A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Marryat, Frederick (a)
MARRYAT, C.B., F.R.S., F.L.S. (Captain, 1825. f-p., 15; h-p., 26.)
Frederick Marryat, born 10 July, 1792, in London, is second son of the late Joseph Marryat, Esq., M.P. for Sandwich, Chairman of the Committee at Lloyd’s, and Colonial Agent for the island of Grenada, by Charlotte, third daughter of the late Fred. Geyer, Esq., a distinguished American loyalist, who suffered much from the fervency of his attachment to the Throne at the period of the separation of Great Britain from her colonies. He is brother of Joseph Marryat, Esq., formerly M.P. for Sandwich; and a descendant of Le Sieur Thos. Marriatte, a Protestant native of Normandy, and an officer in the Huguenot army, who, having escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 24 Aug. 1572, fled to England with the loss of all his property. His grandfather, Thos. Marryat, Esq., M.D., was the author of a work entitled ‘Therapeutics, or the Art of Healing.’
This officer entered the Navy, 23 Sept. 1806, as a Volunteer, on board the Impérieuse, 38, Capts. Lord Cochrane and Thos. Garth, in which ship he remained until Oct. 1809. While under the gallant Cochrane he contributed to the capture and destruction, within one month, of three French national transports and 12 merchant-vessels, and also to the demolition of Fort Roquette, at the entrance of Arcasson; served in the boats when they incurred a loss of 16 men killed and wounded in effecting the capture of a Maltese privateer, supposed until the moment of her surrender to be an enemy’s vessel, 15 Nov. 1807; was present at the cutting-out of a Turkish ship from Port Valona, on the coast of Dalmatia; assisted, in the year 1808, during a cruize of four months off the coast of Catalonia and among the Balearic islands, in taking and destroying one national brig, six gun-vessels, one privateer, and about 50 sail of merchantmen; aided, 31 July, 1808, in reducing and levelling the castle of Mongat, by which the road from Barcelona to Gerona, besieged at the time by the French, had been completely commanded; participated in a variety of dashing operations on the coast of France during the ensuing months of Aug. and Sept.; landed on returning to the shores of Catalonia, and was particularly mentioned for his conduct at the defence of Trinidad Castle, attached to the fortress of Rosas, against a whole French army, 1000 of whose picked men were completely repulsed by 80 of the British, supported by an equal number of Spaniards, on the occasion of an assault made by the former, 30 Nov. 1808;[1] aided, 30 Dec. following, in obtaining possession, in the harbour of Cadaques, after a short action, of the enemy’s batteries, two national vessels, and 12 merchantmen, laden with wheat for the garrison of Barcelona; and, besides acting a part in other affairs of an equally spirited character, served with credit in an explosion-vessel under Lieut. Urry Johnson in the memorable attack made upon the French shipping in Aix Roads 11 April, 1809, and was on board the Impérieuse the next day, when, unsupported, she approached the Calcutta of 56 guns, and compelled that ship to strike her colours. In Oct. 1809, at which period he was with the Flushing expedition, Mr. Marryat took a passage to England in the Victorious 74, and on his arrival joined the Centaur 74, flag-ship of Sir Sam. Hood, with whom he soon again sailed for the Mediterranean. He returned towards the close of the following year in the Atlas 74, Capt. Jas. Sanders; and was next, until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, 26 Dec. 1812, employed, on the Home, West India, and North American stations, in the Namur 74, Capt. Alex. Shippard, Africa 64, Capt. John Bastard, Chub schooner, Lieut.-Commander Jas. Nisbett, Aeolus and Spartan frigates, Capts. Lord Jas. Townshend and Edw. Pelham Brenton, and Royal William, Capt. Geo. Fowke. On 30 Sept. 1811 we find him earning the general admiration of the ship’s company, and the high approval of his Captain, for his courageous conduct, when no other person would attempt it, in leading the way aloft during a tremendous gale from the S.E., which had laid the Aeolus on her beam-ends, and had literally blown away her topmasts and mizen-mast, for the purpose of cutting away the mainyard, as the only means left of saving the mainmast and righting the ship. In Aug. 1812, a few days prior to his discharge from the Spartan, he appears to have been engaged in two boat-attacks in Haycos Harbour and Little River, the result of which was the capture of six American armed vessels. In the capacity of Lieutenant, Mr. Marryat was appointed – 8 Jan. 1813, to the Espiègle sloop, Capt. John Taylor, on the West India station, whence he returned in the next April – and 31 Jan. 1814, to the Newcastle 58, Capt. Lord Geo. Stuart. In that ship he lent his aid to the capture of the privateers Ida of 10 guns and 65 men, and the Prince de Neufchâtel of 18 guns and 135 men; and on 19 Dec. 1814 he took command of her barge and cut out four vessels from Boston Bay, an exploit which occasioned him a loss of 1 1 men killed and wounded. Illness compelling him to leave the Newcastle in Feb. 1815, he returned home a passenger in the Conway 26; and on 13 of the following June was promoted to the rank of Commander. His succeeding appointments were – 13 June, 1820, to the Beaver sloop, in which vessel, after visiting Madeira, Teneriffe, St. Jago, Trinidad on the Main, Tristan de Cunha, and the Cape of Good Hope, he proceeded off St. Helena, where, on the morning after the decease of Napoleon Buonaparte, 6 May, 1821, he formed one of the three Naval Captains admitted to view the body of the unfortunate Emperor[2] – 7 July, 1821, to the Rosario 10, part of the squadron selected to escort the remains of Queen Caroline from Harwich to Cuxhaven – and, 31 March, 1823 (having paid the latter vessel off 7 Feb. 1822), to the Larne 20, fitting for the East Indies. Joining, in May, 1824, in the hostilities against Ava, Capt. Marryat continued from that period until the following Sept. to officiate as senior Naval Officer in co-operation with the expedition under Major-General Sir Archibald Campbell, K.C.B., and won considerable fame by the able, gallant, and zealous manner in which he discharged the duties of that conspicuous and responsible post. He subsequently, during the months of Feb. and March, 1825, commanded an armament sent in conjunction with a military force under Major Sale up the Bassein River, where the services he rendered materially operated in the general results of the campaign.[3] His conduct from first to last, indeed, was so marked that it procured him the repeated acknowledgments of the Supreme Government and other high authorities in India, and was the means of his being included in a vote of thanks from both Houses of Parliament, his rank proving the only obstacle to his being personally named. In April, 1825, Capt. Marryat assumed acting-command of the Tees 26, owing to a death vacancy; but his Post-commission was not signed until 25 July following. In the early part of 1826 he returned to England and paid the Tees off. He was nominated a C.B. 26 Dec. in the same year; and was lastly, from 10 Nov. 1828 until Nov. 1830, employed in the Ariadne 28 on diplomatic service at Madeira and the Western Islands, and in searching for supposed dangers in the Atlantic.
In addition to the productions which have rendered him famous as a novelist, Capt. Marryat is the author of a work, published in 1822, entitled ‘Suggestions for the Abolition of the present System of Impressment in the Naval Service,’ a volume in which he so clearly demonstrated the propriety of all merchant-vessels carrying apprentices in proportion to their tonnage, instead of West Indiamen only, as was then the case, that in a few months Government adopted his views. He had previously invented a code of signals for vessels in the merchant-service, including a cipher for secret correspondence, now in general use by our own and all foreign navies.[4] On their being translated into French, and supplied by ordonnance to the French marine and merchant service, the King of the French sent him the Croix d’Officier of the Legion d’Honneur. In Dec. 1847 Capt. Marryat was awarded the Good Service pension. He married, 21 Jan. 1819, Catherine, youngest daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, of Russell Place, formerly Chargé d’Affaires at the Court of Russia, by whom he has, with other issue, two sons, both in the R.N. – the elder, Frederick, a Lieutenant.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 307.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1821, p. 1409.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1824, pp. 1957, 1965; and Gaz. 1825, pp. 325, 327, 498, 1494, 2277.
- ↑ Not less than five times has Capt. Marryat generonsly hazarded his existence for the preservation of others. The first instance of the kind occurred in 1807, when he jumped from the Impérieuse and saved a midshipman, Mr. Henry Cobbett; the second in 1810, in the course of which year, belonging at the time to the Centaur he effected the rescue of a man named Thomas Moubray, who had fallen from the main-yard, while cruizing off Toulon; the third in 1811, when, running down the Trades at the rate of seven knots an hour, he leaped from the Africa after another seaman, James Walker, whom, however, his humane efforts failed to benefit, being left nearly two miles astern of the ship, and upwards of thirty minutes in the water before a boat arrived to his assistance; the fourth in the same year, when he saved one of the crew of the Aeolus; and the last in Feb. 1813, on 8 of which month, although his efforts were unfortunately not successful, he dashed from L’Espiègle in a heavy sea, in the hope of succouring a sailor, Jacob Small and was picked up a mile and a half distant from the sloop in an exhausted and nearly senseless state. His gallant and benevolent exertions could not, of course, do otherwise than elicit the warmest thanks of the Royal Humane Society with whose medal he was subsequently presented for his invention of a life-boat, described in its 47th Report.