A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Knight, Christopher
KNIGHT, K.H. (Commander, 1822. f-p., 20; h-p., 21.)
Christopher Knight entered the Navy, 25 Dec. 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Minotaur 74, Capt. Chas. John Moore Mansfield, successive flagship of Admirals Sir Chas. Cotton and Wm. Essington, under the latter of whom he served as Midshipman in the expedition of 1807 against Copenhagen. Joining next the Foudroyant 80, bearing the flag of Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, he was present under that officer off Lisbon when the Royal Family of Portugal took its flight to the Brazils. He afterwards proceeded himself to South America, and continued there, in the President 38, Capt. Chas. Marsh Schomberg, until ordered home in 1810 in the Elizabeth 74, Capt. Hon. Henry Curzon. Towards the close of the same year, having rejoined Capt. Schomberg on board the Astraea, of 42 guns and 271 men, he proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope; and, on 20 May, 1811, when in company, off Madagascar, with the Phoebe and Galatea frigates, similar in force to the Astraea, and 18-gun brig Racehorse, he assisted, after a long and warmlycontested action with the French 40-gun frigates Rénommée, Clorinde, and Néréide, and a loss to the Astraea of 2 killed and 16 wounded, at the capture of the Rénommée, and, on 25 of the same month, of the Néréide and the settlement of Tamatave. On the former of those occasions Mr. Knight received two contusions. Returning to England, in Sept. 1812, on board the Galatea 36, Capt. Woodley Losack, he was employed during the next two years on the Home and Canadian stations in the Thisbe 28, flag-ship of Sir Chas. Hamilton, El Corso 12, Lieut.-Commander Curry Wm. Hillier,Queen Charlotte 100, flag-ship of Lord Keith, and Princess Charlotte 42, Capt. Edw. Collier. In Sept. 1814, being still in Canada, he was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Prince Regent 56, Capt. Davies – an appointment which the Admiralty confirmed on 19 Dec. in the same year. In the summer of 1815 he came home with Capt. Wm. Walpole in the Thames 32; and in July, 1816, after he had been for nearly 12 months on half-pay, he became attached to the Impregnable 104, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral David Milne. Continuing in that ship for a period of nearly four months, he was in consequence present in the battle of Algiers, and on that occasion he had the misfortune to be contused in three places. Being next, in June 1818, appointed to the Tartar 42, Capt. Sir Geo. Ralph Collier, the Lieutenant sailed for the coast of Africa, where, on 8 June, 1821, he assumed command of the Snapper gun-brig, in which vessel he proceeded, without a pilot, 60 miles up the old Calabar river in search of slave-vessels – a greater distance, we believe, than accomplished by any other man-of-war before or since. In Nov. 1822, having been promoted to the command of the Morgiana sloop on 3 of the previous June, he returned home and paid that vessel off. His last appointments were, 1 Sept. 1828, and 18 March, 1834, to the Coast Guard, in which service he was each time employed for a period of three years. While so engaged he was very successful in the capture of smuggling-vessels and their crews; and in one instance, when in the execution of his duty, he broke his collar-bone. For his singular exertions on the occasion of the wreck of the Hound Revenue-cruizer, in Weymouth Bay, when by his own act he saved the whole of the crew, consisting of 40 persons, he was nominated a K.H. 1 Jan. 1837. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.