A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Maw, Richard Stovin
MAW. (Lieutenant, 1807. f-p., 17; h-p., 32.)
Richard Stovin Maw had three brothers, who were either killed or wounded in their country’s service.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy in Aug. 1798, and embarked, in May, 1802, as a Volunteer, on board the Resistance 36, Capt. Hon. Philip Wodehouse, under whom he was wrecked off Cape St. Vincent, 31 May, 1803. After serving for a few months in the Termagant 18, Capt. Robt. Pettet, he joined the Weazle 14, Capt. Wm. Layman, and in that vessel was again wrecked, near Cabritta Point, Gibraltar Bay, 1 March, 1804. Becoming Midshipman, in the following July, of the Glory 98, successive flag-ship of Admirals Sir John Orde and Chas. Stirling, he shared in Sir Robert Calder’s action, 22 July, 1805; after which we find him following the last-mentioned officer into the Sampson and Diadem 64’s. In the early part of 1807, on 8 Oct. in which year he was confirmed a Lieutenant in the Diadem, Mr. Maw was for three weeks employed on shore with the army at the siege of Monte Video; and in the ensuing July, it appears, he assisted in landing the troops during the unsuccessful attempt upon Buenos Ayres. His succeeding appointments were – 2 June, 1808, to the Oberon 16, Capt. Geo. Manners Sutton, attached to the force in the Channel – 21 Feb. 1809, as Senior, to the Rose 18, Capt. Thos. Mansell, in which sloop he participated in the capture of more than 100 of the enemy’s vessels, and aided in the land operations at the taking of Anholdt – 25 Jan. 1810, to the Bellerophon 74, Capt. Sam. Warren, employed in the North Sea – and, 14 Feb. 1811, 26 Feb. 1813, and 2 Aug. 1815, as First, to the Cyane 22, Capts. Fras. Augustus Collier and Thos. Forrest, Lacedaemonian 38, Capt. Sam. Jackson, and Ister 36, Capt. Thos. Forrest, on the Mediterranean, West India, North American, and Home stations. On the evening of 5 Oct. 1814 Mr. Maw, then in the Lacedaemonian, was sent with the boats of that frigate, carrying two other Lieutenants, several Midshipmen, and upwards of 100 men under his orders, in pursuit of three American gun-boats and a convoy of about 36 sail, which had been discovered passing between Cumberland and Jekyll islands. After rowing a distance of 30 miles the British succeeded in coming up with some of the vessels, and the result of their attack was the capture of one of the gun-boats, No. 160 (which Mr. Maw himself was the first to board), and four merchantmen; the loss to the assailants being 4 officers and men wounded, and to their opponents 1 man killed, 4 wounded, and several driven overboard.[1] Debilitated from the effects of the exposure and hardships attendant upon continual boat-service, Mr. Maw, in Jan. 1815, found himself under the necessity of invaliding from the Lacedaemonian; and in June, 1817, a recurrence of bad health when on board the Ister again obliged him to seek half-pay. Notwithstanding the very neat exploits we have above recorded, and the fact that for upwards of six years he filled the important post of First-Lieutenant, he has never been able to procure that rank for which he had so earnestly striven. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1815, p. 454.