A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woods, Thomas
WOODS. (Lieutenant, 1819.)
Thomas Woods entered the Navy, 16 July, 1809, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Active of 46 guns and 300 men, Captain (now Vice-Admiral Sir) Jas. Alex. Gordon, with whom he continued to serve as Midshipman, in the same ship and in the Seahorse 38, in the Mediterranean and West Indies, off Cherbourg, and. on the coast of North America, until Sept. 1815. On 13 March, 1811, he was present in the celebrated action off Lissa, where the Active and three other frigates, carrying in the whole 156 guns and 879 men, completely routed, after a conflict of six hours, and a loss to the former of 4 killed and 24 wounded, a Franco-Venetian armament, whose force amounted to 284 guns and 2655 men. He assisted next, 29 Nov. in the same year, at the capture of La Pomone French frigate of 44 guns and 332 men, 50 of whom were killed and wounded, with a loss to the Active, whose complement had been reduced to 218 men, of 8 killed and 27 wounded. In the Seahorse he accompanied the brilliant expedition against the city of Alexandria on the river Potomac, and took part in the attacks upon Baltimore and New Orleans. Immediately prior to the latter event he served, 14 Dec. 1814, with the boats of a squadron under Capt. Nicholas Lockyer, at the capture, on Lake Borgne, of a flotilla of five American gun-vessels under Commodore Jones, whose resistance was protracted until the British had sustained a loss of 17 men killed and 77 wounded. After he had been for about 10 months employed at Plymouth, at Sheerness, and in the Channel, as Midshipman, Admiralty-Midshipman, and Master’s Mate, in the St. George 98, Capt. Nash, Eridanus 86, Capt. Wm. Paterson, Madagascar 38, Capt. Sir J. A. Gordon, and Albion 74, Capt. John Coode, he was received in the capacity last mentioned, in July, 1816, on board the Impregnable 104, Capt. Edw. Brace, part of the force engaged at the ensuing bombardment of Algiers. In Oct. of the same year, having returned to England, he again joined Sir J. A. Gordon in the Madagascar; from which frigate he followed him soon afterwards into the Meander 38. In her, in the month of Dec, he was nearly lost, off Orfordness. In the early part of 1817 he sailed in the Shearwater 10, Capts. Edw. Rodney, Joseph Troughton, and Douglas Cox, for the West Indies; where, in June, 1819, he was nominated Acting-Lieutenant (a rank he had held in the Shearwater from 21 July until 15 Dec. 1817) of the Iphigenia 42, Capt. Hyde Parker. He was officially promoted 14 Oct. followiug. His appointments have since been – 1 Feb. 1820, to the Beaver 10, Capt. Fred. Marryat, at Portsmouth – 8 Feb. 1825, to the Hyperion 42, Coast Blockade ship, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye – in July, 1825, as Senior, to the Helicon 10, Capt. Chas. Dyke Acland, at the Cape of Good Hope – 30 Dec. 1829, to the Coast Guard – 29 Sept. 1832, to the command of the Hornet Revenue-cruizer – 24 Sept. 1835, again, for three years, to the Coast Guard – 10 Nov. 1841, to the Ocean 80, Capts. Sir John Hill and Peter Fisher, guard-ship at Sheerness – and 29 Sept. 1843, to the Poictiers 72, Capts. Wm. Henry Shirreff and Sir Thos. Bourchier, Depot-ship of Ordinary at Chatham, where (with the exception of an interval of 14 months, from Aug. 1846 until Oct. 1847) he has ever since remained.
Lieut. Woods married, 1 Nov. 1843, Susannah Warner, only daughter of Commander John Stephen, R.N.