A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Puleston, John
PULESTON. (Lieut., 1809. f-p., 15; h-p., 38.)
John Puleston entered the Navy, 3 Dec. 1794, as Third-cl. Boy, on board the Cambridge 74, Capt. Rich. Boger, guard-ship at Plymouth; and from May, 1795, until April, 1802, served, with the exception of an interval in 1796-7, in the Camilla 20, Capts. Thos. Graves, Robt. Larkan, and Edw. Brace, on the North Sea, Channel, West India, and Newfoundland stations – part of the time in the capacity of Midshipman. Joining next, in March, 1805, the Melampus 36, Capts. Stephen Poyntz and Edw. Hawker, he assisted, 13 July following, at the capture of the Hydra privateer, of 28 guns and 192 men, and, in Sept. 1806, at the destruction, off Cape Henry, of L’Impétueux, a French 74. In Jan. 1809, we find him escorting a fleet of transports from Halifax to Barbadoes; and on 16 of that month contributing to the capture of Le Colibri, a French brig-of-war mounting 16 guns, with a complement of 92 men, having on board 570 barrels of flour and a large quantity of gunpowder for the relief of St. Domingo. He was made Lieutenant, 1 July, 1809, into the Martin sloop, Capt. John Evans, at Newfoundland; and was afterwards appointed – 13 Dec. 1809, to the Indian sloop, Capts. Chas. John Austen, Wm. Bowen Mends, and Henry Jane, with whom he served on the Halifax and West India stations until Oct. 1812 – 4 Nov. 1813, to the Hannibal 74, Capt. Sir Michael Seymour, in which ship, prior to returning to the West Indies, he aided at the capture, off Cherbourg, of the French 40-gun frigate Sultane – and, 29 Dec. 1814, nearly four months after he had left the Hannibal, to the Scylla sloop, Capt. Geo. Bennet Allen. He has been on half-pay since 30 Sept. 1815.