A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Maples, John Fordyce
MAPLES, C.B. (Rear-Admiral, 1846. f-p., 29; h-p., 36.)
John Fordyce Maples died 12 May, 1847, at the Priory, Kilburn, aged 79.
This officer entered the Navy, 5 Oct. 1782, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Triumph 74, Capt. Peter Affleck, lying at Portsmouth; served, from Sept. 1784 to April, 1789, in the Hebe frigate, commanded in the Channel by Capt. Edw. Thornbrough; and after an intermediate attachment, as Master’s Mate, on the West India station, to the Blonde 32, Capt. Wm. Affleck, Centurion 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral P. Affleck, and Penelope 32, Capt. Bartholomew Sam. Rowley, was there nominated, 7 May, 1794, Acting-Lieutenant of the Europa 50, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Ford. On 16 April, 1793, at which period he was belonging to the Penelope, we find him assisting at the capture of Le Goelan 14, the first republican vessel taken during the war, and in the following Sept. present at the occupation of Jeremie, St. Domingo, and at the capture of about 2000 tons of shipping laden with colonial produce, two neutral vessels with cargoes, and an armed schooner, in the bays near St. Louis. He also, when in company with the Iphigenia 32, took part, 25 Nov. in the same year, in a warm action of half an hour, which terminated in the capture, with a loss to the Penelope of 1 man killed and 7 wounded, of the French 36-gun frigate L’Inconstante. At the commencement of 1794 the Penelope was employed in the blockade of Port-au-Prince, and soon afterwards in covering the debarkation of the troops under Lieut.-Colonel Whitelocke, near Cape Tiburon. She subsequently engaged the batteries of Aux Cayes, and brought out thence several loaded merchantmen. On his removal to the Europa Mr. Maples served for several weeks in a fort at St. Nicolas Mole. After witnessing the subjugation of Port-au-Prince, 4 June, 1794, he removed (he had been confirmed a Lieutenant on 16 of the preceding May) to La Magicienne 32, Capts. Geo. Martin, Rich. Hussey Moubray, Wm. Henry Bicketts, and Wm. Ogilvy, and was for some time employed in co-operating with the army in a vain attempt to complete the conquest of the French posts in St. Domingo. Continuing in La Magicienne for a period of nearly five years, he assisted in consequence at the capture of a variety of the enemy’s vessels, and, among these, of Le Cerf Volant corvette of 18 guns, La Fortune privateer of 8 guns and 74 men, Le Poisson Volant, of 12 guns and 80 men, and two Spanish brigs laden with cocoa. In Jan. and Feb. 1797, with the boats of the same ship under his orders, Mr. Maples cut out two privateers and a Spanish armed brig from different anchorages at the west end of Puerto Rico; and on 6 of the ensuing April, in conjunction with those of the Regulus 74, he effected the destruction of 11 sail of merchantmen in the harbour of Cape Roxo, spiked 4 guns on shore, and brought out two vessels, without the loss of a man. On the occasion of a spirited and well-timed attack made on 23 of the latter month on the enemy in Carcasse Bay by La Magicienne and the Regulus and Fortune schooner, Mr. Maples, who had become Senior Lieutenant of the first-named ship, boarded a 6-gun sloop and took her in tow under a tremendous fire of round-shot, grape, and musketry – a service in the performance of which his boat sustained a loss of 4 men killed, and Mr. Morgan, Master’s Mate, and 10 men wounded. On 28 Sept. he had 2 men badly wounded in an unsuccessful attack upon two small privateers at Porto Paix. He further, on 22 Dec. in the same year, 1797, commanded the boats at the capture of a privateer mounting 2 guns near Cape Causedo; and on 27 he was present with a small squadron at the taking, in Guadilla Bay, Puerto Rico, of Le Brutus, of 9 guns, a merchant-ship, three brigs, and a schooner. La Magicienne and her consorts were next employed in dislodging a large body of brigands who had established themselves in Platform Bay. On 19 March, 1798, Mr. Maples landed with 100 seamen under his orders to do garrison-duty at Irois; on returning whence to the ship he was slightly wounded by a musket-ball in the right leg, and had one of his party killed close to him. In the early part of 1799 he was again intrusted with the conduct of several boat enterprises, and contrived to make many prizes. In the course of that and the following year we find him joining the Queen 98, Royal George 100, and London 98, flag-ships in the West Indies, Channel, and Baltic of Sir Hyde Parker. On 2 April, 1801, he served as a volunteer with Nelson’s division in the action off Copenhagen; and during the four following months he had charge of the Otter fire-brig, also stationed in the Baltic. His subsequent appointments, in the capacity of Lieutenant, were to the Ganges 74, Capts. Thos. Fras. Fremantle, Joseph Baker, and Geo. M‘Kinley, Prince George 98, Capt. Joseph Sydney Yorke, Defence 74, Capt. Geo. Hope, Tigre 80, Capt. Benj. Hallowell, Naiad 38, Capt. Thos. Dundas, Mars 74, Capts. Wm. Lukin and Jas. Katon, and Atlas 98; in which ships he was principally employed on the Jamaica, Halifax, Home, and Mediterranean stations. He fought in the Naiad at Trafalgar, 21 Oct. 1805; and during the 16 months which preceded his advancement to the rank of Commander 21 Oct. 1810, was First-Lieutenant of the Mars and Atlas. Obtaining command, 30 Aug. 1811, of the Aetna bomb, Capt. Maples was for some time employed in that vessel at the defence of Isla de Leon – a service of a very harassing nature. In Oct. 1812 he removed to the Pelican, of 18 guns, yielding a broadside weight of 262 lbs.; and on 14 of the following Aug. he had the good fortune, during a cruize on the Cork station, to capture, after a spirited and highly-creditable action of 45 minutes, the American sloop Argus, of 20 guns and 122 men, throwing a weight in broadside of 228 lbs., whose resistance occasioned a loss to themselves of 6 killed and 18 wounded, and to the British, out of 101 men, of 2 killed and 5 wounded.[1] As a reward for his promptitude, skill, and gallantry in this affair, Capt. Maples was deservedly advanced to Post-rank by a commission dated 23 Aug. 1813. His last appointment was, 14 Dec. 1814, to the command of the Larne 20, which however he only retained until 15 of the ensuing month. He was nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815; and accepted the rank of Retired Rear-Admiral 1 Oct. 1846.
He married, in 1814, the widow of John Carthew, Esq., Solicitor, of Woodbridge, co. Suffolk, and niece of Vice-Admiral Jas. Carthew. Agents – Messrs. Chard.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 1664.