A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Luckraft, William
LUCKRAFT. (Capt., 1840. f-p., 28; h-p., 23.)
William Luckraft is an eider brother of Capt. Alfred Luckraft, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 25 June, 1796, as a Volunteer, on board the Asia 64, Capt. Robt. Murray, and was for upwards of four years employed in that ship on the Halifax station, part of the time in the capacity of Midshipman. He then joined the Assistance 50, Capt. Rich. Lee, under whom he was wrecked between Dunkerque and Gravelines 29 March, 1802. Being set free after 10 days of captivity, he became in succession attached, in the course of the same year, to the Brilliant 28, Capt. Adam Mackenzie, Suffisante 14, Capt. Christopher John Williams Nesham, and Concorde 36, Capt. John Wood. In the latter ship we find him proceeding to the East Indies, where, in 1805, having previously assisted at the capture of La Fortune, a very heavy privateer, he removed to the Culloden 74, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. Pellew, and was by him appointed Acting-Lieutenant of the Sceptre 74, Capt. Joseph Bingham, and Rattlesnake 18, commanded by Capts. John Bastard and Wm. Warden, and for a short time by himself. As a reward for the manner in which he subsequently, with the sloop’s boats under his orders, boarded and carried Les Deux Soeurs privateer, of 14 guns and 76 men, Mr. Luckraft, who had witnessed the capture of La Bellone, a similar vessel, mounting 30 guns, with a complement of 194 men, was confirmed a Lieutenant 11 Dec. 1807. Having, however, several months prior to the receipt of his commission, rejoined the Culloden, he contributed on the date last mentioned, as it chanced, to the destruction at Griessee, in the island of Java, of the dockyard and stores, and of all the men-of-war remaining to Holland in the East Indies. Returning to Europe in 1809, he was next, in Nov. of that year, in Nov. 1811, and in March, 1814, appointed to the Sheldrake 16, Meteor bomb, and Bombay 74, Capts. Jas. Pattison Stewart, Peter Fisher, and Henry Bazely – the two former on the Baltic, the latter on the Mediterranean station, where he served until Aug. 1816. In March, 1811, he officiated as First-Lieutenant of the Sheldrake at the defence of Ahholdt, when attacked by a powerful Danish flotilla, and on that occasion was instrumental to the capture of two of the enemy’s largest gun-boats. He was Senior of the Meteor in the operations against South Beveland, at the siege of Danzig, and at the blockade of the Scheldt. During the six years immediately antecedent to his promotion to the rank of Commander, which took place 27 July, 1825, he was employed in the Channel and West Indies as First of the Spartan 46, and Pyramus 42, Capts. Wm. Furlong Wise and Fras. Newcombe. His last appointment was, 17 July, 1838, to the Second-Captaincy of the Bellerophon 80, Capt. Chas. John Austen, for his conduct under whom in the operations on the coast of Syria, including the bombardments of Beyrout and Acre he was advanced to the rank he now holds 4 Nov, 1840.
Capt. Luokraft married, in 1815, Charlotte, only daughter of J. Camsell, Esq., of H.M. Brewery at Weevil, near Gosport. He was left a widower in Oct. 1827.