A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hooper, Benjamin
HOOPER. (Lieut., 1809. f-p., 37; h-p., 12.)
Benjamin Hooper was born 18 Feb. 1789, at Torpoint, co. Cornwall.
This officer entered the Navy, in May, 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Foudroyant 80, Capt. Sir Thos. Byard. In that ship, after witnessing the capture, in the following Oct., of a French squadron under Commodore Bompart, destined for the invasion of Ireland, he sailed with the flag of Lord Keith for the Mediterranean; where, on Lord Nelson shifting his flag to the Foudroyant, he was employed in affording escort to King Ferdinand and the Neapolitan Court; and, in particular, in personally ministering, with Messrs. Walpole and Smith, Midshipmen, to the entertainment of the young princes on board. Continuing attached to the same ship under Sir Edw. Berry, Mr. Hooper, while at the blockade of Malta, assisted, as Midshipman, at the capture, on 18 Feb. 1800, of Le Généreux 74, and Ville de Marseilles armed store-ship, and on 31 March, after a desperate conflict, in which the Foudroyant (then in company with the Lion 64, and Penelope 36) sustained a loss of 8 men killed and 64 wounded, of Le Guillaume Tell, of 84 guns and 1000 men, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Decrès. He came home with Sir Edw. Berry at the commencement of 1801 in the Princess Charlotte frigate, but, returning to the Mediterranean on the renewal of hostilities in 1803 on board the Canopus 80, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Geo. Campbell, was for some time engaged at the blockade of Toulon, off which port he once participated in a brush with a powerful division of the enemy’s fleet. Being again ordered to England in 1805 in the Diligent store-ship, Master-Commander Wm. Lloyd, he was appointed, on his arrival, to the London 98, Capts. Sir Robt. Barlow, Robt. Rolles, Sir Harry Burrard Neale, Edw. Oliver Osborn, and Thos. Western; in which ship, under Sir H. B. Neale, we find him, on 13 March, 1806, aiding, in company with the Amazon 38, at the capture of the French 80-gun ship Marengo, bearing the flag of Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule, whose fire, in the course of a long running action, occasioned the London a loss of 10 men killed and 22 wounded. In Sept. 1808, after having accompanied the Royal Family of Portugal to the Brazils, and been for several months employed on that station, Mr. Hooper became Sub-Lieutenant of the Alban cutter, Lieut.Commander Henry Weir, with whom he returned home and then proceeded to the Baltic, where he appears to have seen a good deal of boat service, and to have carried into Prussia secret despatches from the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Jas. Saumarez. On 27 Oct. 1809 he was appointed an Acting, and on 13 of the following Dec. a confirmed. Lieutenant of the Princess Caroline 74, Capts. Chas. Dudley Pater and Hugh Downman. In 1810, during a cruize in the Gulf of Finland, he was intrusted with the command of the boats employed among the rocks and small islands inshore; and in 1811 we again discover him serving in the boats, and sharing in a cuttingout affair off the island of Zealand, in which they endured a loss of 1 man killed and 1 severely wounded. Rejoining Capt. Weir, in Oct. 1811, on board the Calypso 18, he had an opportunity, on 6 July, 1812,of enacting a part, in company with the Dictator 64, Podargus 14, and Flamer gun-brig, at the gallant capture and destruction, mthin the rocks of Mardoe, on the coast of Norway, of an entire Danish squadron, consisting of the Nayaden, of 48 guns, the Laland, Samsoe, and Kiel sloops, and several gun-boats, at the close of a long conflict, productive of a loss to the Calypso of 3 men killed, 1 man wounded, and 1 missing, and to the enemy of 300 killed and wounded. Although Capt. Weir was made Post for this exploit, and the First-Lieutenant of the Dictator was advanced to the rank of Commander, Lieut. Hooper, who was himself Senior of the Calypso, and was officially praised for his exertions,[1] received no reward – an act of neglect he the more felt from the fact of the Acting-Lieutenant on board the latter vessel, and of course his inferior, being confirmed to the vacancy created in the Dictator. To add to his mortification he was even superseded in his post as First-Lieutenant, and another officer appointed over him. Continuing in the Calypso under Capts. Thos. Gronbe and Chas. Hope Reid until Aug. 1814, he was further employed in conveying Lord Walpole to St. Petersburg, and in co-operating in the siege of Danzig. On the occasion of the Grand Naval Review held at Portsmouth in 1814, he was again Senior of the Calypso. His last appointment afloat was, 20 Jan. 1815, to the Penelope 36, armée en flûte, Capt. Jas. Galloway, which vessel was lost, with part of her crew, in the gulf of St. Lawrence, on 30 of the ensuing April. Since 10 April, 1826, Lieut. Hooper has been in charge of a station in the Coast Guard.
He married, first, in 1829, Miss M. Webb, daughter of a naval officer; and secondly, 5 Jan. 1831, a daughter of Commander Robt. Hearle, R.N. By his first wife the Lieutenant has issue three children, and by his second he has had a further family of six children.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1812, p. 1362.