A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Dougal, George
DOUGAL. (Commander, 1815. f-p., 13; h-p., 35.)
George Dougal was born 2 Oct. 1778. His father was a merchant in London.
This officer entered the Navy (into which he was impressed, after an employment of six years in the merchant service, latterly as Mate), 27 June, 1799, as A.B., on board the Brunswick 74, Capt. Wm. Gordon Rutherford, then at Jamaica; where, attaining soon the rating of Midshipman, he appears to have been frequently invested with the charge of prize-vessels. On accompanying Capt. Rutherford into the Décade 36, in which frigate he continued until paid off 7 Oct. 1802, Mr. Dougal beheld the surrender, in Sept. 1800, of the island of Curaçoa. After an intermediate re-attachment to the merchant service, he again entered the Navy, 16 March, 1804, as Master’s Mate, on board the Theseus 74, commanded in succession by Capts. John Bligh, Edw. Hawker, Harrington Dacres, and Fras. Temple; under the second of whom he was nearly lost during a violent hurricane, in which the Theseus was dismasted, and her main-deck guns thrown overboard. Wlile in the same ship, Mr. Dougal had the misfortune to lose the sight of his right eye, in consequence of a marine firing a musket across his face, while he was in the act of saving a drunken man from falling overboard. For this injury, however, he was never able to procure a pension. The Theseus being put out of commission in Sept. 1805, he next, for short periods, joined the Powerful 74, Capt. Robt. Plampin, Salvador del Mundo 110, Capt. John Loring, and Sampson and Diadem 64’s, flag-ships of Rear-Admiral Chas. Stirling. After witnessing, in the latter vessel) the fall of Monte Video, Mr. Dougal, as Acting-Lieutenant, assumed command, 22 April, 1807, of the Dolores schooner of 8 guns, in the Rio de la Plata, where he very gallantly repelled, 2 June following, a simultaneous night-attack made upon that vessel by two Spanish vessels of 6 and 8 guns each. He subsequently assisted in battering the sea-defences of Buenos Ayres, at the time of its unfortunate investment by Lieut.-General Whitelocke. On eventually returning home in the Africa 64, Capt. Henry Wm. Bayntun, he obtained a commission dated 9 June, 1808; a few days after which he joined the Sarpen 16, Capts. Jas. Gifford and John Sanderson Gibson, under whom we find him frequently skirmishing with the Baltic gunboats. His next appointments were – 6 April, 1810, as First-Lieutenant, to the Apelles 14, Capts. Thos. Oliver and Fred. Hoffman – and, 15 Jan. 1813, to the Espiègle 18, Capt. John Taylor, on the Home and West India stations. The former vessel, on 3 May, 1812, ran on shore near Boulogne, and fell into the hands of the French; but Lieut. Dougal (who was wounded in the left arm by a grape-shot) contrived, with several others, to effect a timely flight in the boats. He left the Espiègle 19 March, 1814; and, since his promotion to the rank of Commander, 13 June, 1815, has been on half-pay.