A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Dawson, John
DAWSON. (Lieut., 1811. f-p., 12; h-p., 34.)
John Dawson entered the Navy, 25 July, 1801, as A.B., on board the Intrepid 64, Capt. Wm. Hargood, stationed in the East Indies, where he attained the rating of Midshipman, 1 Oct. 1801. On his return home he joined, in April, 1803, the Texel 64, Capt. Hon. Geo. Byng; under whom (if we except a few months, from 28 June to 6 Nov. 1807, when he officiated as Acting-Master of the Sea Flower gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Wm. Fitzwilliam Owen) he continued to serve, in the Texel 64, Malabar 50, Belliqueux 64, and Warrior 74, until Dec. 1811. During that period he accompanied, in the Belliqueux, the expedition against the Cape of Good Hope in Jan. 1806; contributed, in the same ship, to the capture and destruction, on 27 Nov. following, of a Dutch frigate, seven brigs of war, and about 20 armed and other merchant-vessels, in Batavia Roads; and was officially praised for his brave conduct, as Acting-Lieutenant (order dated 13 Oct. 1809), in the boats of the Belliqueux and Sir Francis Drake, at the destruction of three gun-vessels, under a heavy fire from the batteries at Bantam, in 1810.[1] Mr. Dawson, whose appointment to the Belliqueux was confirmed 27 Aug. 1811, rejoined his patron (after an intermediate servitude in the Castilian 18, Capt. David Braimer) in the Warrior on 22 Aug. 1812. He invalided, however, in Nov. 1813; and has since been on half-pay.
This officer has been perfectly blind for the last five-and-twenty years.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1811, p. 1195.