A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hyett, Joseph
HYETT. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 16; h-p., 26.)
Joseph Hyett entered the Navy, 28 March, 1805, as Third-el. Vol., on board the Royal William, Capts. John Wainwright and Hon. Courtenay Boyle, bearing the flag of Admiral Montagu at Portsmouth; and after a further servitude on the Home station in the Osprey sloop, Capt. Timothy Clinch, and, as Midshipman, in the Crown 64, Lieut. -Commander Jas. Rose, sailed in March, 1809, for the West Indies in the Rhodian 10, Capt. Geo. Moubray. From May, 1812, until Aug. 1815, we find him employed with the last-mentioned officer, and with Capts. Henry Litchfield and John Moberly, on board the Moselle 18 – the latter part of the time as Acting-Master, Acting-Lieutenant, and Master’s Mate. He joined, therefore, in the attacks upon Norfolk and Hampton; saw a good deal of detached service in the Chesapeake; was in the boats when they cut out a 600-ton merchantman from under the forts in Charleston Bay; received, on 29 June, 1814, a musket-ball through the lower jaw in a boat-engagement with a pirate in the Gulf of Mexico; and was most severely frost-bitten in the legs during the expedition to New Orleans, where he was constantly away from his ship on boat-duty. On leaving the Moselle, as above, he took up (he had passed his examination in June, 1812) a commission dated 10 Feb. 1815; and he was lastly, from Dec. 1826, until Jan. 1831, employed as an Agent for Transports afloat. In consideration of the wound he had received in his cheek, involving the loss of hearing in one ear, and of the injuries he had sustained at New Orleans, which, after occasioning him much suffering, resulted in the amputation, 28 June, 1846, of the right leg high above the knee, Lieut. Hyett was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 13 Oct. following.