A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Stone, William
STONE. (Lieut., 1824. f-p., 22; h-p., 14.)
William Stone, born 1 May, 1799, is second son of Wm. Stone, Esq., late Master-Shipwright of Chatham Dockyard.
This officer entered the Navy, 28 Jan. 1811, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Peacock of 18 guns and 122 men, Capt. Wm. Peake; and on 24 Feb. 1813 was present, as Midshipman, in that vessel when she was captured, off Demerara, by the American ship Hornet of 20 guns and 165 men, after a close and desperate action of 25 minutes, in which the British sustained a loss of 5 (including their commander) killed and 33 wounded, and the enemy of only 1 killed and 2 wounded. Among the wounded on the occasion was Mr. Stone, whose skull was fractured by a musket-ball. On his release from captivity he was received, in June, 1813, on board the Sceptre 74, Capt. Chas. Bayne Hodgson Ross, stationed in the Chesapeake, where he was again wounded, in the neck, in an action with Commodore Barney’s flotilla. He also assisted in cutting out, on the coast of North Carolina, the Anaconda brig of 18 guns, and the 14-gun privateer St. Lawrence. He continued on the coast of North America in the vessel last mentioned, which was added to the British Navy and placed under the command of Lieut. David Boyd, and in the Maidstone 36, Capt. Wm. Skipsey, until Sept. 1815; and he was afterwards employed between Sept. 1815 and Oct. 1817, as Master’s Mate, in the Leander 50 and Vengeur 74, Capts. Edw. Chetham and Thos. Alexander, on the Home station – and between the latter date and April, 1824, as Mate and Admiralty-Midshipman (he passed his examination 5 March, 1817), in the Glasgow 60, Capt. Hon. Anthony Maitland, Dispatch 18, Capt. Wm. Clarke Jervoise, and Rochfort 80, Capt. Chas. Marsh Schomberg. On 19 May, 1824, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. While attached to the Dispatch an explosion of gunpowder deprived him for a long time of his sight; and so seriously was he injured that he was ultimately for many years rendered incapable of serving afloat. He applied in consequence for employment in the Coast Blockade; and on 8 Dec. 1830 he was accordingly appointed a Supernumerary of the Hyperion depot-ship, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye. For his services during the next six months he was placed, on the abolition of the Coast Blockade, in command, 5 April, 1831, of a station in the Coast Guard at Hastings, where he remained until 19 March, 1839. His exertions during that period in the suppression of smuggling were so great that they not only elicited the acknowledgments of the Comptroller-General, but attracted the notice of Alderman Wilson, who occasionally made visits to the coast, and who, on being elected Lord Mayor, testified his admiration of them by presenting Mr. Stone with the appointment, which he still holds, of Harbour-Master of the Port of London.
The Lieutenant married, 27 July, 1831, Arabella, second daughter of Dr. Kent, Surgeon at one time of Greenwich Hospital, and afterwards of Deptford Dockyard.