A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Westphal, George Augustus
WESTPHAL, Kt. (Captain, 1819. f-p., 21; h-p., 28.)
Sir George Augustus Westphal was born 27 March, 1785. He is brother of Capt. Philip Westphal, R.N.; and is of high German extraction, being a descendant of the ancient Counts Von Westphal. His grandfather was a Judge of one of the Imperial Courts of Judicature; and his great-uncle, a dignitary of the Hanoverian Church, was Preceptor to H.R.H. the late Duke of Kent.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1798 (under the auspices of the Duke of Kent), as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Porcupine 24, Capt. Andrew Fitzherbert Evans; in which vessel and in the Echo and Tisiphone sloops, Capts. John Serrall and John Thompson, he continued to serve as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, alternately on the North American, Home, and West India stations, until Jan. 1803. Joining, in the ensuing March, the Amphion 32, Capt. Thos. Masterman Hardy, he sailed in that frigate for the Mediterranean with Lord Nelson; whom, on.their arrival, he followed into the Victory 100. In her, after pursuing the combined fleets of France and Spain, to the West Indies and back, he fought at the battle of Trafalgar, 21 Oct. 1805; on which occasion, being severely wounded in the head, he was laid in the cockpit by the side of his dying chief.[1] He served subsequently with Capt. Fras. Pender in the Ocean 98, .and with Lord St Vincent in the Caledonia 120,. the latter stationed off Brest; and on 15 Aug. 1806 he was made Lieutenant into the Demerara sloop, Capt. Wm. Paterson, in the West Indies. In 1807, while returning to England as an invalid in the Highlander a merchant-ship, mounting 12 carronades, with a crew of 35 men, he was again badly wounded and captured by the French privateer L’Alert of 20 guns and 140 men, despite a very spirited resistance of three hours and twenty minutes, during which the British, commanded by himself, sustained a loss of 5 killed and 7 wounded,. and the enemy (who were repulsed in three attempts to board, but succeeded in the fourth) also of many killed and wounded. He was taken to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, and placed in close confinement on board a prison-ship. He ultimately, however, succeeded in effecting his escape with three others in a boat, in which, after enduring many hardships, he was picked up by an American merchant-schooner from Guadeloupe bound to New York. This vessel was detained on the following day by an English privateer and carried to Antigua; whence Mr. Westphal returned to England in the Venus frigate. On his arrival he was appointed, in succession, 27 June and 5 Oct. 1807, to. the Foudroyant 80, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Albemarle Bertie, in the Channel, and to the Neptune 98, Capt. Sir Thos. Williams. In the latter ship he went in pursuit, in 1808, of a French squadron to the West Indies. On again proceeding thither he became First-Lieutenant, 8 Nov. in the same year, of the Belleisle 74, Commodore Geo. Cockburn under whom we find him, in the early part of 1809, serving on shore at the reduction of Martinique. On the return home of the Belleisle with the surrendered Governor and garrison, she was sent to join the expedition under Sir Rich. Strachan in the Scheldt. During the attack upon Flushing Mr. Westphal; who had been placed in command of a subdivision of the flotilla, was on one occasion, for 52 -hours under fire from the enemy’s batteries, and had two of his gun-boats sunk. The Belleisle being paid off in Oct. 1809, he rejoined his friend Cockburn shortly- afterwards as his First-Lieutenant in the Implacable 74, and, in, the early part of 1810, sailed for Quiberon Bay with the Baron de Kolli, a foreigner, who had undertaken to liberate Ferdinand VII. of Spain from his confinement at Valençay. This personage Mr. Westphal himself landed in a boat at night, in a heavy gale and a boisterous sea, close under the convent of St. Gildas. Had the enterprise succeeded he was to have been at once advanced to Post-rank: it failed, however, and he was disappointed. Uniting next in the defence of Cadiz, he aided, while so employed, in expelling the French from Moguer (a town on the Huebla river) and the adjacent coast; and in so effectual a manner, indeed, that in his official report Commodore Cockburn was thus induced to express himself: “I must beg leave to mention to you (Sir Rich. Goodwin Keats, whom the Implacable had conveyed to Cadiz) the unremitting assistance I have received from Lieut. Westphal, First of the Implacable, who, by his conduct on this service, has added to the many claims he already had to my particular notice and recommendation.”[2] Both before and after this affair Mr. Westphal was in frequent action, in command of the Implacable’s boats, with the French batteries between Sota and Puerto Santa Maria. Towards the close of 1810 he sailed in escort of two Spanish line-of-battle ships of 120 guns each for the Havana, and then proceeded to Vera Cruz – returning, early in 1811, to Cadiz with 2,000,000 dollars. On the day after the battle of Barrosa he contributed to the capture of the enemy’s works between Catalina and Santa Maria. He subsequently, 22 April, 1811, assumed the command, pro tem., of the Alfred 74; in which ship, he was for some time employed in cruizing between Capes Trafalgar and Spartel, and in equipping several Spanish men-of-war at Cadiz, preparatory to their removal for security to Minorca. On the latter service being completed he was nominated by Rear-Admiral Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge, Acting-Commander, 5 July, 1811, of the Columbine sloop. In this vessel, after having conveyed part of the Royal Family of Spain from Cadiz to the coast of Portugal, he was sent to cruize between Rota and San Lucar. While on that station he made an attack, on the night of 30 Sept. 1811, on a 6-gun battery at Chipiona, and, with the assistance of his boats, brought out, with the loss of only 1 man wounded, two privateers which had been reposing under its protection.[3] Although praised for his “zeal and activity” by Rear-Admiral Legge, who made a point of reporting his conduct to the Admiralty, Mr. Westphal, instead of being confirmed by their Lordships, was superseded from the Columbine, 4 Oct. 1811. In the course of the following month, having returned to England, he became First-Lieutenant of the Grampus 50, fitting for the broad pendant of Commodore Cockburn, with whom he again visited Cadiz, on a political mission. On the promotion of the latter officer to the rank of Rear-Admiral, Mr. Westphal sailed with him, as First-Lieutenant of his flag-ship, the Marlborough 74, for the Chesapeake, where he arrived in March, 1813, and soon found opportunities of distinguishing himself. Passing over many of the operations in which he enacted a part, we find him, 29 April, 1813, commanding a highly successful boat expedition sent up the Elk river, the result of which was the expulsion of the enemy from French Town and the destruction of their depots of flour, military stores, &c., besides six of their heavy guns being disabled and five of their vessels burnt. Although the amount of property destroyed was estimated at 500,000l., and the Americans were fully prepared for the attack, the British loss was confined to 1 man wounded. “To Lieut. G. A. Westphal,” writes Rear-Admiral Cockburn in the despatch addressed by him to the Commander-in-Chief, Sir John Borlase Warren, “who has so gallantly conducted and so ably executed this service, my highest encomiums and best acknowledgments are due; and I trust. Sir, you will deem him to have also thereby merited your favourable consideration and notice.”[4] In command, under Capt. John Lawrence, of the boats of the squadron, Mr. Westphal, on the morning of 3 May, 1813, led, in a rocket-boat, the van of an expedition despatched against the town of Havre-de-Grace at the entrance of the Susquehanna river, where the Americans were sent scampering into the woods, and a battery, a valuable cannon-foundry in the vicinity of the town, and the houses of such as had opposed the invaders, destroyed. On at first landing Mr. Westphal, having dismounted an American officer, set off on the captured horse in pursuit of the fugitives; forgetting, in the ardour of the moment, that it was not possible for his men to keep pace with him – a circumstance indeed that did not present itself to him until he found himself, unsupported, in the midst of a body of armed men. Firing his pistols right and left, however, and slashing his sword in all directions, he dashed through them and succeeded, although wounded by a shot through the hand, in effecting his escape, bearing away with him at the same time as his prisoner a Captain in the American militia. Referring to his conduct Rear-Admiral Cockburn, in his official report to Sir J. B. Warren, expresses himself to this effect:– “Of Lieut. G. A. Westphal, whose exemplary and gallant conduct it has been necessary for me already to notice in detailing to you the operations of the day, I shall now only add, that from a thorough knowledge of his merits (he having served many years with me as First-Lieutenant), I always, on similar occasions, expect much from him; but this day he even outstripped those expectations: I therefore, Sir, cannot but entertain a confident hope that his services of to-day, and the wound he has received, added to what he so successfully executed at French Town, will 6btain for him your favourable consideration and notice and that of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.”[5] On 6 May, having ascended the Sassafras river, Mr. Westphal assisted, after routing 400 men who had opened a fire upon the British from an entrenched position on the opposite banks, in demolishing the settlements of George Town and Frederick’s Town. Subsequently to the attack upon Crany Island and the capture of Hampton he removed with Rear-Admiral Cockburn, 1 July, 1813, to the Sceptre 74. After the taking, on 12 of the same month, of Portsmouth and Ocraroke islands, he took command of the advanced division of boats, and by “pulling directly and resolutely” for a large brig, the Anaconda, mounting 18 long 9-pounders, induced the crew, who had opened a heavy fire, to abandon her, although supported by a schooner, the Atlas, of 10 guns, who, having no alternative, immediately struck her colours. Four days previously to the latter event Mr. Westphal had been promoted by the Admiralty to the rank of Commander; and on the Anaconda being purchased into the service, the command of her was given to him. As soon as she was ready for sea he was sent in charge of 12 valuable merchant-vessels from Halifax to the West Indies. During the passage he encountered two large American privateers, one of which he compelled to strike, but failed in obtaining possession of, as she made off while he went in pursuit of her consort, whose escape was also effected. From March until Dec. 1814 Capt. Westphal was employed, under the orders of Capt. Clement Milward of the Herald 20, in crmzing off the river Mississippi. He then joined the expedition against New Orleans. “In the endeavours,” we learn, from a document bearing the signature of Sir Alex. Cochrane, the Commander-in-Chief, “to place the small vessels of war as near as possible to the jpoint of landing, Capt. Westphal was particularly conspicuous in his zeal and success towards the effecting of this important object; he having, by the utmost perseverance, skill, and exertion, hove the Anaconda over a bank, nearly five miles in extent (upon which there were only eight feet of water), into Lac Borgne, and there occupied a situation that enabled that sloop to render the most essential aid and protection to the open boats conveying troops and supplies from the fleet to the army; which were frequently rescued by her assistance from the imminent danger to which they were reduced by the severity of the weather. Capt. Westphal, after stationing his vessel, was landed with a division of her seamen, and served in the naval brigade under the command of Sir E. Thos. Troubridge,[6] who made honourable mention of his exertions. The Anaconda was afterwards,- until the cessation of hostilities, stationed in the Gulf of Florida, with the Shelburne schooner under her orders. In consequence of the injuries she had sustained during the operations against New Orleans, she was condemned at Jamaica in July, 1815. Capt. Westphal then returned to England a passenger in the Moselle sloop, Capt. John Moberley. He attained his present rank 12 Aug. 1819; and was lastly, from 27 May, 1822, until about Dec. 1823, and from 3 Dec. 1832 until he invalided in the spring of 1834, employed in the Jupiter 60 and Vernon 50 – the latter bearing the flag of Sir Geo. Cockburn on the North America and West India station. In the Jupiter he conveyed Lord Amherst to Bengal. He was knighted 7 April, 1824; an honour for which, in the words of Sir Robt. Peel, “he had been recommended, more in consideration of his gallant and distinguished services against the enemy, than for his having taken out the Governor-General of India.”
Sir Geo. Aug. Westphal (who during the war was more than a hundred times in action with the enemy) was appointed a Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen 9 Nov. 1846. He married, 8 Jan. 1817, Alicia, relict of Wm. Chambers, Esq. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.