A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Mauger, Nicholas
MAUGER. (Retired Commander, 1845. f-p., 15; h-p., 39.)
Nicholas Mauger was born 17 July, 1773. This officer entered the Navy, in June, 1793, as Midshipman, on board the Magicienne frigate, Capt. Geo. Martin, employed at first in the North Sea and then in the West Indies, where he assisted at the capture of St. Marc’s, St. Domingo, and served in the boats, under Lieut. Thompson, at the boarding and capture of a French privateer of 12 guns and 40 men. Removing, in July, 1794, to the Sceptre 64, Capts. Jas. Rich. Dacres, Wm. Essington, and Thos. Alexander, he assisted in that ship at the capture of eight Dutch Indiamen off St. Helena (in one of which he was sent as Prize-Master to Ireland), and witnessed the surrender of the Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay, 17 Aug. 1796. In the course of the ensuing month he was successively nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Daphne and Sybille frigates, Capts. Jas. Brisbane and Edw. Cooke; under the latter of whom, in Jan. 1798, he entered, in company with the Fox 32, the Spanish harbour of Manilla (notwithstanding that there were lying there three ships-of-the-line and three frigates), and assisted in capturing seven boats, 200 men, and a large quantity of ammunition and implements of war. He was also, during the same month, present in an action with the enemy’s batteries at Samboangon, in the island of Magindanao, whose fire occasioned the two ships a collective loss of 6 men killed and 16 wounded; and on the night of 28 Feb. 1799, he contributed to the capture, at the mouth of the Bengal river, by the Sybille alone, whose force consisted of 48 guns, of the French frigate La Forte, of 52 guns and 370 men, after a dreadful action of two hours and a half in which the enemy had 65 of their number (including the Captain) killed and 80 wounded, and the British, out of 371 men, 5 killed and 17 (among whom was Captain Cooke mortally) wounded. On the surrender of the enemy’s ship, Mr. Mauger, who during the conflict had commanded the Sybille’s main-deck, was sent to take possession of her. On 17 June, 1800, 12 months after he had risen to the post of Acting-Lieutenant, he was at length confirmed in his appointment to the Sybille, commanded at the time by Capt. Chas. Adam. Among other services in which he participated under that officer, was the capture and destruction, 23 Aug. 1800, of five Dutch armed vessels and 22 merchantmen in Batavia roads. He further, in the following Oct., aided in making prize of 24 Dutch proas, four of which mounted 6 guns each; and on 19 Aug. 1801 (when off Mahé, the principal of the Seychelle Islands) was instrumental to the taking, with a loss to the Sybille (out of 300 men) of 2 killed and 1 wounded, of La Chiffonne, of 42 guns and 296 men, 23 of whom were killed and 30 wounded. This action, a very gallant one of 20 minutes, was attended with the disadvantage to the British of being fought among rocks and shoals, and under the fire of an enemy’s battery. As soon as the vessel had struck her colours, Mr. Mauger was placed in charge of her as Prize-Master. On leaving the Sybille in Oct. 1801, he joined the Suffolk 74, Capts. Wm. Clark and Curtis; and in that ship, in the spring of 1802, he returned to England. His next appointment was, 16 June, 1803, to La Chiffonne, then a British 36-gun frigate, commanded by his former Captain, Adam; whom, in Sept. 1805, he accompanied, as Senior Lieutenant, into the Resistance 38. In the former ship, when in company with the Falcon sloop. Clinker gun-brig, and Frances armed-cutter, we find him assisting, 10 June, 1805, in driving on shore under the batteries of Fécamp a division of the French flotilla, consisting of 2 corvettes and 15 gun-vessels, carrying in all 51 guns, 4 8-inch mortars, and 3 field-pieces, accompanied by 14 transports. While attached to the Resistance, he beheld Sir John Borlase Warren’s capture, 13 March, 1806, of the Marengo 80, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule aided in the transport home from Vera Cruz of a considerable quantity of freight, was at the taking of L’Aigle privateer of 14 guns and 66 men, and escorted a large body of General Officers to the coast of Portugal. He left the Resistance in Dec. 1808; and was next, from 3 May to 25 Aug. 1815, employed in the Queen Charlotte 100, flag-ship of Sir Geo. Martin, with whom he went from Chatham to Portsmouth. He became a Retired Commander on the Junior List 15 Dec. 1830; and on the Senior 17 Feb. 1845.
Commander Mauger married, in 1802, Miss Margaret Allez, and by that lady has issue four sons and two daughters. One of his sons, Charles, is a Captain in the 17th Regt. Bombay Native Infantry; and another, John, was a Lieutenant in the Royal Marines.