A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Townsend, Joseph Cuthbert
TOWNSEND. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 8; h-p., 32.)
Joseph Cuthbert Townsend entered the Navy, 19 Aug. 1807, as A.B., on board the Brunswick 74, Capt. Thos. Graves, under whom he assisted at the siege of Copenhagen and continued employed in the Baltic and Channel until transferred as Midshipman, in March, 1809, to the Nymphen 36, Capt. Keith Maxwell. In that ship he accompanied the ensuing expedition to the Walcheren, and was present at the forcing of the passage between the batteries of Flushing and Cadsand. After serving for 12 months with Capt. Chas. Webb as Master’s Mate in the Gorgon 44, on the Baltic, Cork, and Lisbon stations, he joined, in March, 1811, the Rose sloop, Capt. Thos. Mansell, attached to the force in the North Sea; where, in Feb. 1812, he was taken prisoner in a prize and carried into Dunkerque. In Feb. 1814, having effected his escape while in the custody of a gendarme and returned to England, he was received as Master’s Mate on board the Harrier sloop, Capts. Andrew Pellet Green, John Forbes, and Sir Chas. Thos. Jones; in which vessel we find him witnessing the grand naval review at Spithead, and cruizing, afterwards, among the Canary Islands. He took up, in March, 1815, a commission bearing date 2 of the preceding Feb.; and has since been on half-pay.