A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Sheridan, John
SHERIDAN. (Captain, 1815.)
John Sheridan entered the Navy, in 1795, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board La Juste 80, Capts. Hon. Thos. Pakenham and John Lawford, employed in the Channel, off Cadiz, and among the Western Islands. He served subsequently, on the Home station, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, in the Royal Sovereign 100, flag-ship of Sir Alan Gardner and Sir Henry Harvey, and Dryad frigate, Capt. Chas. John Moore Mansfield; and on 21 Dec. 1801 he was made Lieutenant into the Woolwich 44, Capts. Bridges and Jennings, in which ship he made a voyage to the West Indies. His succeeding appointments were, to the Merlin sloop, Capt. Edw. Pelham Brenton, Thunderer 74, Capt. Wm. Bedford, Hibernia 110, flag-ship of Lord Gardner, Prince of Wales 98, Capt. Bedford, and Ville de Paris 110, Bellerophon 74, and Victory 100, bearing the flags of Lord Gardner, Hon. Alan Hyde Gardner, and Sir Jas. Saumarez. In those ships he was chiefly employed on the Home and Baltic stations. While attached, between Aug. 1803 and Jan. 1804, to the Merlin, he shared, as Senior Lieutenant, in several skirmishes with the enemy’s flotilla and land-batteries near Havre; and on one occasion he put off in the boats and set fire to the Shannon frigate, which had run on shore under the strong batteries of Tatihou island, near La Hogue. On 19 June, 1809, being then in the Bellerophon, commanded as a private ship by Capt. Sam. Warren, he served in her boats under the orders of Lieut. Robt. Pilch, and was mentioned for the very able assistance he afforded at the capture, on the coast of Finland, of three vessels and of one of four batteries by which they had been covered, mounting 4 24-pounders and garrisoned by 103 men – an exploit that elicited the acknowledgments of the Admiralty.[1] He equally distinguished himself, 7 July following, at the brilliant capture, off Percola Point, of the six Russian gunboats mentioned in our history of the services of Capt. Chas. Allen. On the occasion of his promotion to the rank of Commander, 27 Nov. 1810, he was appointed for a few weeks to the Raleigh sloop. His next appointment was, 4 Oct. 1813, to the Terror bomb, in which vessel we find him engaged with the American batteries near Baltimore during the advance of the British army under Colonel Brook, 13 Aug. 1814, and assisting at the capture of St. Mary’s, the frontier town of the state of Georgia, 14 Jan. 1815. On 13 June in the latter year, at which time he had been acting for rather more than two months as Captain of the Levant 20, he was confirmed to Post-rank. He continued in the Levant, in the West Indies and on the Irish station, until 27 Nov. 1815; and on 1 Oct. 1846 he accepted the Retirement. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1101.