A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Sayer, George (a)
SAYER. (Captain, 1810. f-p., 32; h-p., 35.)
George Sayer died in 1846. He was cousin of the late Rear-Admiral Geo. Sayer,[1] and of the present Lieut. Geo. Sayer, R.N.; and uncle of Lieut. Henry Belsey, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 27 Dec. 1779, as Midshipman, on board the Aurora 28, Capt. Jas. Cumming, with whom, after serving in the Channel, he removed to the Assurance and Confederate, hoth on the North American station. Joining next, in Oct. 1781, the Anson 64, Capts. Wm. Blair and Hon. John Rodney, he fought in that ship, and was wounded, in the famous action with the Comte de Grasse 12 April, 1782. He was subsequently employed, for seven years, on the Home and Halifax stations, the latter part of the time as Master’s Mate, in the Assistance 50, Commodore Sir Chas. Douglas, Scipio 64, Capt. Skeffington Lutwidge, Orion, Cumberland, and Arrogant 74’s, Capts. Sir Hyde Parker, John M‘Bride, and John Harvey, and Adamant 50, flag-ship of Sir Rich. Hughes. On the occasion of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, 23 Aug. 1790, he obtained command of the Chatham armed schooner. In that vessel, in which he continued until Aug. 1793, he was engaged in protecting the trade and fisheries along the coast of Nova Scotia, in the Bay of Fundy, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and, in the winter-time, in conveying the mails between Halifax, Boston, and New York. This latter service had been deemed, from the severity of the weather, impracticable. In Dec. 1793 Mr. Sayer was appointed First-Lieutenant of the Charon 44, Capt. Geo. Countess, at whose particular request he was allowed to follow him, in a similar capacity, into the Pegasus 28, Daedalus 32, and Ethalion 38. In the Charon he bore a part in Lord Howe’s action, 1 June, 1794; in the Daedalus he visited the coasts of Africa and the West Indies, and was on board when nearly the whole of the officers and many of the crew were swept away by yellow fever; and in the Ethalion he assisted, while cruizing on the coast of Ireland, at the capture, 12 Oct. 1798, of the French 40-gun frigate La Bellone, after a sharp conflict and a trifling loss to the British.[2] He was placed in charge of the prize, and, as a reward for the bravery and zeal he had displayed, was promoted, 10 Nov. following, to the rank of Commander. His succeeding appointments were – in 1799, to the Royal Admiral troop-ship, in which he accompanied the expedition to the Helder – in 1800, to the Ulysses armée en flûte, on the Mediterranean station, where, in the following year, his Egyptian services procured him the Turkish gold medal – in Aug. 1803 (after 16 months of half-pay), to the Sea Fencibles on the coast of Kent – and, 1 Feb. 1809, to the Raleigh 18. In Feb. 1810 he captured, off Beachy Head, La Modeste French lugger privateer of 4 guns, pierced for 18, and 43 men. On 23 May following, being in company, off the Skawe, with the Alban and Princess of Wales cutters, he engaged seven Danish gun-vessels, one of which was blown up, and the others obliged to disperse, greatly damaged;[3] and on 2 Nov. in the same year he captured the Admiral Neil Suul Danish privateer schooner of 10 guns (pierced for 16) and 28 men, and retook a valuable American ship from St. Petersburg bound to London. Twelve days prior to the occurrence of the two last-mentioned events he had been advanced, 21 Oct. 1810, to Post-rank. His last appointment was to the Antelope 50, in which ship he served as Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral John Harvey in the West Indies from 22 Aug. 1815 until paid off in April, 1819. He was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 17 Feb. 1837.
Capt. Sayer married, in 1799, a daughter of Wm. Lawrence, Esq., Storekeeper of the Ordnance at Plymouth. His only surviving son, Wm. Lawrence Sayer, is a First-Lieutenant R.M. (1840). His two eldest died of yellow fever while serving with their father on board the Antelope.
- ↑ Rear-Admiral Geo. Sayer was a native of Deal, co. Kent, where his father was for 30 years Collector of the Customs, He entered the Navy on board the Phoenix 36, Captains Geo. Anson Byron and Sir Rich. John Strachan; and, while in that frigate, served on shore at the reduction of Tippoo Saib’s forts and other possessions on the Malabar coast, and assisted, in company with the Perseverance frigate, in effecting the capture of La Résolue of 46 guns, 19 Nov. 1791. As Lieutenant of the Carysfort 28, Capt.Sir Francis Laforey, he aided at the capture, 29 May, 1794, of the Castor French frigate of 32 guns. After serving as First-Lieutenant, with Sir F. Laforey, in the Carysfort, Beaulieu 40, and Ganges 74, he was promoted, in March, 1790, to the command of the Lacedaemonian sloop, part of the force employed at the ensuing reduction of Ste. Lucie. In 1797 Capt. Sayer was attached to the flotilla equipped for the purpose of acting against the mutinous ships at the Nore. After commanding for a considerable time the Xenophon and Inspector sloops he was advanced, 14 Feb. 1801, to Post-rank. During the late war he served in the Proselyte 28, Galatea 32, and Leda 36. In the Galatea he aided, in Dec. 1807, in obtaining possession of the Danish West India islands; and while in command of the Leda he bore a distinguished part, both afloat and on shore, in the operations connected with the conquest of Java, besides conducting, in 1813, an eminently successful expedition against the Sultan of Sambas in the island of Borneo, whose depredations had become so daring and extensive as to threaten the extinction of our commerce in that quarter, and who had some time before repulsed a respectable force sent to check his piracies. From the death of Sir Sam. Hood, in Dec. 1813, until the arrival of Sir Geo. Burlton, in June, 1815, and from the demise of the latter officer in the ensuing Sept. until the advent of his successor, Sir Rich. King, towards the close of 1816, Capt. Sayer was senior officer in India, and performed, in consequence, all the duties of Commander-in-Chief. His services in the East were rewarded with a gold medal and the Companionship of the Bath.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1798, p. 1060.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 806.