A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Umfreville, Samuel Charles
UMFREVILLE. (Commander, 1838. f-p., 35; h-p., 7.)
Samuel Charles Umfreville was born 8 June, 1794.
This officer entered the Navy, 10 Jan. 1805, as Sec.-cl. Boy, on board the Malta 84, Capts. Edw. Buller and Wm. Shields; and on 22 July following was present in Sir Robert Calder’s action with the combined fleets of France and Spain off Cape Finisterre. He sailed afterwards for the Mediterranean; where he served, chiefly at the blockade of Toulon, until transferred, in Aug. 1808, as Midshipman (a rating he had attained in Aug. 1806) to the Montagu 74, Capts. Rich. Hussey Moubray and John Halliday. While in that ship he was frequently engaged in boat-skirmishes with the enemy, and was afforded an opportunity of assisting, in April, 1810, at the reduction of Santa Maura. On his return to England in May, 1811, he joined, as a Supernumerary, the Aquilon 32, Capt. Wm. Bowles, at Sheerness; he passed his examination in the ensuing July; and in Sept. of the same year he was received on board the Amelia of 48 guns, Capt. Hon. Fred. Paul Irby. Proceeding in her, as Master’s Mate, to the coast of Africa, he there, in July, 1812, witnessed the destruction of the town of Winnebah; the natives at which place had treacherously seized and murdered the governor of a fort, by which they had been often themselves protected, and which the British simultaneously demolished. On 7 Feb. 1813, at 7h. 45m. p.m., being off the Iles de Los, the Amelia, with an emaciated crew on board of 300 men, came to close action with a French frigate, L’Aréthuse,[1] of 44 guns (24-pounders on her maindeck) and 340 men in the full vigour of health; and maintained it with an interval until 11h. 21m.; when the combatants separated, the enemy with a loss of 105 men killed and wounded, the British of 141 killed and wounded. After the conflict had been raging for about two hours, Capt. Irby having been obliged by a severe wound in the elbow to quit the deck, the First and Second Lieutenants being killed, and the crew falling fast, it was recommended by the Master and the Third-Lieutenant, as the Amelia’s fire too had at the moment ceased, that her colours should be hauled down. Scarcely had this suggestion been made to the Captain, when the Third-Lieutenant, in ascending the quarter-deck ladder, was himself added to the number of the slain. Just then Capt. Irby, with his arm in a sling, came on deck, and mentioned the advice he had received – advice which was at the same time repeated by the Master, who stated that a fresh ship was in sight, coming up on the Amelia’s lee-quarter, and that a renewal of the fight would but involve a useless sacrifice of life. At this juncture Mr. Umfreville, stepping forward, promised that, if the Captain would allow him again to man the guns and resume the action, the ship should never strike, but “should go down first.” Being told by Capt. Irby to do his best, he set to work accordingly, and had the honour of fighting L’Aréthuse for upwards of an hour, until indeed, at the time above stated, the enemy, in the words of the official letter, “bore up.” Although he was thus the means of supporting the credit of the British flag, and of preserving to the Navy one of its finest frigates,[2] Mr. Umfreville’s gallant conduct was not, that we are aware (and as it assuredly ought to have been), reported; nor was he alluded to, in his Captain’s narrative, in other terms than as a “deserving and valuable officer.”[3] He continued in command, as Acting-Lieutenant, of the Amelia (deducting a few days that it was held by Lieut. Reeve, an officer invalided from the Kangaroo sloop) until she arrived at Spithead 22 March, 1813. On 25 of that month, as he had been the only passed Midshipman in the action, he was officially promoted. His next appointment was, 14 March, 1814, to the Fly 16, Capts. Sir Wm. Geo. Parker and John Baldwin; in which vessel we find him, 18 July, 1815, present, in company with a squadron under the orders of Capt. Chas. Malcolm, at the cutting-out, from the harbour of Corrijou, near Abervrach, on the coast of Bretagne, of an armed cutter, a praam brig, and a gun-vessel, together with a convoy reposing under the protection of a fort, which was stormed and carried. He left the Fly 14 March, 1816; and, with the exception of a few months, was afterwards, from 8 Feb, 1821 until advanced for his services to the rank he now holds 29 Jan. 1838, employed either in command of a station in the Coast Guard, or of the Mermaid and Eagle[4] Revenue-vessels; and from 10 Nov. in the latter year until 1848, again, as an Inspecting-Commander, in the Coast Guard.
Commander Umfreville married, in Feb. 1817, Miss Jane Clark, of Kingsand, co. Devon, the niece of a famous Government pilot at that place, by whom he has issue two sons and six daughters.