A Naval Biographical Dictionary/West, Balchen Folkes
WEST. (Commander, 1843. f-p., 22; h-p., 4.)
Balchen Folkes West was born 12 Jan. 1806, and died 6 March, 1845, while belonging, as stated beneath, to the Vindictive 50. He was second son of Gilbert Harvey West, Esq., late of Her Majesty’s Treasury, by Fanny Mary, eldest daughter of Sir Martin Browne Folkes, Bart., M.P.; nephew of the late Capt. Henry West, R.N.,[1] of Sir Edw. West, Kt., Recorder of Bombay, and of John Martin West, Esq., who married Lady Maria Walpole, daughter of Horatio, second Earl of Orford; and cousin of Admiral Sir John West, K.C.B. Among his ancestors was the famous Sir Fras. Drake. He was a connexion, also, of the late Admiral Sir W. T. Lake, K.C.B.
This officer entered the Navy, 31 July, 1819, as Midshipman, on board the Nimrod 18, in which vessel, commanded at first by his relative, Capt. Chas. Nelson, and next by Capt. Wm. Rochfort, he was for four years and a half chiefly employed on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. He then served for rather more than three years as Midshipman and Mate (he passed his examination 27 Oct. 1825) in the Menai 26, Capt. Houston Stewart, at Halifax and at Woolwich; and on joining, at the end of that period, the Hecla bomb, Capt. Wm. Edw. Parry, he sailed on a voyage of discovery to the Polar regions. In Nov. 1827, having returned to England, he was appointed to the Briton 46, Capt. Hon. Wm. Gordon, employed on particular service. From her he removed, in Aug. 1828, to the Thetis 46, Capts. Arthur Batt Bingham and Sam. Burgess, of which frigate he was Acting-Lieutenant when she struck on a rock, near Cape Frio, and was wrecked 5 Dec. 1830. On that occasion, by jumping, with the gunner and three or four men, on the rock, after many had perished in the attempt, he proved instrumental in saving the lives of the Captain, the officers, and upwards of 200 of the crew. For his conduct he received a letter of thanks from the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Thos. Baker, and was presented, immediately after the court-martial, with a commission bearing date 28 April, 1831. His succeeding appointments were – 20 July, 1832, to the Scout 18, Capts. Wm. Hargood, Hon. Geo. Grey, and Wm. Holt, in the Mediterranean – 4 Nov. 1835, as Senior Lieutenant, to the Harrier 18, Capt. Wm. Henry Hallowell Carew, fitting for South America, where he was superseded in Dec. 1836 – 10 April, 1839, as Second, to the Benbow 72, Capt. Houston Stewart, of which ship, part of the force employed in 1840 on the coast of Syria and at the bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre, he became First-Lieutenant – and, 16 July, 1842, in the capacity last mentioned, after a few weeks of half-pay, to the Magicienne 24, Capt. Rich. Laird Warren, again in the Mediterranean. He was promoted to the rank of Commander 14 Sept. 1843; and in the early part of 1845 he was nominated Second Captain of the Vindictive 50, fitting for the flag of Sir Fras. Wm. Austen, Commander-in-Chief on the North America and West India station.
- ↑ Capt. Hen. West was a Lieutenant of the Alexander 74, Capt. Rich. Rodney Bligh, when captured, after a glorious resistnnce, by five French 74’s and three frigates, under Rear-Admiral Nielly, B Nov. 1794. He was for manv years in consequence, a prisoner of war in France. He died, in 1808 from having been crushed between the capstan bars, in attempting to weigh the anchor of a ship he commanded.