A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Scobell, George Treweeke
SCOBELL. (Retired Captain, 1843. f-p., 14; h-p., 35.)
George Treweeke Scobell, born 16 Dec. 1785, is second son of the late Peter Edw. Scobell, Esq., M.D., by Hannah, only daughter (by Hannah, daughter of Geo. Treweeke, Esq.), of John Sanford, Esq., of Penzance; and first cousin of Capt. Edw. Scobell, R.N. (1811), who commanded the Vimiera brig at the reduction of St. Martin’s, St. Eustatius, and Saba, in Feb. 1810, and the Thais 20, from March, 1811, until Jan. 1814, and died 17 April, 1825, at Poltair, near Penzance. One of his brothers, the Rev. Edw. Scobell, M.A., is Vicar of Turville, and Minister of St. Peter’s, Marylebone; and another, the Rev. John Scobell, M.A., is Rector of Southover, and of All Saints, Lewes, Sussex.
This officer entered the Navy, 20 March, 1798, as Midshipman, on board the St. Albans 64, Capt. Francis Pender, stationed on the coast of North America, whence, in 1800, he returned to England in the Assistance 50, Capt. Hall, on board of which ship was H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, then Governor of Nova Scotia. After having served in the North Sea and in the expedition to Copenhagen, in the Waaksamheidt 28, also commanded by Capt. Hall, he joined, in 1802, the Diamond 38, Capt. Elphinstone, with whom he continued actively employed on the coasts of France and Spain until nominated, in 1804, Acting-Lieutenant of the Plantagenet 74, Capt. F. Pender, off Brest. On 29 March, 1805, he was confirmed into the Queen 98; in which ship, commanded too by Capt. Pender, we find him assisting at the blockade of Cadiz, where, subsequently to the battle of Trafalgar (wherein it was not his fortune to share), he took part in an attack made, under the batteries, upon a French stray third-rate. On leaving the Queen, which had hoisted the flag of Lord Collingwood, he returned to England, early in 1806, in the Royal Sovereign 100, laden with prisoners taken on the late memorable occasion. He next, in the course of the same year, joined the Prince of Wales 98, bearing the flag in the Channel of Admirals Sir Rich. Bickerton and Edw. Thornbrough, and Plantagenet 74, Capts. Wm. Bradley and Thos. Eyles. In the ship last mentioned he served, part of the time as First- Lieutenant, until promoted to the rank of Commander 1 Feb. 1812. During that period he witnessed the flight of the Royal Family of Portugal to the Brazils, aided in embarking the remains of Sir John Moore’s array at Corunna, and was for three years stationed in the Baltic. He was in company with the Hero 74 when that ship was lost in a gale off the Texel in Dec. 1811. Unable, after he left the Plantagenet, to procure employment, he accepted, 14 Aug. 1843, the rank he now holds.
In 1823 Capt. Scobell (who has been for many years a Justice of the Peace for co. Somerset) invented and submitted to the Admiralty a “Dissecting Paddle-Wheel,” to be worked by winches, applicable to men-of-war of every size. These wheels were fitted to the Hecla and Fury, in Sir Wm. Edw. Parry’s expedition to the North Pole in the ensuing year, and with only 20 men at the winches produced a speed of one and a half knots per hour. Capt. Scobell married, 6 Oct. 1818, Hester, youngest daughter and co-heiress of Chas. Savage, Esq., of Midsomer Norton, in Somersetshire, and grandniece of Rich. Lansdowne, Esq., of Woodborough, in the same co.