A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Pring, Daniel
PRING. (Captain, 1815. h-p., 24; h-p., 23.)
Daniel Pring was born at Ivedon Penn, in the parish of Awliscombe, near Honiton, Devon, and died, about Jan. 1847, at Jamaica.
This officer entered the Navy, 13 Feb. 1800, as Midshipman, on board the Russel 74, Capts. Herbert Sawyer and Wm. Cuming. In Oct. 1801, after having accompanied the expedition to Copenhagen and served for some time off Cadiz, he removed to the Audacious 74, Capt. Shuldham Peard, under whom we find him for about 12 months employed in the West Indies. He next, in March, 1803, and July, 1804, joined the Malta 84, Capt. Edw. Buller and Princess Royal 98, Capts. H. Sawyer and Robt. Carthew Reynolds, both on the Home station; and in April, 1805, was received on board the Narcissus 32, Capt. Ross Donnelly. As Master’s Mate of that ship he assisted, during his passage to the Cape of Good Hope, at the capture of Le Prudent privateer of 12 guns and 70 men, the recapture of the English merchant-ship Horatio Nelson mounting 22 guns, and the destruction of the Napoléon privateer of 32 guns and 250 men. Subsequently to the reduction of the Cape and the capture of the 46-gun frigate Volontaire, he took part, in June, 1806, in the operations connected with the capture of Buenos Ayres. On the arrival in England of the Narcissus with the despatches relative to the latter event he followed Capt. Donnelly into the Ardent 64, and again sailed for the Rio de la Plata, where he served on shore with the army at the storming of Monte Video in Feb. 1807. In the course of the ensuing April he joined the Diadem 64, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Chas. Stirling, by whom, in Jan. 1808, being then at the Cape of Good Hope, he was placed in command, with the rank of Lieutenant (he had previously acted for two months as such on board the Narcissus), of the Paz, a schooner of 12 guns, taken at Monte Video. The appointment being confirmed 12 May following, Mr. Pring was for three years and four months employed in the same vessel on the Home and North American stations. During that period he succeeded in driving on shore and destroying the Danish cutter Sylt, in company with a lugger, both of very superior force, after an obstinate engagement, in which the enemy suffered much, and the British, in an attempt to board, lost a gallant young Midshipman, Mr. Woolnough. He also, in an action fought with a numerous division of gun-boats, that had come out of Fleckeroe in a calm with the view of taking the Paz, cut off and captured one of the largest of the enemy’s vessels, mounting 2 pivot-guns. He contrived, too, to capture and destroy several privateers in the rivers Elbe, Weser, and Jade; and performed good service off Flushing and on the north coast of Spain. In Sept. 1811 Mr. Pring joined the Africa 64, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Sawyer on the coast of North America, where in Sept. 1812 he joined the San Domingo 74, flagship of Sir John Borlase Warren, and in Dec. following the Loup Cervier. Prior to his confirmation in the rank of Commander, which took place 19 Nov. 1813, he acted as such on board the Royal George 20 and Wolfe 24; in the latter of which vessels, bearin’g the broad pendant of Sir Jas. Lucas Yeo, he aided in the unfortunate attack made, 29 May, 1813, on Sackett’s Harbour, the chief naval depot of the United States on Lake Ontario. At the commencement of Aug. in the same year he cooperated with a naval and military force under Capt. Thos. Everard and Colonel Murray in effecting the destruction of the arsenals, blockhouses, barracks, and stores of every description belonging to the enemy at Plattsburg.[1] In the ensuing Dec, at the solicitation of Sir Geo. Prevost, the Governor-General, Capt. Pring, with a division of gun-boats and a detachment of troops under his orders, proceeded to Cumberland Head, in the vicinity of that place; and there, in face of a strong body of the enemy, took and destroyed the magazines, provisions, camp equipage, &c. belonging to General Hampton’s army. The severity of the weather, on his return, obliged him to cut a channel for his boats through several miles of ice. In March, 1814, when the post at La Cole Mill was successfully defended by Major Handcock, of the 13th Regiment, Capt. Pring won the thanks of that officer for the ready and prompt assistance he afforded in moving up the flotilla from Ile-aux-Noix to the entrance of La Cole river, where he effectually obstructed the passage of the Americans under General Wilkinson, and otherwise contributed to their defeat.[2] In the ensuing May he made a gallant but, owing to the strength of the enemy, unsuccessful attempt to destroy the U.S. ship Saratoga, then building in Otter Creek, with the fleet and arsenal at Vergennes; the effect, however, of which was greatly to weaken the main army by drawing off the militia of Vermont. Throughout the subsequent events on Lake Champlain, where the whole naval force had been created under his special superintendence, Capt. Pring, as Commander of the Linnet 16, bore a conspicuous part; and on 11 Sept. 1814 was present when a British squadron, commanded by Capt. Geo. Downie, was forced to surrender, after a long and sanguinary conflict, fought beneath the batteries of Plattsburg, to a greatly superior force under Commodore Macdonough.[3] Capt. Downie falling during the battle, Capt. Pring became the senior officer, and maintained the action to the last with a degree of zeal, bravery, and ability, that called forth the praise, as well as the most honourable acquittal, of the court-martial which at a later date assembled to try the surviving officers and men. He was advanced to Post-rank 19 Sept. 1815; and afterwards appointed – about July, 1816, to a command on Lake Erie, where he remained until June, 1817 – 1 Dec. 1836, to the Inconstant 36, in which ship he served for four years and a half on the Lisbon, North American, West India, Irish, and Mediterranean stations, brought Lord Durham home from Canada in 1837, and proved successful in his experimental trials with the Pique 36 – 28 July, 1841, to the Thunderer 84, employed, until paid off at the close of 1843, in the Mediterranean, in attendance on the Queen off Walmer, and at the Cape of Good Hope – and 16 Sept. 1845, to the post of Commodore at Jamaica, where he continued with his broad pendant in the Imaum 72 until the period of his death. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.