A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Pyke, Joseph
PYKE. (Lieutenant, 1826. f-p., 17; h-p., 19.)
Joseph Pyke was born 13 Nov. 1797. He is brother of Commander John Pyke, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 10 May, 1811, as a Volunteer, on board the Rhin 38, Capt. Chas. Malcolm, and in 1812-13 was employed in co-operation with the patriots on the north coast of Spain. In July, 1814, being then in the West Indies, he removed as Midshipman to the Cydnus 38, Capts. Fred. Langford and Hon. Robt. Cavendish Spencer, in which ship he accompanied the ensuing expedition against New Orleans. The Cydnus being paid off in Jan. 1816, he sailed in the spring of that year for St. Helena in the Newcastle 60, flag-ship of Sir Pulteney Malcolm, and there continued to serve (with the exception of a short period in 1817, during which he returned to England and passed his examination) as Mate and Admiralty-Midshipman in the Redpole 10, Capt. Wm. Devereux Evance, and Conqueror 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Robt. Plampin, until Oct. 1820. After having been employed for three years and nine months in the Aurora 46, Capt. Henry Prescott, on the South American station, and for upwards of a year in the William and Mary yacht, commanded at Dublin by his friend Capt. C. Malcolm, he was promoted, 19 May, 1826, to the rank of Lieutenant, and was subsequently appointed – 11 Dec. 1826, to the Coast Blockade, in which service he continued, with his name on the books of the Hyperion 42, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye, until June, 1828 – 17 Dec. 1832, as a Supernumerary, to the Isis 50, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Fred. Warren at the Cape of Good Hope – and next, to the Curlew 10, Capt. Henry Dundas Trotter. In a boat belonging to the latter vessel, manned with 4 kroomen, Mr. Pyke was surprised and, after receiving 10 wounds, taken by the natives off Cape Lopez, on which occasion he was stripped naked and robbed of everything. At the end of three days he was ransomed and enabled to join his ship. Since the paying off of the Curlew in 1834 he has been unemployed.
Lieut. Pyke married, 9 Sept. 1835, Emilia Bowen, youngest daughter of the Rev. Conway Stafford. He is now a widower.