A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Ramsay, Robert (a)
RAMSAY, C.B. (Captain, 1815. f-p., 17; h-p., 37.)
Robert Ramsay was born 20 Sept. 1773.
This officer (he had been for seven years employed in the merchant-service, and had become second in command of a large trader) entered the Navy, in Aug, 1793, as A.B., on board the Bellerophon 74, Capt., afterwards Rear-Admiral, Thos. Pasley, under whom he fought as Midshipman in Lord Howe’s actions 28 and 29 May and 1 June, 1794. In the following Dec. and Feb. 1796 he became in succession Master’s Mate of the Ambuscade 32 and Glenmore 36, both commanded by Capt. Geo. Duff in the North Sea. Towards the close of the latter year he sailed in the Janus 32, Capt. Jas. Bisset, for the West Indies, where, in Feb. 1797, he joined the Queen 98, flag-ship of Sir Hyde Parker. In the course of the ensuing March, during a cruize off the island of St. Domingo, he landed on the bank of a river near Monte Christo in the ship’s pinnace under the orders of a Lieutenant, with whom and with four men he was taken captive by the negroes, while the Master, Carpenter, and four others were killed. On being exchanged Mr. Ramsay, who had been wounded, was nominated, 21 of the same month, Acting-Lieutenant of the Rénommée 44, Capt. Robt. Rolles. He was confirmed 8 Jan. 1799, and subsequently appointed – 24 March, 1799, to the Albacore sloop, Capt. Thos. White, on the Jamaica station – 23 June following, to the Dromedary store-ship, Capts. T. White and Bridges Watkinson Taylor, under the latter of whom he was wrecked, on his return from a voyage to England, in the Bocca, off Trinidad, 10 Aug. 1800 – 6 Feb. 1801, to the Powerful 74, Capt. Thos. White, employed, until July, 1802, in the Baltic, off Cadiz, and in the West Indies – 24 March, 1804, to the command of a Signal station on Foulness Island – 11 June, 1805, to the Vesuvius bomb, Capt. Jas. Lillicrap, lying in the Downs – 27 Sept. ensuing, to the command of the Carrier cutter, in the North Sea – l3 May, 1 808, as Acting-Captain, after a few months of half-pay, to the Eurydice 24 – and, 12 Nov. 1808, to the command of the Mistletoe schooner of 8 guns. While attached to the Renommée and Albacore Mr. Ramsay was frequently, and with Success, employed against the enemy’s small craft on the coast of Cuba. When Senior, in May, 1799, of the Albacore, the three small boats of that sloop having been beaten off by a privateer whom they had chased into a small bay and driven on shore, he obtained permission from his Captain, on their return, to take them under his personal direction and renew the attack. He accordingly landed, pursued the enemy from the beach, and, with the loss of only two men, the Serjeant-of- Marines and a seaman, succeeded in bringing away the prize. In 1801 Lieut. Ramsay was often, in the boats of the Powerful, engaged in operations against the enemy’s gun and other vessels in the neighbourhood of Cadiz. He was on board the same ship when attacked, during a calm, by a flotilla from that port. While in command of the Carrier, with two other cutters under his orders, he succeeded, during the months of Jan. and Feb. 1807, in taking three privateers (one of them Le Ragotin of 8 guns and 29 men) and in recapturing and destroying several vessels near the Texel. In Sept. 1807 he assisted at, and was sent home with the despatches relating to, the capture of Heligoland; and on the fall of Copenhagen he navigated to England, without the assistance of any officers, the Danish line-of-battle ship Justitia manned with a volunteer crew, and having a regiment of soldiers on board. In the Eurydice, of which he was nominated Acting-Captain by Admiralty order, he conducted to the north coast of Spain the first two vessels sent out with supplies of arms for the patriots, and escorted a convoy to Lisbon. In the Mistletoe, which he had fitted out at Bermuda, Lieut. Ramsay was employed in protecting the British interests in the Rio de la Plata. On the deposition of the Brazilian Viceroy, consequent on the revolution of 25 May, 1810, he took charge of his Excellency’s family, and, as he did of that of another ex-Viceroy, conveyed them, with several persons of distinction, at his own expense, to Monte Video. On his departure for England for the purpose of being paid off in the early part of 1811, he had the gratification of receiving the thorough approval of the Commander-in-Chief. Vice-Admiral Hon. Michael De Courcy, as well as the public thanks of all the British subjects in Buenos Ayres, and a strong expression of gratitude on the part of the natives. Equally satisfied with his conduct, Mr. Yorke, the First Lord of the Admiralty, presented him with a Commander’s commission bearing date 1 Feb. 1812. He had then, as we have shown, been 15 years a Lieutenant, nearly 12 of them in active service, and more than 5 in command of different vessels. Being next, 29 Oct. 1813, appointed to the Regulus 44, armée en flûte, Capt. Ramsay, after serving in the North Sea, sailed in April, 1814, for Bermuda, with part of a marine battalion on board. He subsequently proceeded to the Chesapeake, and while there was employed in a variety of successful boat expeditions under the immediate command of Rear-Admiral Cockburn. On 22 Aug. he commanded a division of armed boats at the destruction of Commodore Barney’s flotilla up the Patuxent;[1] on the following day he explored a branch of that river as far as Upper Marlborough; and, with the flat-bottomed boats under his orders, he supplied the army with provisions during its advance upon Washington. On 12 Sept. he distinguished himself in command of a division of seamen attached to the army under General Ross at the defeat of the enemy near Baltimore;[2] and between 10 Jan. and 1 March, 1815, he shared in a variety of expeditions on the coast of Georgia, where he commanded the force employed at the capture of the town of Frederica and of the island of St. Simon’s.[3] On 9 April, 1815, being first on the Admiralty list for promotion, Capt. Ramsay was appointed by Sir Alex. Cochrane to the (lately American) frigate President. He was confirmed in his present rank 13 June, 1315, and nominated, 4 of the same month, a C.B. He accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846. Capt. Ramsay married 23 Jan. 1800, and has issue five sons and three daughters. Of the former, one, John Douglas, is a Lieutenant R.N.; and another, Alexander, the youngest, a First-Lieutenant R.M. (1841). The eldest is a Captain in the Bengal Army. Capt. Ramsay’s second daughter is married to Capt. Wm. Milner Neville Sturt, also in the Hon. Co.’s army, on the Bengal establishment. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.