A Naval Biographical Dictionary/De Vitré, John Denis
DE VITRÉ. (Lieut., 1781. f-p., 14; h-p., 62.)
John Denis De Vitré was born 28 Oct. 1757, and died 29 Dec. 1846, at Lancaster.
This officer entered the Navy, in July, 1771, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Somerset 64, guard-ship at Plymouth, commanded by the late Sir Edw. Hughes; with whom (after an intermediate attachment to the Aldborough 20, Capt. Hawker, off Newfoundland) he proceeded to the East Indies, in 1774, as Midshipman of the Salisbury 50. On there removing to the Coventry 28, Capts. Benj. Marlow and Andrew Mitchell, he took part, as Master’s Mate, in a severe action of two hours, fought off Pondicherry, 10 Aug. 1778, between a British squadron under Sir Edw. Vernon and a superior French force under M. de Tronjolli, at the close of which the enemy made sail and escaped. In the course of the following year we further discover the Coventry sustaining, singly, a gallant conflict, which lasted four hours, with Hyder Ali’s powerful fleet; and, next, contributing to the reduction of Fort Arnold. On 3 March, 1781, Mr. De Vitré was promoted, from the Superb 74, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. Hughes, to a Lieutenancy, in the Chaser 18, Capt. Thos. Parr; in which vessel, in Feb. 1782, he appears to have been taken captive, after a valiant resistance of several hours, by the Bellona, a French frigate of 36 guns. Being ultimately handed over to Hyder Ali, he endured at the hands of that potentate, for the space of 22 months, a series of more than ordinary privations and hardships, being night and day loaded with heavy chains, compelled in that state to march from prison to prison under a broiling sun, and supported during the whole period on a miserable allowance of the worst of fare. On at length regaining his liberty, 25 April, 1784, Mr. De Vitré returned to England. He afterwards served in the West Indies, from June, 1787, to May, 1789, on board the Alert 16, Capt. Geo. Burdon; and on 6 May, 1797, he was appointed to the command, in the river Thames, of the Biter 14. He left that vessel on 15 Feb. 1798, and did not afterwards go afloat. When in the Aldborough, Mr. De Vitré had witnessed a gale so fearful that all the guns and everything portable were thrown overboard, besides there being eight or nine feet water in the hold; and, while in the Coventry, off Trincobar, he had been again nearly lost in another hurricane, in which that ship appears to have been totally dismasted, and to have had in her hold upwards of 12 feet water.
Lieut. De Vitré, who died the Senior officer of his rank in the Navy, was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 2 July, 1809. He married, 3 Oct. 1791, Bridget, daughter of Jas. Fawcett, Esq., of Scaleby Castle, co. Cumberland, and has left issue twelve children.