A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woodd, Robert
WOODD. (Retired Commander, 1844. f-p., 18; h-p., 36.)
Robert Woodd was born 17 April, 1780, and died in 1847. His father, Geo. Woodd, Esq., was a Captain in the West Kent Militia.
This officer entered the Navy, in the spring of 1793, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Defence 74, Capt. J as. Gambier. After having fought as Midshipman in Lord Howe’s action, 1 June, 1794, ho removed with Capt. Gambier to the Prince George 98, fitting in the river Medway; he joined next, in 1795-6, the Eurydice 24 and Ambuscade 32, both commanded by Capt. Thos. Twysden; and in Feb. 1797 he was received on board the Leviathan 74, Capt. (subsequently Rear and Vice Admiral) John Thos. Duckworth. He was much employed, in the Eurydice, in affording protection to convoys in the English and Irish Channels; and in the Ambuscade he came into action with a fort on the island of St. Domingo. While attached to the Leviathan, in which ship (deducting an interval of 13 months, from Aug. ,1799 until Sept. 1800, during which he acted as Lieutenant in the Mermaid 32) he continued until the autumn of 1801, he cruized in the Channel and on the coast of Ireland, assisted at the blockade of Cadiz, served on shore at the reduction of Minorca, contributed to the capture of two Spanish frigates, the El Carmen and Florentina, each laden with 1500 quintals of quicksilver, and was present either afloat or on shore at the capture of Fort St. Elmo, on the coast of Naples, and of the Swedish and Danish islands in the West Indies. He was a participator, too, in many cutting-out affairs; and in one of them, on the coast of Spain, was wounded. His commission as Lieutenant, dated 31 Jan. 1800, was given to him by Lord Nelson. He returned to England from the West Indies in the Daphne 20, Capt. Rich. Matson; and was employed afterwards – from 1803 until 1805, in the Rosario sloop, Capt. Rich. Matson, on the coast of Ireland – from 1805 until March, 1810, in command of a Signal station in Cornwall – from Dec. 1810 until June, 1811, in the Ulysses 44, flag-ship of Vice-Admiral D’Auvergne on the Guernsey station – and from June, 1811, until June, 1813, in command of another Signal station in the island of Jersey. He was placed on the Junior List of Retired Commanders 26 Nov. 1830; and on the Senior 24 July, 1844.
Commander Woodd married in 1804, and again in 1826. By his first wife he has left a family of five children.