A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Morton, Charles
MORTON. (Commander, 1827. f-p., 13; h-p., 27.)
Charles Morton, born in the vicinity of London, is member of a family seated for some centuries in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
This officer entered the Navy, 30 Oct. 1807, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Volontaire 38, Capt. Chas. Bullen, whom he followed as Midshipman, in Feb. 1811, into the Cambrian 40. In the former frigate he escorted the Duke of Orleans and his brother, Count Beaujolois, to Malta, served for some time with the in-shore squadron off Toulon, witnessed in 1809 the capture of the island of Pomegue, near Marseilles, and the destruction, near Cape Croisette, of Fort Rioux, mounting 14 guns, was present at an attack made, 31 Oct. in the latter year, on a large French convoy in the Bay of Rosas, and co-operated in 1810 with the patriots on the coast of Catalonia. In the Cambrian we find him assisting, in the course of 1811, at the reduction of the towns of St. Philon and Palamos, whose batteries were destroyed and guns embarked; also at the capture of 19 merchant-vessels at Cadaques, and at the defence of Tarragona. In Nov. 1814, after he had been for nearly three years employed on the Home and Mediterranean stations in the Bulwark and Pompée 74’s, Capts. Thos. Brown and Sir Jas. Athol Wood, he rejoined Capt. Bullen on board the Akbar 50, of which ship, having first conveyed despatches from Flushing to Antwerp, he was created an Acting-Lieutenant by Rear-Admiral Sir Thos. Byam Martin, 13 April, 1815. He was confirmed on the return of the Akbar from the Halifax station 10 Dec. 1816; and he was next, 11 Dec. 1823, appointed First of the Maidstone 42, fitting for the broad pendant of his friend Commodore Bullen, who had been nominated to the chief command on the coast of Africa. While on that station Lieut. Morton was most actively employed in the suppression of the slave-trade. He was promoted to the rank of Commander 6 Oct. 1827, a few weeks after the Maidstone had been paid off, and has not been since afloat.
Commander Morton is the author of “An Essay on the Electrical Formation of Hailstones, in opposition to the absurd Theories of the learned Philosophers,” and is the inventor of a plan for increasing the power and rapidity used in the art of swimming. He married, 23 Sept. 1829, Eliza, only daughter of the late John Thompson, Esq., of Hanover, Jamaica.