A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Stephens, William Lukis
STEPHENS. (Lieutenant, 1821.)
William Lukis Stephens entered the Navy, 3 Feb. 1808, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Defiance 74, Capt. Hon. Henry Hotham, whom he followed as Midshipman, in 1810, into the Northumberland 74. In the former ship he co-operated with the patriots on the north coast of Spain; and assisted, in company with a squadron under Rear-Admiral Stopford, at the destruction, 24 Feb. 1809, of three French frigates under the batteries of Sable d’Olonne, on the coast of France, after a contest in which the Defiance, added to severe damage experienced in her sails and rigging, sustained a loss of 2 men killed and 25 wounded. In the Northumberland he was present, in company with the Growler gun-brig, at the destruction, at the entrance of L’Orient, of the French 40-gun frigates L’Arienne and L’Andromaque and 16-gun brig Mamelouck whose united fire, conjointly with that of a heavy battery, killed 5 and wounded 28 of the Northumberland’s people. In Jan. 1813 he was received as a Supernumerary on board the Puissant 74, Capt. Benj. Wm. Page, lying at Spithead; he was next, from the following Feb. until Sept. 1817, employed on the coast of North America in the Lacedaemonian and Niger frigates, both commanded by Capt. Saml. Jackson; and in May, 1818, after having served at Plymouth as Admiralty-Midshipman in the Impregnable 104, flag-ship of Lord Exmouth, and Ferret sloop, Capt. Pettman, he joined in that capacity the Topaze 38, Capt. John Rich. Lumley, on the East India station; where, in Aug. 1821, he was placed under the orders of Sir H. Blackwood, as Master’s Mate, in the Leander 60. He saw much boat-service in the Lacedaemonian and Niger; and in the Topaze he was wounded in an affair at Mocha. In 1822, having been promoted, at home, by a commission dated 9 Oct. in the preceding year, he returned to England in the ship last mentioned, then commanded by Capt. Price Blackwood. He served subsequently in the West Indies and Mediterranean, from 11 Dec. 1824 until 1827, in the Jasper 10, Capts. Chas. Howe Fremantle, Henry Martin Blackwood, and Leonard Chas. Rooke; and since 19 June, 1833, he has been in charge of a station in the Coast Guard.
Lieut. Stephens married, 13 May, 1840, Miss Anne Savage Reid, of Lukesland Grove, Ivybridge.