A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Vansittart, Nicholas
VANSITTART. (Commander, 1847.)
Nicholas Vansittart is fifth son of the late Arthur Vansittart, Esq., of Shottesbrook, co. Berks, by Caroline, fourth daughter of William, first Lord Auckland, and sister of the late First Lord of the Admiralty. One of his brothers, Arthur, the eldest, is married to a daughter of General Sir John Crosbie, K.C.B., of Watergate, co. Sussex; another, Francis, is a First-Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery; and two more, William and Henry, are in the civil service of the Hon.E.I.Co. He is brotherin-law of Lord Vaux of Harrowden; and cousin of the present Lord Bexley and the late Vice-Admiral Henry Vansittart.[1]
This officer entered the Navy 3 Feb. 1832; passed his examination 9 March, 1839; and, sailing in 1841 for China, as Mate, in the Cornwallis 72, flag-ship of Sir Wm. Parker, took part there, in 1842, in the operations on shore at Tsekee, in the attack upon the fortified heights at Chapoo, and at the capture of the batteries at Woosung.[2] As a reward for his services he was presented with a commission bearing date 23 Dec. 1842.[3] He was afterwards, from 18 Jan. 1843 until advanced to his present rank 7 Jan. 1847, employed, the latter part of the time as First-Lieutenant, in the Agincourt 72, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Sir Thos. John Cochrane on the East India station. On 8 July, 1846, having accompanied (he was at that period filling the post of Flag-Lieutenant) an expedition conducted by the Rear-Admiral in person against the Sultan of Borneo, he was present, on the staff; at the destruction of the enemy’s forts and batteries on the river Brune.[4] In the course of the same month he was engaged, as Aide-de-Camp to the commanding officer, Capt. Geo. Rodney Mundy, in an arduous and fruitless pursuit of the Sultan’s person up a branch of that stream and across a difficult swampy country. His conduct on the latter occasion obtained Capt. Mundy’s thanks.[5]
- ↑ Vice-Admiral Vansittart entered the Navy in 1791. At the siege of Toulon by the republican army in 1793, he was very severely wounded while serving in a floating battery. In the fallowing year he assisted, in a boat belonging to L’Aigle frigate, Capt. Sam. Hood, at the redaction of Calvi. As a reward for his conduct and his sufferings he was made Lieutenant, in Feb. 1794, into the Stately 64. In that ship he was present at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope and the Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay. He was promoted in Aug. 1798 to the command of the Hermes sloop; was advanced to Post-rank 3 Feb. 1801; was employed during that year and the following in the Abergavenny 54, Thunderer 74, and Magicienne frigate; and held command from 1803 until 1812, and from the latter period until 1814, of the Fortunée 36 and Clarence 74. When off the Havana, in the summer of 1806, in company with the Surveillante 38, Hercule 74, an armed schooner, and a homewarcL-bound convoy, he fell in with a number of Spanish vessels under the protection of a 74-gun ship and two guarda-costas. Being detached in pursuit, he succeeded, with the aid of the schooner, in capturing the guarda-costas and upwards of 20 sail, deeply laden with sugar, &c. With a noble spirit of disinterestedness he destroyed the whole of his valuable prizes, in order that the convoy might not be detained, although the Spaniards offered to bring off from the shore in twelve hours a sum sufficient to ransom them. Among the captures made by him at various times was Le Vice-Amiral Martin of 18 guns and 140 men, a most notorious privateer. She was taken 11 Oct. 1811. With the exception of a few months in 1802-3 Capt. Vansittart was not a day out of commission from the time he entered the Navy until the Peace of 1814. He became a Rear-Admiral 22 July, 1830, and a Vice-Admiral 23 Nov, 1841. He died in March, 1843.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1842, pp. 2391, 3400, 3694.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1842, p. 3821.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1846, p. 3442.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1846, pp. 3445-6.