A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Somerville, James Bowen
SOMERVILLE. (Lieutenant, 1814. f-p., 19; h-p., 17.)
James Bowen Somerville entered the Royal Naval College, 11 Nov. 1811; and embarked, 27 May, 1814, as a Volunteer, on board the Ajax 74, Capts. Robt. Waller Otway and Geo. Mundy; in which ship, after escorting a body of troops from Bordeaux to Quebec, he proceeded to the Mediterranean. In July, 1816, and June, 1817, he became Midshipman (a rating he had attained on board the Ajax) of the Eridanus 36, Capt. Wm. King, and Severn 40, Capts. Wm. M‘Culloch, both on the Home station; and on 9 Nov. 1821, at which period he had been serving for some time in the Leander 50, flag-ship of Hon. Sir Henry Blackwood in the East Indies, he was made Lieutenant into the Liverpool 50,, Capt. Fras. Augustus Collier. He returned home in 1822 in the Samarang 28, Capt. John Norman Campbell; and was subsequently appointed – 1 Oct. 1824, to the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Ramillies 74, Capt. W. M‘Culloch – 21 Jan. 1825 and 7 Sept. 1829, to the Windsor Castle 74, Capts. Hugh Downman and Edw. Durnford King, and St. Vincent 120, Capt. Edw. Hawker, both lying at Plymouth – 1 May, 1830, to the Caledonia 120, Capts. Rich. Curry, Edw. Curzon, and Jas. Hillyar, employed, until the spring of 1833, on various particular services – 14 Aug. 1840, to the Southampton 50, as Flag-Lieutenant to Sir E. D. King, Commander-in-Chief at the Brazils and Cape of Good Hope – and, 5 April, 1841, to the command, on the same station, of the Wizard 10, which vessel he brought home and paid off in 1842. He has since been on half-pay.