A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Petrie, Peter
PETRIE. (Lieut., 1816. f-p., 9; h-p., 31.)
Peter Petrie was born 14 Oct. 1789, in Fifeshire, N.B.
This officer entered the Navy, 16 Nov. 1807, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Captain 74, Capts. Isaac Wolley, Jas. Athol Wood, and Christopher John Williams Nesham; during his servitude in which ship he commanded a boat, as Midshipman, at the landing of the troops at Madeira in Dec. 1807, served on shore with the small-arm men and had charge of an outpost at the capture of Marie-Galante in March, 1808, and in Feb. 1809 co-operated in the reduction of Martinique. During the operations connected with the latter affair he had command of a boat, served in a battery, and was wounded in the ankle. In April, 1809, he witnessed the capture of the Saintes Islands and the surrender of the French 74-gun ship D’Haupoult. In the following Dec, having returned to England, he was received on board the Espiègle 16, Capt. Donald Campbell, fitting for the West Indies, where he continued employed with the same officer in the Port d’Espagne 14 and Rosamond 18, until transferred, in Jan. 1814, to the Tonnant 80, flag-ship of Sir Alex. Cochrane in North America – part of the time as Acting-Lieutenant. While borne on the books of the Rosamond he appears, at the commencement of the war with the United States, to have conducted two valuable prizes, the Friendship and Dolphin into Plymouth, and to have carried two American vessels from the Gulf of Paria into Grenada. He was also intrusted with the charge of a boat and employed in the suppression of smuggling on the Spanish main. In the Tonnant we find him present at the capture of Washington, at the unsuccessful attack upon Baltimore, and in the expedition against New Orleans. In command of one of the same ship’s boats he served, with those of a squadron, and was slightly wounded in the fingers, at the capture, on Lake Borgne, 14 Dec. 1814, of five American gun-vessels, after a very desperate struggle, in which the British sustained a loss of 17 men killed and 77 wounded. In the Tonnant’s barge he aided in covering the retreat of the army from New Orleans. Being nominated, 13 March, 1815, Acting-Lieutenant of the Arab 16, Capt. Henry Jane, he was employed in that vessel, after Buonaparte’s escape from Elba, in blockading a heavy French frigate in New York. Since he was confirmed in his present rank, 30 July, 1816, he has been on half-pay. He has, however, had command of ships in the merchant service, and has visited in them most parts of the world.
He married, in Jan. 1819, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Walter Grindlay, Esq., a ship-owner, by whom he has issue three sons and five daughters.