A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Drake, Spencer
DRAKE. (Lieutenant, 1828. f-p., 18; h-p., 19.)
Spencer Drake was born, 28 Feb. 1796, at Norwich, co. Norfolk. He had an only brother in the service, who was lost while in charge of a prize belonging to H.M. brig Sarpedon.
This officer entered the Navy, 4 April, 1810, as a Supernumerary, on board L’Aimable 32, Capt. Lord Geo. Stuart; and after a brief attachment to the Crescent 38, Capt. John Quilliam, joined the Edinburgh 74, commanded, among other Captains, by Hon. Geo. Heneage Lawrence Dundas. While in that ship, in 1813-14, he successively witnessed, as Midshipman, the capture of Port d’Anzo, the unsuccessful attack on Leghorn, the reduction of the fortress of Santa Maria and of the enemy’s other forts and defences in the Gulf of Spezia, and the fall of Genoa. Between Dec. 1814, and Sept. 1818, we find him serving, with an interval of 15 months, in the Termagant 20, Capt. Chas. Shaw, and Confiance 18, Capt. Alex. Montgomerie, on the East India and Channel stations. He then, having passed his examination two years previously, joined the Coast Blockade, in which he continued, as Admiralty Mate in succession of the Severn and Ramillies, Capts. Wm. M‘Culloch and Hugh Pigot – of which ships he occasionally commanded the tenders – until Nov. 1827. For his conduct, towards the close of 1821, in swimming with a line through a heavy surf, and saving the life of a Dutch officer who had been wrecked in the Jonge Martha, Mr. Drake, as did his assistants, Messrs. H. S. Burniston and J. Burnett, received a gold medal from the King of the Netherlands, valued at 25 ducats, and also a resolution of thanks from the Royal Humane Society. He soon afterwards contributed to the preservation of the Julia French ship, and of the whole of her crew, a service for which he obtained the thanks of the Board of Admiralty. On leaving the Ramillies, Mr. Drake next joined the Asia 84, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. Codrington in the Mediterranean, where he became Acting-Lieutenant of the Revenge 74, Capt. Norborne Thompson. He was confirmed, 5 June, 1828, into the Wolf 18, Capt. Geo. Hayes, but invalided home in the following Oct. He has since been on half-pay.