A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Granger, William
GRANGER. (Vice-Admiral, of the Red, 1837. f-p., 19; h-p., 43.)
William Granger was born about 1769.
This officer entered the Navy, in Feb. 178.5, as A. B., on board the Hyaena 24, Capt. Pat. Sinclair, employed off the coast of Ireland. From Jan. 1787, until March, 1793, he served, as Midshipman, on the same, and on the Channel and West India stations, in the Triumph, flag-ship of Lord Hood, Squirrel, Capt. John Drew, Brune, Capt. Davidge Gould, Aurora, Capt. John Sutton, Bombay Castle, Capt. John Thos. Duckworth, Nemesis, Capt. Alex. John Ball, and Sandwich, Capt. Jas. Robt. Mosse. He then sailed for the Mediterranean in the Fortitude 74, Capts. Wm. Young and Thos. Taylor, of which ship he was created a Lieutenant by commission dated 7 Oct. 1793. After assisting at the reduction of Corsica in 1794, and being for a short time attached to the Fame 74, Capt. Thos. Taylor, he was appointed, at the Cape of Good Hope, 27 Jan. and 16 July, 1796, to the Crescent 36, Capt. Edw. Buller, and Monarch 74, flag-ship of Sir Geo. Keith Elphinstone; under the former of whom he witnessed the surrender of the Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay. He was promoted, on the latter station, to the command, 10 May, 1797, of the Hope sloop; from which vessel he removed, 8 Nov. 1797, to the Rattlesnake 16. On 16 Sept. 1799, Capt. Granger was made Post into the Jupiter 50, bearing the broad pendant, also at the Cape, of Commodore Geo. Losack. In that ship, on 11 of the following Oct. during the absence of the Commodore, he brought to close action, after a long running fight, the French frigate La Preneuse of 40 guns and 300 men. Being, however, unable, in consequence of the boisterous state of the weather, to open her lower-deck ports, the Jupiter was ultimately obliged to discontinue the action, in order to repair her damages; and the enemy accordingly effected his escape. Capt. Granger’s subsequent appointments were, after an interval of 12 months – 1 Jan. 1801, to the Hyaena 24, employed, until Jan. 1802, in the Baltic and Channel – 3 Jan. 1805, for rather more than two months, to the Malta 80, on the coast of Spain – and lastly, 11 Aug. 1808, and 21 April, 1810, to the Semiramis 36, and Caesar 80, both on the Lisbon station, where he continued until 25 May, 1811. He became a Rear-Admiral 22 July, 1830; and a Vice- Admiral 10 Jan. 1837.