A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Furber, Thomas
FURBER. (Commander, 1824. f-p., 21; h-p., 31.)
Thomas Furber had a brother who was Signal Officer, on board the Blenheim, to Sir Thos. Troubridge, when that ship was lost in 1807.
This officer entered the Navy, in Aug. 1795, on board the Undaunted 40, Capts. Henry Roberts and Robt. Winthrop, bearing the broad pendant for some time of Commodore John Thos. Duckworth, in which frigate, after assisting at the capture of Demerara and Ste. Lucie, he was wrecked on the Morant Keys 27 Aug. 1796. Until advanced to the rank of Lieutenant, 7 Oct. 1801, he next successively served on board the Alfred 74, Capts. Thos. Drury and Thos. Totty, Scipio, Capt. Davies, Vanguard 74, flag-ship of Sir Horatio Nelson, Cruizer 18, Capt. Chas. Wollaston, Ardent 64, Capt. Thos. Bertie, and De Ruyter 64, Capt. Rich. Dacres. During that period he contributed to the capture of Trinidad, and, as aide-de-camp to Capt. Totty, commanded the seamen employed on shore in the unsuccessful attack on Puerto Rico in 1797 – was present in the Cruizer at the taking of six French privateers, carrying in the whole 68 guns and 282 men – and had charge of the Ardent’s signals in the action off Copenhagen, 2 April, 1801. In May, 1802, Mr. Furber, who had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 7 of the preceding Oct., joined the Blenheim 74, Capts. Thos. Graves and Wm. Ferris, stationed in the West Indies, where, with two of that ship’s boats under his orders, he boarded and carried, in a most spirited manner, after a pull of an hour and a half in the heat of the sun, and under a fire of grape and musquetry, La Fortunée French privateer, of 2 guns, 6 swivels, and 29 men, 15 Sept. 1803.[1] On 16 of the following Nov. we find him eliciting the warmest praise of Capt. Graves for his gallant conduct at the cutting out from the harbour of Marin, Martinique, not without mutual loss, of the Harmonie, a notorious privateer, of 8 guns and 66 men;[2] after which, on the night of 4 March, 1804, he further acquired the approbation of Capt. Ferris, and was severely wounded over the left eye in a dashing although unsuccessful attack made by him with two boats and 50 men on the French national and desperately-defended schooner Curieuse, lying chain-moored close under a fort at the town of St. Pierre, whose fire, conjointly with that from the shore, killed and wounded more than half of her brave assailants.[3] After acting for two months as Captain of the Blenheim, Mr. Furber, on 8 May, 1805, was appointed to the Flora 36, Capt. Loftus Otway Bland, as First Lieutenant of which frigate he again took command of two boats, and, on 25 Nov. 1806, succeeded by his exertions in capturing, off Oporto, after rowing for six hours, the Spanish privateer El Espedarte, of 6 guns, 6 swivels, and 41 men.[4] The Flora being unfortunately wrecked off the coast of Holland, 19 Jan. 1808, Mr. Furber, who had previously been in acting-command of that ship for the space of a month, was, on 12 of the following June, after a short captivity, appointed to the Cherokee 10, Capt. Rich. Arthur, with whom he continued until 10 Oct. in the same year, when he joined the Lively 38, Capt. Geo. M‘Kinley. In March, 1809 (having fitted out and ballasted a schooner for that purpose in four hours), he was sent home with the despatches relative to the fall of Vigo and Santiago, after delivering which he rejoined the Lively, and continued, as he had previously done, to officiate as her First Lieutenant until again wrecked, off Malta, in Aug. 1810. From 22 March, 1811, until 21 Feb. 1814, he subsequently served, also as Senior, on board the Elizabeth and Bellona 74’s, Capts. Edw. Leveson Gower and G. M‘Kinley, chiefly off the coasts of Portugal, France, and Spain. At length, on 1 Sept. 1824, after having held a Lieutenant’s commission for 23 years, 10 of which had been passed as First Lieutenant of frigates and line-of-battle ships, he was promoted, from the Isis 50, Capt. Thos. Forrest (to which ship he had been appointed 5 July, 1823), to the command, in consequence of a death vacancy, of the Helicon sloop. In that vessel he returned home from Carthagena in July, 1825, with Colonel Hamilton, the Senior Commissioner, on board, bringing at the same time the first treaty of commerce between Great Britain and Columbia. He was then paid off, and has not since been employed, In consideration of his gallantry at the capture of the Harmonie, Commander Furber, in 1804, was presented by the Patriotic Society with a sword valued at 50l. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.