A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Mangles, James
MANGLES, F.R.S. (Commander, 1815. f-p., 15; h-p., 32.)
James Mangles entered the Navy, in March, 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Maidstone frigate, Capt. Ross Donnelly; previously to following whom as Midshipman, in Nov. 1801, into the Narcissus 32, he served off the coast of France, escorted convoy home from Oporto, and made a voyage to Quebec. In the Narcissus, after cruizing in the North Sea and also in the Mediterranean, where he assisted at the capture, 8 July, 1803, of the French corvette L’Alcion of 16 guns and 96 men, he accompanied the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope; on her passage whither the Narcissus, besides effecting the capture of Le Prudent privateer, of 12 guns and 70 men, retook the English merchant-ship Horatio Nelson, mounting 22 guns, and drove on shore the Napoléon, privateer, of 32 guns and 250 men. Subsequently to the reduction of the Cape and the capture of the 46-gun frigate Volontaire, Mr. Mangles, who had been invested with the rank of Acting-Lieutenant, proceeded to the Rio de la Plata, whence we find him returning to England with the despatches announcing the conquest of Buenos Ayres. He had previously, 11 July, 1804, served with the boats of the Narcissus, Seahorse, and Maidstone, 10 in number, under the orders of Lieut. John Thompson, at the capture and destruction of 12 settees, lying at La Vandour, in the Bay of Hières, where the British, encountered by a tremendous fire of grape-shot and musketry, as well from the vessels themselves as from a battery and the houses of the town, sustained a loss of 4 men killed and 23 wounded. His appointments, after he left the Narcissus, Were – 26 Sept. 1806, to the Penelope 36, Capts. Wm. Robt. Broughton and John Dick, employed at first on the coast of Spain and at Halifax, and then on the West India station, where he aided at the reduction of Martinique in Feb. 1809 – in 1811-13, to the Boyne 98, and Ville de Paris 110, flag-ships in the Channel of Sir Harry Burrard Neale, under whom he was latterly in discharge of the duties of Signal-Lieutenant, and was present at the grand naval review held at Spithead – 5 Sept. 1814, as First, to the Duncan 74, bearing the flag in South America of Sir John Poo Beresford – and, in Jan. 1815, to the acting-command of the Racoon sloop, in which he returned to Plymouth, after escorting part of the Brazilian trade to Bristol. He was confirmed in his present rank 13 June, 1815, but has not been since afloat.
Commander Mangles published in Aug. 1823, in conjunction with the late Capt. Hon. Chas. Leonard Irby, R.N., a work entitled ‘Travels in Egypt, Nubia, Syria, and Asia Minor, in 1817-18.’ He is a F.R.S., and a Member of the London Geographical Society. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.