A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Dunnett, William Henry
DUNNETT. (Lieut., 1821. f-p., 15; h-p., 23.)
William Henry Dunnett entered the Navy, 23 April, 1809, as Midshipman, on board the Aggressor 12, Lieut.-Commanders John Watson and Henry Jewry, in which vessel he continued, on the North Sea station, until Jan. 1815. He then served for upwards of five years, as Master’s Mate, Acting-Lieutenant, and Admiralty-Midshipman – on the Home, West India, and Mediterranean stations – in the Larne 20, Capts. Abraham Lowe and Sir John Gordon Sinclair, Florida 20, Capts. Wm. Elliot and Chas. Sibthorpe John Hawtayne, Scamander 36, Capt. Wm. Elliot, Wasp 18, Capt. Thos. Wren Carter, and Rochfort 80, bearing the flag of Sir Thos. Fras. Fremantle. He was afterwards (as Admiralty-Midshipman of the Severn 40, Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch) appointed to the Coast Blockade in June, 1820. For his gallant conduct while in that service, in preventing the landing, 22 Dec. 1821, of a cargo of contraband goods, near Romney, in Kent, where he received several buck-shot wounds in the left thigh, Mr. Dunnett was rewarded with a commission dated 27 of the same month. He had passed his examination 6 Sept. 1815. From 24 May, 1827, until 3 Jan. 1829, we again find him employed in the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Ramillies 74, Capt. Hugh Pigot. He has since, however, been on half-pay.
Lieut. Dunnett, who during his attachment to the Aggressor appears to have been foremost on every occasion of difficulty and danger, particularly signalized himself by his intrepid conduct in saving, although in a heavy gale and high sea, the lives of 12 persons on board the Nancy brig, then in a sinking state, on the Wells bank. He afterwards, on 22 Dec. 1816, plunged from the main-chains of the Scamander, and, at the imminent hazard of his own life, rescued two men who had fallen overboard, and who but for him would inevitably have perished. He married 28 Feb. 1838. Agent – J. Hinxman.