A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Love, Henry Ommanney
LOVE. (Captain, 1837. f-p., 14; h-p., 28.)
Henry Ommanney Love, born 1 March, 1793, is eldest son of the late Commander Wm. Love, R.N.,[1] by Harriet, youngest daughter of Gabriel Acworth, Esq., Purveyor of the Navy, nephew of Sir Jacob Acworth, Surveyor of the Navy from March, 1715, until the period of his death in March, 1749. His grandfather, Mr. Thos. Lovell, also in the R.N., married a sister of Lovell Pennell, Esq., whose grand-daughter became the wife of the Right Hon. John Wilson Croker, M.P., late Secretary to the Admiralty. One of Capt. Love’s uncles, Thomas, was Master’s Mate of the Berwick 74 in Keppel’s action with D’Orvilliers, and Master of the Alfred 74 on the glorious 1 June, 1794.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy 21 May, 1805, and embarked, 23 Dec. 1808, as Midshipman, on board the Dannemark 74, Capt. Jas. Bissett, part of the force employed in the expedition to the Walcheren. He removed, in Sept. 1809, to the Tisiphone sloop, commanded by his father off Lymington, where he remained until June, 1810. After serving for 18 months on the North American and Leith stations in the Venus 32, Capts. Jas. Coutts Crawford and Kenneth Mackenzie, he rejoined the Tisiphone, but had not been long in that vessel before he was transferred to the Boyne 98, bearing the flag in the Channel of Sir Harry Burrard Neale, who, as a reward for his conduct in having jumped overboard under very perilous circumstances and saved the life of a young Midshipman, and “as an encouragement to enterprise and humanity,” successively nominated him Acting-Lieutenant of the Tigre 74, Capt. Halliday, Boyne and Ville de Paris, his own flag-ships, and Sparrow sloop, Capt. Fras. Erskine Loch. He was not, however, confirmed until the Allied Sovereigns visited the fleet at Spithead, when, being the Senior passed Midshipman present (he had undergone his examination in 1812), he received a commission dated 27 June, 1814. His succeeding appointments were – 11 April, 1821, to the Hyperion 42, Capt. Jas. Lillicrap, fitting for the Cape of Good Hope, where, previously to proceeding to the West Indies, he assisted in saving from destruction the Albion, an Indiaman of immense value, which had broken from her moorings during a gale, and had drifted to within a few feet of the rocks – 13 May, 1824, to the Pyramus 42, Capt. Fras. Newcombe, on the Jamaica station – and, towards the close of the same year, to the command of the Union and Renegade schooners, also in the West Indies, whence he invalided in the summer of 1825. He obtained a second promotal commission 10 July, 1826; and was lastly, from 2 July, 1831, until paid off 12 March, 1834, employed in command, again on the West India station, of the Columbine 18. During the whole of that period Capt. Love did not lose a single man through sickness. When at Barbadoes, in Jan. 1833, he had succeeded in getting a ship off shore after 48 hours of incessant labour – an achievement which every experienced person in the island had considered impracticable. On the Columbine being put out of commission, the officers gave their Commander a parting dinner, as “a token of their respect and esteem.” He was advanced to Post-rank 5 Dec. 1837.
Capt. Love lays claim to having suggested the use of paddles, instead of wheels, for steam-vessels. He is at present Sub-Commissioner of Pilotage for the Port of Southampton and Superintendent of Lights, Buoys, and Beacons for the Isle of Wight district, between Portland and Beachy Head, under the Trinity Corporation. The Captain has been three times Mayor of Yarmouth. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
- ↑ Commander Wm. Love, a most meritorious officer, was born in April, 1764. Entering the Navy in 1778 on board the Hyaena 24, he witnessed in that vessel the close of Byron’s action with D’Estaing in 1779; accompanied Sir George B. Rodney to the relief of Gibraltar in 1780, and was present at the defeat of Don Juan de Langara. On the memorable 12 April, 1782, he was serving on board the Prothée 64, and was wounded. He obtained his first commission in 1794; was made Commander in 1807; had charge, during the after part of the war, of the Driver and Tisiphone sloops; was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital in 1830; and died at Yarmouth 17 April, 1839. His father, Mr. Thos, Lovell, alluded to above, was Master of the Prothée, and lost a leg, in the action of 12 April, 1782.