A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Smith, Alexander John
SMITH. (Lieutenant, 1841.)
Alexander John Smith is brother of Lieuts. Henry Thos. and Wm. Rich. Smith, R.N.; and cousin of Commander J. M. R. Ince, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 18 Dec. 1826, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Thetis frigate, Capts. Arthur Batt Bingham and Sam. Burgess, fitting for South America. On that ship being wrecked off Cape Frio 5 Dec. 1830, he returned to England in the Druid 46, Capt. Gawen Wm. Hamilton, and in the ensuing March was discharged. In Jan. 1832 he became Midshipman (a rating he had before attained) of the Harrier 18, Capt. Spencer Lambert Henry Vassal], then equipping for the East Indies, where he was actively employed in the suppression of piracy in the Straits of Malacca, and took part in two severe conflicts, which terminated in the destruction of the settlements at Poulo Arroa and Poulo Sujee. The Harrier having been paid off, he next, in Dec. 1835 (he had passed his examination 5 Aug. preceding), joined, in the capacity of Mate, the Cove sixth-rate, Capt. Jas. Clark Ross, with whom, in the ensuing Jan., he left England for the purpose of seeking out, and of conveying relief to, some missing whalers who had been frozen up in Baffin Bay. After serving for a few months on the north coast of Spain in the Salamander steamer, Capt. Sidney Colpoys Dacres, and for two years among the Orkneys, as extra Mate, in the Mastiff surveying-vessel, Master-Commander Geo. Thomas, he was again, in April, 1839, placed under the orders of Capt. J. C. Ross, as Senior Mate, on board the Erebus bomb, in which vessel he sailed, in Sept. of the same year, in company with the Terror, on a voyage of discovery to the Antarctic seas. For his services while so; employed he was promoted, 16 Aug. 1841, to the rank of Lieutenant. He came home in Sept. 1843; and since 1844 has been in charge of the observatory at Hobart Town.