A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Evans, Roger
EVANS. (Retired Commander, 1838. f-p., 18; h-p., 43.)
Roger Evans entered the Navy, 5 Jan. 1786, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Ganges 74, guard-ship at Portsmouth, Capt. Sir Roger Curtis, and, in the following year, sailed for Newfoundland in the Merlin, Capt. Edw. Pakenham. From Feb. 1790, until April, 1795, he served on board the Nassau 64, Capt. Andrew Sutherland, Iphigenia 32, Capt. Patrick Sinclair, and Bedford 74, Capts. Robt. Mann and Davidge Gould; in which latter ship we find him successively employed at the occupation of Toulon in Aug. 1793; the capture, in the port of Genoa, of the 36-gun frigate La Modeste, 5 Oct. following; and in Hotham’s action, 14 March, 1795. He then became Acting-Lieutenant of the Bellette sloop, Capts. Seccombe, Stewart, and Temple; and, on 29 Dec. 1796, .was confirmed in the Southampton 32, Capt. Jas. Macnamara, to which vessel he had been transferred five months previously. During the period of Mr. Evans’ attachment to her, the Southampton appears to have been employed at the taking of Porto Ferrajo, the evacuation of Capreja and Corsica, in the expedition against Piombino, and at the siege of Castiglione. She also made prize of the Spanish brig-of-war El Corso, of 18 guns, and was one of the repeating frigates to the centre division of Sir John Jervis’ fleet, in the battle off Cape St. Vincent, 14 Feb. 1797. In Sept, of the latter year Mr. Evans joined the Defiance 74, Capt. Theophilus Jones, on the Channel station; where, and in the Baltic, he afterwards, from 26 Dec. 1798, until 22 Oct. 1801, commanded, with the exception of a few months in 1800, the Ferret and Alert. His subsequent appointments, we find, were – 29 May, 1804, to the Nemesis 28, Capt. Philip Somerville, on the Halifax station, whence he invalided, 6 Nov. 1805 – 13 Feb. 1807, to the Goliath 74, Capt. Peter Puget, with whom he served in the ensuing operations against Copenhagen – 29 June, 1809, to the command of a gun-boat, in which he accompanied the expedition to the Scheldt – and, in Oct. following, to be Captain of the port of Flushing. He resigned the latter appointment on the evacuation of the Walcheren; and has since been unemployed. His acceptance of the rank of Retired Commander, on the Junior List, took place 1 Dec. 1830. He was promoted to the Senior List 23 April, 1838. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.