A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Ferrar, William Augustus
FERRAR. (Lieut., 1827. f-p., 35; h-p., 0.)
William Augustus Ferrar was born 6 Feb. 1797, in Dublin.
This officer entered the Navy 26 Jan. 1812, on board the Narcissus 32, Capt. Hon. Fred. Wm. Aylmer; on removing from which frigate to the Armide 38, he experienced, as Midshipman, a skirmish with the batteries of Brest. After a servitude of some months in the Dublin 74, Leonidas 38, and Fortunée 36, he eventually rejoined Capt. Aylmer in the Pactolus 38; and while in that frigate, besides escorting the Duke of Cambridge to Cuxhaven, and his late Majesty to the Scheldt, he assisted in a rocket-boat at, among other detached services, the bombardment of Stonington, in Aug. 1814. On 9 Dec. in the latter year, the Pactolus having captured the Postboy, an American schooner of 80 tons burthen, Mr. Ferrar was placed in charge of the prize, and sent to Bermuda. During the passage, however, the Postboy in a violent gale was totally dismasted, and, becoming water-logged, remained in that condition for a whole week, with the inextricable corpses of four suffocated seamen lying in a state of putrefaction in the fore-cabin. Mr. Ferrar and his only two companions at length contrived to bale the water out and commit the bodies to the deep, but it was not until after 40 days of protracted and awful suffering that they fell in with and were rescued by a merchant schooner.[1] Soon after his providential deliverance he rejoined the Pactolus, still commanded by Capt. Aylmer, under whom, in July, 1815, for the purpose of co-operating with the royalists, he assisted in forcing the passage of the Gironde, and in effecting the reduction of several strong batteries. Accompanying the same officer into the Severn 40, he took part, and was severely wounded in the left arm and side, in the battle of Algiers, 27 Aug. 1816; after which event he successively joined the Heron 18, Ramillies 74, Ganges 84, Victory 104, and Hyperion 42. He ultimately, having passed in 1820, obtained a commission dated 29 Oct. 1827, and, being re-appointed to the Hyperion, 22 Jan. 1828, continued, as a Supernumerary-Lieutenant of that ship, to be employed on the Coast Blockade, until transferred, 16 March, 1831, to the Coast Guard. He was removed, 23 Feb. 1842, to an Agency in a contract mail steamer, in which vessel he appears to have been charged with important despatches from the British Minister at Lisbon to Lord Aberdeen. He was, however, obliged, in consequence of ill health, to resign his new appointment towards the close of the same year; and since that period he has again been employed in the Coast Guard.
Lieut. Ferrar’s long servitude and severe sufferings have so shattered his health as to have rendered him unfit for service afloat. He is married, and has issue two daughters.
- ↑ For a full account of the melancholy wreck of the Postboy we refer our readers to a narrative of that catastrophe published by Lieut. Ferrar at Falmouth, in 1838.