A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hunt, Edward
HUNT. (Lieut., 1830. f-p., 18; h-p., 19.)
Edward Hunt entered the Navy, 8 June, 1810, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Leveret 10, Capts. Jas. Andrew Worth, Geo. Wickens Willes, and Jonathan Christian, on the books of which vessel he was borne until Aug. 1815. He came frequently into contact, during that period, with the enemy’s batteries on the coast of Norway and Denmark; assisted at the capture of four privateers, carrying in all 27 guns and 117 men; was in the gale in which the Hero, St. George, and Defence were lost; and, in the severe winter of 1813-14, saw a good deal of active night-service in the boats while engaged in protecting the fleet stationed in the Scheldt under Admiral Young from being attacked by the enemy’s fire-rafts. He was also frequently sent in charge of captured vessels into port; and on the first of those occasions he was of such tender age and diminutive stature as to attract the peculiar notice and praise of the Commander-in-Chief. After having taken part in the grand naval review held at Spithead at the termination of hostilities in 1814, the Leveret proceeded with convoy to Gibraltar, and soon after her arrival anchored, in company with the San Josef 110, bearing the flag of Sir Rich. King, off Ceuta, on the coast of Morocco. While there Mr. Hunt, as Midshipman in charge of a boat’s crew, proceeded on shore, accompanied by the Second-Lieutenant, Master, Purser, and Mate, for the purpose of bathing and of procuring a supply of sand for the use of the ship. On landing, the British were suddenly, and without parley, assailed by a large party of Moors, who, riding down, opened a murderous fire upon such as had approached within a few paces with a view of speaking them; and indeed their evident intention of sacrificing the whole party was only arrested by the appearance of an aged man, unarmed, who was seen rushing down a hill calling upon them to desist. By this time, however, Mr. Hunt had received numerous wounds in the head, body, and arms, and several stabs from their scimitars and daggers. He was in consequence sent to the hospital at Gibraltar, where he remained until careful treatment had enabled him to recover. Rejoining the Leveret at Portsmouth in Feb. 1815, he was employed in that vessel during the war of 100 days in conveying despatches and specie for the use of the army in Belgium; and, being at Ostend when the British army advanced from Brussels to meet the French at Waterloo, he had an opportunity of accompanying home the despatch which reported that fact, and announced the commencement of the glorious battle of the 18th of June. In Nov. 1815 he joined the Falmouth 20, Capt. Robt. Wergan Geo. Festing, which vessel appears, in the early part of 1816, to have co-operated with the fleet under Sir Edw. Pellew in procuring the release of the Christian slaves in bondage at Algiers, and to have been assigned an honourable post in the order of battle instituted before Tunis pending the accomplishment of the negotiations instituted for the same object at that place. On being ordered to the St. Helena station, Mr. Hunt assisted, in the Falmouth, in establishing a settlement at Tristan d’Acunha; as he did, on his temporary removal to the Racoon sloop, Capt. Geo. Fred. Rich, on the island of Ascension. Passing his examination in 1817, in the course of which year he returned to England and left the Falmouth, Mr. Hunt was subsequently employed as Mate – from Aug. 1820 to April, 1822, of the Severn, Coast Blockade ship, Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch – from April, 1822, until July, 1825, of the Protector, Capt. Wm. Hewett, engaged as a surveying-vessel on the east coast of England, where, in Oct. 1824, she was extricated from a perilous position on a lee-shore during a violent storm, which proved fatal to all the ships and their crews in the vicinity – from July, 1825, until Nov. 1829, of the Badger, Revenue cruizer, on the Irish station – and, from Nov. 1829 until Jan. 1831, of the Winchester 52, flag-ship of Sir Edw. Griffith Colpoys, and Shannon 46, Capt. Benj. Clement, in the West Indies. He then took up a commission dated 22 July, 1830; and has since been on half-pay. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.