A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Rawlins, Thomas
RAWLINS. (Lieut., 1811. f-p., 11; h-p., 32.)
Thomas Rawlins entered the Navy, 18 Sept. 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Mars 74, Capt. Geo. Duff, part of the force engaged in the action off Cape Trafalgar 21 Oct. 1805. On 30 of that month he removed to the Euryalus 36, Capts. Hon. Henry Blackwood and Hon. Geo. Heneage Lawrence Dundas, employed off Cadiz and in the Channel; and in April, 1806, he joined the Ajax 74, Capts. John Pilfold and Hon. H. Blackwood. On the destruction of that ship by fire off the island of Tenedos 14 Feb. 1807, he was received as Midshipman on board the Active 38, Capt. Rich. Hussey Moubray, under whom we find him accompanying Sir John Duckworth in the ensuing passage of the Dardanells. In the course of the same and of the following year he became attached in succession to the Lucifer bomb, bearing the flag of Sir Alex. John Ball at Malta, Tigre 74, Capt. Benj. Hallowell (in which he returned to England), Royal William, flag-ship of Admiral Montagu at Spithead, and Warspite 74, commanded by his old Captain, Blackwood. In the latter ship, after serving for a time in the North Sea and Channel, he again proceeded to the Mediterranean, where, on 20 July, 1810, he took part in a very gallant skirmish, in which the British, with a slender force, beat back a powerful division of the French Toulon fleet. On 26 Sept. 1811 Mr. Rawlins was confirmed a Lieutenant (after having acted for three months as such) in the Implacable 74, Capt. Joshua Rowley Watson. He came home in the autumn of 1812; and was lastly, from 28 June, 1813, until Sept. 1815, employed on the coasts of North America and France in the Severn 40, Capt. Joseph Nourse. While on the former station he co-operated in the attacks upon Washington and Baltimore in Aug. and Sept. 1814; assisted, 13 Jan. 1815, at the reduction of St. Mary’s, a town near Point Petre, on the coast of Georgia; and contributed to the capture of two privateer schooners and a letter-of-marque, carrying in the whole 22 guns and 241 men.