A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Holt, William
HOLT. (Captain, 18-38. f-p., 18; h-p., 26.)
William Holt entered the Navy, 4 July, 1803, as a Volunteer, on board the San Josef 110, Capts. John Tremayne Rodd and Tristram Robt. Ricketts, bearing the flag of Sir Chas. Cotton off Brest. On removing, in Jan. 1806, to the Minerva frigate, Capt. Geo. Ralph Collier, stationed off Cape Finisterre, he frequently distinguished himself in the boats against the enemy, particularly on one occasion, 3 Oct. 1806, when, led by Capt. Collier in person, they boarded and carried, after a row of seven hours, a Spanish gun-boat, mounting 1 long 24-pounder and 2 short brass 4’s, with a complement of 30 men, besides soldiers, together with a launch armed with a brass 4-pounder.[1] In Aug. 1807, having followed the same Captain into the Surveillante 38, he accompanied the expedition against Copenhagen, during the bombardment of which city he was more than once intrusted with the command of a rocket-boat. On 7 Nov. 1810, after he had acted for some time as Lieutenant of the Nautilus sloop, Capt. Thos. Dench, and Barfleur and San Josef, flag-ships in the Tagus and Mediterranean of Hon. Geo. Cranfield Berkeley and Sir Chas. Cotton, we find him appointed First of the Blossom sloop, Capt. Wm. Stewart. During an attachment of three years to that vessel, from which he was lent for a short period at the close of 1811 to the Téméraire 98, flag-ship of Admiral Fras. Pickmore at Port Mahon, Mr. Holt assisted at the capture of upwards of 20 French and American merchantmen in the neighbourhood of Marseilles, where he also came into frequent affray with the enemy’s batteries and naval force. At the commencement of Sept. 1811 he served on shore at the reduction of a French fort on the smaller Medis Island, mounting 1 mortar, 2 long 18-pounders, and 2 sixes – an achievement performed in the presence of a formidable force assembled on Cape Begu, on the coast of Catalonia. He next, on 23 Feb. 1812, aided at the capture of a schooner privateer, Le Jean Bart, of 7 guns and 106 men; and, on 29 of the following April, he commanded the boats of the Blossom, in conjunction with those of the Undaunted and Volontaire frigates, in an attack upon 26 vessels near the mouth of the Rhone, 7 of which were brought out, and 12, including a national schooner of 4 guns and 74 men, left stranded on the beach. When subsequently in the San Josef, with Sir Rich. King, Mr. Holt presents himself to our notice as co-operating, in April, 1814, in the reduction of Genoa. On 18 July in the following year, having become First-Lieutenant of the Ferret sloop, Capt. Jas. Stirling, he served with the boats of that vessel and it squadron, and enacted a distinguished part, at the cutting-out of a convoy and several armed vessels lying under the protection of a fort at Corrijou, near Brest. On that occasion his exertions called forth the warmest approbation, especially the promptness he displayed in taking possession of a French man-of-war brig, and bringing her to an anchor when she attempted to run for the rocks. Equally conspicuous was his conduct in the following year, when the Ferret, with only 8 12-pounder carronades mounted, captured, after a running fight of two hours, and a loss of 3 men killed and 2 wounded, the American-built brigantine Dolores, having on board nearly 300 slaves, armed with 1 long 32-pounder on a pivot, 4 long 9-pounders, and 2 12-pounder carronades, a vessel by whom she had been at first attacked. Quitting the Ferret in June, 1816, Lieut. Holt next, on 2 April, 1823, joined the Hussar frigate, Capt. Geo. Harris, fitting for the West India station, where his gallantry and perseverance in exterminating (during 67 days of absence from the ship in open boats) a horde of pirates who had taken possession of the Isle of Pines procured him the rank of Commander by commission dated 20 Aug. 1824. His succeeding and last appointments were, on the Mediterranean station. – 21 July, 1834, to the Scout 18, which sloop he paid off 8 Oct. 1835 – and, 22 March, 1836, to the Second-Captaincy of the Asia 84, Capt. Wm. Fisher. He continued in the latter ship until advanced to his present rank 28 June, 1838.
Capt. Holt, who has several children, was left a widower in 1839.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1806, p. 1379.