A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Shapland, Henry
SHAPLAND. (Lieut., 1823. f-p., 14; h-p., 24.)
Henry Shapland was born 9 July, 1793.
This officer entered the Navy, 5 Nov. 1809, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Tonnant 80, Capts. Sir Chas. Hamilton and Sir John Gore. After serving for two years off Brest, at the defence of Cadiz, and off Lisbon, where he was frequently sent up the Tagus for the purpose of conveying troops and despatches, he became, in Dec. 1811, Midshipman (a rating he had attained in the preceding Jan.) of the Teazer gun-brig, stationed off L’Orient. He next, from Nov. 1812 until Nov. 1815, served off Lisbon and in the Mediterranean, in the Andromeda 22, Capt. Rich. Arthur; and, from May, 1816, until April, 1823, he was employed, in the West Indies, at Newfoundland, in the East Indies, at Plymouth, in the Mediterranean, and again in the West Indies, in the Fly 18, Capt. John Baldwin, Curlew 16, Capt. Wm. Walpole, Minden 74, Capt. Wm. Paterson, Impregnable 104, flag-ship of Lord Exmouth, Windsor Castle 98, Capt. Caulfeild, Seringapatam 46, Capt. Sam. Warren, and Thracian 18, Capt. John Walter Roberts. He often during that period performed the duties of Lieutenant. In 1815 he passed a distinguished examination; in 1816, during his passage in the Fly from Halifax to Newfoundland, he jumped overboard in a heavy sea and saved the life of a man; in 1820, having in the Curlew accompanied an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, he landed and assisted in storming the enemy’s fortifications; and, on 31 March, 1823, being then in the Thracian and in company with the Tyne 26, he aided in boarding, in a harbour of the island of Cuba, the piratical schooner Zaragozana. For the gallantry he displayed on the latter occasion he was nominated, 26 April following, Acting-Lieutenant of the Hyperion 42, Capts. Jas. Lillicrap and Geo. Fred. Rich, and presented by the Admiralty with a commission dated 29 May in the same year. He went on half-pay 14 Sept. 1823; and was lastly, from 26 July, 1828, until 25 April, 1829, employed in the Coast Blockade as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of his former ship the Hyperion, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye.