A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Powell, George Eyre
POWELL. (Commander, 1841. f-p., 19; h-p., 22.)
George Eyre Powell, born in 1790, is fifth son of the late Eyre Powell, Esq., of Great Connel, co. Kildare. Two of his brothers fell in the service of their country.
This officer entered the Navy, 19 Jan. 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Wizard sloop, of 16 guns and 95 men, Capts. Edm. Palmer and Abel Ferris. Attaining soon the rating of Midshipman, he served in that capacity in the expedition to Egypt in 1807. A wound he received in the course of the same year at the cutting-out of a vessel from under the protection of a martello tower on the coast of Calabria had the effect of procuring him a grant from the Patriotic Fund. He subsequently, by jumping overboard, proved of material assistance in saving the life of the Captain’s coxswain, a man named Wm. Johnstone, who had been upset in the jolly-boat; and in May, 1808, he was on board the Wizard when she fell in with, chased for 88 hours, and, after having run a distance of 369 miles, and once beaten her opponent in an action of one hour and a half, compelled the French brig-corvette Le Requin, of 18 guns and 110 men, to seek refuge in the neutral port of Tunis. Removing in the following June to the Amphion 32, Capt. Wm. Hoste, he was placed a short time afterwards in command of a tender, with the rating of Master’s Mate, and detached on a cruize in the Adriatic, where he succeeded in capturing many of the enemy’s vessels. In March, 1809, he was sent in charge of a heavily-laden prize, accompanied by another one intrusted to the care of the present Commander Henry Browne Mason, to Malta, for the purpose of obtaining stores for the use of the Amphion. At day-break on the 6th, observing the approach of two privateers (the one carrying a long 22-pounder in the bow, a carronade in the stern, and 38 men, and the other a 22-pounder in the bow and 28 men), Mr. Powell, concentrating the force of the two prizes on board his own, made all the opposition that could be expected from 2 one-pounder swivels and 6 muskets in the hands of 14 men. The enemy at length boarded on each quarter; and the British, having no alternative, surrendered. Mr. Powell, with his companions, was carried to Zara, thence taken to Ancona, and ultimately marched across the Alps to Briançon and Verdun. Escaping, in the autumn of 1810, with two other Midshipmen, Messrs. Burbidge and Thomas, he traversed Holland under great privations, and on reaching its shores embarked in a fishing-boat, in which he had the good fortune to be picked up by the Idas cutter, Lieut.-Commander Duncan. In that vessel, after he had been conveyed on board the Christian VII., flagship of Sir Edw. Pellew in the North Sea, and been by him highly complimented, he was sent to England. Reporting himself, on his arrival, at the Admiralty, he was at once ordered to join the Thisbe 28, Capt. Wm. Rogers, guard-ship at Woolwich. Soon after this, while absent on leave, he was attacked by the Walcheren fever, and for several weeks incapacitated from exertion. On his return to the Thisbe he was removed, in Dec. 1810, to the Primrose 18, Capt. Chas. Geo. Rodney Phillott, under whom we find him, during the next 12 months, employed in escorting troops to Lisbon, protecting the trade to Quebec, and cruizing off Flushing. Rejoining Capt. Hoste at the end of that period as Master’s Mate on board the Bacchante 38, he accompanied him a second time to the Adriatic, and again acted a part in more than one animated scene. On the night of 31 Aug. 1812, receiving charge of the Bacchante’s launch, he served with a detachment of boats under the command of Lieut. Donat Henchy O’Brien, and assisted in cutting out from the port of Lema seven vessels laden with ship-timber for the Venetian Government, together with La Tisiphone French national xebec of 1 six-pounder, 2 three-pounders, and 28 men; one gun-boat with a nine-pounder, 2 three-pounders, and 24 men; and another of 1 nine-pounder and 20 men, intended for the protection of the trade on the coast of Istria from Pola to Trieste. On 6 Jan. 1813 Mr. Powell, with the same launch under his orders, united in a successful attack made by the boats of the Bacchante and Weasel sloop on five of the enemy’s gun-vessels in the neighbourhood of Otranto. While in command, previously to the latter affair, of the above-named Tisiphone, which had been converted into a tender and named the Amphion, he had fallen in, 2 Sept. 1812, with a convoy of 11 sail under the escort of two gun-boats; one of which, carrying 1 long 28-pounder in the bow, 1 22-pounder in the stern, together with 6 brass swivels and 38 men, he had succeeded, although with but 1 Midshipman, 13 seamen, and 5 marines on board, in driving on the rocks, after a running action of 35 minutes, in so shattered a condition that she soon went down. The other gun-boat was driven off the field. As a reward for his frequently distinguished conduct Mr. Powell was made Lieutenant, 22 Jan. 1813, into the Tremendous 74, Capt. Robt. Campbell. While in that ship he assisted at the reduction of the Castle of Trieste, and commanded a battery and a division of seamen at the taking of Rovigno, and in other operations on the coast of Istria. In charge of the flotilla employed in co-operation with the Austrians under Marshal Belgrade, he ascended the Po as far as the river Mincio, and aided at the blockade of Mantua, displaying in his exertions so much zeal, alacrity, and perseverance, that he elicited the thanks of the Marshal, and induced the late Sir Chas. Rowley, then commanding the Eagle 74, to mention him in a very warm manner in his despatches to Rear-Admiral Thos. Fras. Fremantle, the chief naval authority in the Adriatic. On the restoration of Naples to its ancient sovereign, and the surrender to Capt. Campbell of the shipping and arsenal, Mr. Powell was sent on shore to act as Commissioner, and remained there until the arrival of Lord Exmouth. He then escorted the ex-Queen to Trieste, and was by her presented with a valuable diamond ring. On the paying off of the Tremendous he was appointed, 29 Nov. 1815, Senior of the Cordelia 10, Capts. Wm. Sargent and Wm. Popham, under the former of whom he took part in the bombardment of Algiers, 27 Aug. 1816. He served next, from 18 Jan. 1817 until Oct. 1822, on the Home, St. Helena, and Cape stations, as First-Lieutenant in the Heron 18, Capts. Herbert Brace Powell and Job Hanmer, and was on board that vessel when she brought home the despatches announcing the death of Napoleon Buonaparte. He returned from the Cape of Good Hope with Capt. Hanmer, in the Leander 60, in Jan. 1823, from which period he remained on half-pay until appointed, 4 Feb. 1840, First of the Victory 104, Capts. Fras. Erskine Loch and Wm. Wilmott Henderson, ordinary guard-ship at Portsmouth. He attained his present rank 23 Nov. 1841.
Commander Powell married Catherine, youngest daughter of the late Joseph Kingdon, Esq., Comptroller of the Customs for Exeter, and sister of Wm. Page Kingdon, Esq., late Mayor of Exeter, by whom he has had issue seven children.