the Mediterranean, of the French line-of-battle ships Robuste and Lion. He next served for some time in the Victory 100, flag-ship of Sir Jas. Saumarez in the Baltic, and being promoted, 28 Nov. 1811, to a Lieutenancy in the Cressy 74, Capt. Chas. Dudley Pater, was in company with the St. George 98 and Defence 74, in the gale which, on 24 Dec. following, proved so memorably fatal to those ships. From April, 1813, to Jan. 1814, Mr. Curlewis subsequently cruized in the North Sea on board the Cretan 18, Capt. Chas. Fred. Payne. He then became attached to the Warrior 74, Capts. Hon. Geo. Byng and John Tremayne Rodd, under the former of whom he sailed with convoy for the West Indies. Prior to being paid off, in Sept. 1815, Mr. Curlewis was caught in another dreadful hurricane, in which the Warrior lost her masts, guns, boats, and stores, and received 11 feet water in her hold. From 30 Sept. 1825, until March, 1831, he was next employed on the Coast Blockade as a Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Hyperion 42, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye; and from 22 April in the latter year until promoted to his present rank 23 Nov. 1841, he had charge of a station on the Coast Guard. He continued thenceforward on half-pay.
Commander Curlewis married in 1817, and has issue seven children. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 394.