A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Petch, Charles Adolphus
PETCH. (Lieutenant, 1828.)
Charles Adolphus Petch, born about 1797, is brother of Lieut. Wm. Tatton Petch, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy 8 Feb. 1810; and on 13 Dec. in the same year was present in the Kent 74, Capt. Thos. Rogers, at the destruction of a large convoy protected by two batteries in the Mole of Palamos, at which place the British, out of 600 officers and men, who had been employed in the boats of a squadron, sustained a loss of upwards of 200 killed and wounded. Joining, subsequently, the Thames 32, Capt. Chas. Napier, he assisted in that ship at the capture, 26 Feb. 1813, of the island of Ponza. On 16 May following, being then with Capt. Napier in the Euryalus 36, we find him contributing to the capture of La Fortune national xebec, of 10 guns, 4 swivels, and 95 men, together with upwards of 20 merchant-vessels, lying in Cavalarie Road. In 1814 he accompanied, in the same ship, the brilliant expedition sent up the Potomac under Capt. Jas. Alex. Gordon to effect the capture of Alexandria. In 1815, while in charge of a prize to Bermuda, he fell into the hands of the enemy. Being made Lieutenant, 13 June, 1828 (11 years after he had passed his examination), into the Alacrity 10, Capt. Joseph Nias, he was present in the following year, in the Mediterranean, at the capture of a pirate by the boats of that vessel. His appointments, since his return to England in 1830, have been, in succession – 5 April, 1831, to the Coast Guard – 20 June, 1836, to the command of the Greyhound Revenue-vessel – in 1839, to the office of Agent in a contract mail steam-vessel on the Liverpool and Kingstown station – and, 28 Aug. 1841 and 26 Jan. 1843, to the command of the Wildfire and Advice steam-packets, in the latter of which he is still serving. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.