A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Mansell, Bonamy
MANSELL. (Retired Commander, 1847. f-p., 14; h-p., 33.)
Bonamy Mansell, born 13 Oct. 1786, at Guernsey, is brother of Capt. Sir Thos. Mansell, R.N., Kt., K.C.H.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Jan. 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the London 98, commanded in the Channel by Capt. John Child Purvis, whom he there followed as Midshipman, in April, 1801, into the Royal George 100. Joining next, in 1802, La Dédaigneuse 36, Capts. Thos. Geo. Shortland, Peter Heywood, and Chas. Jas. Johnston, he sailed for the East Indies, where, in June, 1805, he accompanied the last-mentioned officer into the Cornwallis 50. After participating, 11 Nov. 1806, in a gallant attack made by that vessel, in company with the Sceptre 74, on the Sémillante French frigate, three armed ships, and 12 sail of merchantmen, the whole protected by seven batteries, mounting upwards of 100 pieces of cannon, in St. Paul’s Bay, Ile de Bourbon, Mr. Mansell, in Jan. 1807, joined the Culloden 74, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. Pellew; under whom, on 11 of the ensuing Dec, he witnessed the destruction of the dockyard and stores at Griessee, in the island of Java, and of all the men-of-war remaining to Holland in India. Being successively, 28 May, 1808, and 7 March, 1809, constituted an acting and a confirmed Lieutenant of the Sapphire sloop, Capts. George Davies and Bertie Cornelius Cator, we find him, on 1 May in the latter year, uniting with the Nereide frigate, Capt. Robt. Corbett, in a successful engagement with two batteries near St. Rose, in the Ile de Bourbon, where he was severely hurt in the leg by the premature explosion of a magazine containing 100 barrels of powder, which took place while he was in the act of pulling off from the shore with a message to Capt. Corbett from Lieut. Arthur Batt Bingham of the Nereide, with whom he had landed. He was subsequently concerned in the capture of the French frigate Caroline and of other vessels in St. Paul’s Bay, Ile de Bourbon; and he was then removed with Capt. Cator to the Otter sloop. His last appointments were – 23 May, 1810, for passage home, to the Leopard 50, Capt. Jas. Johnstone – 20 Dec. 1810, to the Tyrian 10, Capt. Henry Thos. Davies, attached to the force in the Channel – 6 Sept. 1811 (having left the Tyrian in the previous May), to the Helder 36, Capt. John Serrell, stationed in the Baltic – 13 Sept. 1813 (after eight months of half-pay), to the Salvador del Mundo, flag-ship at Plymouth of Vice-Admiral Wm. Domett – and 21 Nov. following, as First-Lieutenant, to the Saturn 56, Capts. Jas. Nash and Thos. Brown, in which ship, until 30 Nov. 1814, he was most actively employed on the coast of North America. During the year 1812 Mr. Mansell, at the time in the Helder, succeeded, in the presence of a convoy of 300 sail, in setting fire, at noonday, to a galliot, defended, on the beach, in the Great Belt, by a sharp fire from 3 or 4 field-pieces and musketry – an enterprise which occasioned the boats under his orders a loss of 2 Midshipmen and of at least 10 or 12 men killed and wounded. He had also the good fortune, in a boat of the same ship, in conjunction with another belonging to the Bellette, to effect the capture of a valuable merchantman laden with linen, and afterwards sold we believe for 11,000l. He accepted his present rank 9 April, 1847.