A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Moriarty, William
MORIARTY. (Commander, 1822. f-p., 16; h-p., 28.)
William Moriarty is son of the late Vice-Admiral Sylverius Moriarty, Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral Thos. Graves in the Ramillies 74, prior to the commencement of the French revolutionary war; and brother-in-law of Capt. Peter John Douglas, R.N. He is brother of Lieuts. Redmond and Merion Marshall Moriarty, R.N.; and also of the late Messrs. Peter, Sylverius, and Martin Moriarty, all in the R.N. – the first of whom died a Lieutenant of fever in the West Indies, the second was lost with the Queen Charlotte in 1800, and the third died of cold caught while extinguishing a fire on board the Captain 74, at Plymouth.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy 26 Sept. 1803; and embarked, 17 Aug. 1807, as Midshipman, on board the Nymphe 36, Capts. Conway Shipley, Geo. Pigot, Hon. Josceline Percy, and Edw. Sneyd Clay; under the first of whom, who was killed, he was wounded in the boats in a desperate but unsuccessful attack made on the night of 23 April, 1808, on a French corvette, La Gavotte, of 22 guns and 150 men, lying at anchor in a bight above Belem Castle, in the river Tagus. He had previously enacted a part at the siege of Copenhagen; and he subsequently, when under Capt. Percy, escorted General Junot to Rochelle after the convention of Cintra. Quitting the Nymphe in Dec. 1810, he next, for about three years, served, on the Home, North American, Baltic, and Mediterranean stations, in the Conquestador 74, Capt. Lord Wm. Stuart, Seine frigate, Capt. John Hatley, Prince of Wales 98, Capt. Thos. Burton, Victory 100, flag-ship of Sir Jas. Saumarez, and, as Master’s Mate and Acting-Lieutenant, in the Partridge 16, Capt. John Miller Adye. Having passed his examination in the summer of 1811 he was confirmed a Lieutenant 13 Oct. 1813. His succeeding appointments were – 29 March, 1814, to the Cerberos 32, Capt. Thos. Garth, also in the Mediterranean – 19 Sept. following, to the Tyrian sloop, Capt. Augustus Baldwin, in which vessel, stationed in the Channel, he served until Oct. 1815 – and, 15 April, 1818, to the Topaze frigate, Capt. John Rich. Lumley, fitting for the East Indies. In 1820 he accompanied an expedition sent to the Persian Gulf for the purpose of obtaining redress for injuries which the British interests had suffered from the officers of the Imaum of Senna; and in Dec. of that year he was wounded at the head of a party of seamen while storming a fort during a series of operations against the city of Mokha. Although the attack was not crowned with the success it deserved, yet the daring intrepidity displayed by Lieut. Moriarty, exposed as he was to a heavy and galling fire of musketry, met its due reward in his being advanced, 1 Nov. 1822, to the rank he now holds.[1]
Commander Moriarty has been for many years Port Officer at Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land. He married Aphra, daughter of the late and sister of the present Dr. Cramp, of Tralee, co. Kerry. Agent – J. Hinxman.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1821, pp. 939, 2029.