A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Rowe, Henry Nathaniel
ROWE. (Retired Captain, 1840. f-p., 10 h-p., 39.)
Henry Nathaniel Rowe is youngest son of the late Rev. Henry Rowe, LL.B., of Padnal Hall and Toby Priory, co. Essex, Rector of Ringshall,. co. Suffolk, by Harriet, daughter of the Rev. Thos. Bland, of Tunstall House, Vicar of Sittingbourne, co. Kent. His grandfather was the only son of Nathaniel Rowe, Esq., of Eastworth House, Chertsey, who sailed round the world with Lord Anson, and who was himself the thirty-first child of John Rowe, Esq., of Plawsworth Hall, co. Durham. Capt. Rowe is a descendant of Sir Thos. Rowe, who was knighted on the field of battle during the crusades, and is of the family of Nicholas Rowe, the poet, whose remains are entombed in Westminster Abbey. His eldest brother, John, died of yellow fever in the West Indies while serving as Midshipman on board the Severn 44, Capt. John Whitby.
This officer entered the Navy, 5 Feb. 1798, as L.M. (under the auspices of Isaac Hawkins Browne, Esq., M.P. for Bridgenorth), on board the Zealand, Capt. Thos. Parr, flag-ship at the Nore of Vice-Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge. He served subsequently in the North Sea in the Hermes sloop, Capt. Jeffery Baigersfeld, and, on becoming Midshipman of the Wolverene, commanded at first by Capt. John Wright, and next by Capt. Raigersfeld, was employed in the expedition to the Texel. On his arrival, in 1801, in the West Indies in the Andromeda frigate, Capt. Jas. Bradby, he was received as Master’s Mate on board L’Eclair schooner, commanded by the late Capt. Kenneth Mackenzie, under whom he succeeded in cutting out and in otherwise capturing many of the enemy’s privateers off the island of Guadeloupe, St. Martin’s, and Puerto Rico. For the services he thus performed he was ordered, in 1803, to act as Lieutenant of the Guachapin 14, into which sloop he had followed Capt. Mackenzie. In the course of the same year, in consequence of a new Admiralty regulation, he found himself under the necessity of resigning his appointment and of returning to England for the purpose of passing his examination; and he took a passage accordingly in the Arab 20, Commodore Hon. Robt. Stopford. After serving with the Channel fleet in the Impétueux 74, Capt. Thos. Byam Martin, he was nominated, 17 Jan. 1805, Sub-Lieutenant of the Aimwell gun-brig, Lieut.- Commander Joseph Marrett, lying in the Blackwater river in Essex. Being advanced, 19 March following, to the full rank of Lieutenant in the Ajax 74, Capts. Christopher Laroche, Wm. Brown, John Pilfold, and Hon. Henry Blackwood, he was afforded an opportunity of participating in that ship in Sir Robt. Calder’s action, and of sharing in the glories of Trafalgar. On the occasion of her destruction by fire off the island of Tenedos, 14 Feb. 1807 [errata 1], he was picked up by a boat and conveyed on board the Canopus 80. At the ensuing passage of the Dardanells he served as a volunteer on board the Windsor Castle 98, Capt. Chas. Boyles. On his return to England he was appointed, in July, 1807, to the Valiant 74, Capt. Jas. Young, then on the eve of accompanying the expedition against Copenhagen. During the siege of that place Mr. Rowe was sent in-shore in command of the Charles armed transport, for the purpose of covering the debarkation of the troops. While he was thus engaged a shell from one of the enemy’s mortar-boats fell into the magazine of the vessel, and she was at once blown up. This took place 31 Aug. 1807; and on the occasion Mr. Rowe (who was dragged by the hair into a boat belonging to the Thunder bomb, after he had sunk below the surface of the water) had his leg shattered above the knee, his collar-bone broken, his body dreadfully lacerated, and his head and face so violently contused that he was for some time bereft of sight.[1] In consideration of his sufferings (his leg received immediate amputation) he was presented by the Patriotic Society with the sum of 200l., and awarded, 11 Jan. 1808, a pension, increased in Dec. 1815 to 200l. per annum. In 1809 he was sent in the Rosamond sloop, Capt. Benj. Caldwell, to the West Indies, where, on 19 Dec. in the same year, he was nominated by Sir Alex. Cochrane Acting-Commander of the St. Christopher sloop. To that vessel, after he had assisted at the reduction of Guadeloupe, he was confirmed by commission dated 2 May, 1810. He returned in the following summer to England with despatches in the Asp 16; and on 10 Sept. 1840 he accepted his present rank.
Capt. Rowe is the author of two poetical works, entitled ‘Sacred Beauties’ and ‘The Rainbow of the Mind.’ He married, in 1809, Joanna, youngest daughter of Thos. Crew, Esq., of Cheshire, by whom he has issue two sons and two daughters.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 1232.