A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Jack, Leigh Spark
JACK. (Retired Commander, 1840. f-p., 18; h-p., 31.)
Leigh Spark Jack entered the Navy, 7 May, 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Powerful 74, Capt. Wm. O’Brien Drury, employed off Cadiz and in the Mediterranean; and in the following July attained the rating of Midshipman. He continued to serve on the station last named from Jan. 1800 until Aug. 1804 in the Cyclops sloop, Capt. John Fyffe; after which we find him employed for five years on board the Pheasant 18, Capts. Robt. Paul, Robt. Henderson, and John Palmer; being during that period successively created, on 2 Nov. 1804 and 28 Aug. 1806, an acting and a confirmed Lieutenant. In the latter capacity, after he had endured a servitude of two years in the West Indies, Mr. Jack accompanied the expedition to the Rio de la Plata under Sir Sam. Achmuty, and was in consequence present at the capture of Monte Video in Feb. 1807. He then served for some time on the coast of Africa, and ultimately on the Home station; where, off the Western Islands, and at the Cape of Good Hope, he was next, from Aug. 1809 until April, 1816, employed on board the Désirée 36, and Liverpool 40, both commanded by Capt. Arthur Farquhar. In the former ship he distinguished himself by his activity as Senior Lieutenant at the blockade of the German rivers, and at the reduction of Cuxhaven and Glückstadt, in Dec. 1813 and Jan. 1814; and when on his return to England in the Liverpool, after having been engaged at the blockade of Ile de Bourbon, he appears to have been nearly lost off Dover, in consequence of that frigate having taken the ground at the foot of Shakspeare’s Cliff, from which perilous position she was only extricated by cutting away all her masts and spars, and throwing overboard her guns, provisions, and stores. Mr. Jack, who had been on half-pay since 1816, accepted his present rank 21 April, 1840.