A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Snell, George
SNELL. (Commander, 1843.)
George Snell is brother of the present Lieut. William Snell, R.N. and of Lieut. John Coxetter Snell, R.N. (1808), who served at Trafalgar, and died in 1838.
This officer entered the Navy, 14 Sept. 1812, as Midshipman, on board the Fervent 12, Capt. Chas. Hope Reid; in which vessel he was employed, at the siege of Danzig and in affording protection to the trade in the Baltic. He served afterwards on the Home station, from March, 1814, until Sept. 1818, in the Sybille 44, Capt. Thos. Forrest, Ringdove sloop, Capt. Jas. Creighton, and Queen Charlotte 100 and Ramillies 74, flag-ships of Sir Edw. Thornbrough and Sir Wm. Johnstone Hope. During the next six years he was employed, again with Capt. Reid, in the Driver 18, and with Capts. Thos. Herbert, Chas. Crole, and John Geo. Graham, in the Icarus 10, on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland and in the West Indies; where he became, in Nov. 1824 (he had passed his examination in 1818), Acting-Lieutenant of the Carnation 18, Capt. Rawdon Maclean. In the Icarus he was active in the suppression of piracy. In a boat affair in which the conducting officer, Lieut. Layton, and some of the crew were captured and put to death, he succeeded to the command and brought off the remainder of the party from the scene of action. He landed, too, on the Isle of Pines with the crew of the Hussar frigate in search of pirates; and commanded for some time a captured schooner fitted out for the purpose of cruizing with the Union schooner against the marauders on the coast of Cuba. He was confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant 14 Feb. 1825; and was subsequently appointed – in Aug. and Oct. 1826, to the Pelican 18 and Melville 74, Capts. Hon. Leonard Chas. Irby and Henry Hill, both lying at Portsmouth – 27 Sept. 1828, to the Gloucester 74, Capt. Henry Stuart, whom he accompanied to the Mediterranean – in 1830, for a short time, to the Revenge 78, Capt. Hon. Chas. Orlando Bridgeman, on the latter station – 5 Nov. 1833, to the Coast Guard, in which service he continued until 3 May, 1834 – 1 April, 1839, 13 Oct. 1841, and 24 May, 1842, to the command of the Kite steamer, Hope brig, and Lightning steamer, on the West India and Home stations – and 5 Oct. 1842 and 1 July, 1843, to the Royal George and Victoria and Albert yachts, Capt. Lord Adolphus FitzClarence. At a public dinner given in 1834 at the City of London Tavern, Mr. Snell had the honour of receiving at the hands of Sir Jas. Graham, then First Lord of the Admiralty, a Gold Medal presented by the Royal National Shipwreck Institution for the intrepidity he had manifested in putting off in a lifeboat to the assistance of a vessel driving on shore off Dungeness Lighthouse, and afterwards totally wrecked. He was also voted the thanks of the Shipping Club at North Yarmouth. While in command of the Lightning he conveyed from Woolwich to Ostend the Duke of Saxe Cobourg and Gotba, father of H.R.H. Prince Albert; was the bearer of Lord Wilton when that nobleman was sent to invest the King of Saxony with the Order of the Garter; and accompanied Her Majesty on the occasion of her first visit to Scotland. He fitted out the Victoria and Albert when first commissioned; and was Senior Lieutenant of that vessel when the Queen visited the King of the French and the King of the Belgians. Since his promotion to the rank of Commander, which took place 25 Sept. 1843, he has been on half-pay.
He is married and has issue. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
SNELL. (Commander, 1843.)
In reference to that part of our memoir of Commander George Snell in which we have noticed the death of Lieut. Layton, we have to state further, that that officer had ascended the river Santa Fé in search of pirates with two boats belonging to the Icarus under his orders. Having captured one vessel at the source of the river and given the command of her to Mr. Snell, he proceeded up a branch of the stream in his own boat, the gig, leaving the other, the cutter, in company with the prize. He encountered the pirates during his absence, and, as we have already stated, was by them murdered. After this Mr. Snell remained for several days blockading the river in the above-named prize alone, with not more than 7 men, the cutter having returned to the Icarus with intelligence of that which had occurred.