Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fahie, William Charles
FAHIE, Sir WILLIAM CHARLES (1763–1833), vice-admiral, of an Irish family settled at St. Christopher's, where his father was judge of the vice-admiralty court, entered the navy in 1777, on board the Seaford, with Captain Colpoys, and afterwards in the Royal George. In October 1779 he was appointed to the Sandwich, bearing the flag of Sir George Rodney, and was present at the defeat of Langara off Cape St. Vincent, and in the several actions with De Guichen on 17 April and 15 and 19 May 1780. In August 1780 he was appointed acting lieutenant of the Russell, in which he was present in the action off Martinique on 28 April 1781, and at St. Christopher's on 26 Jan. 1782. On account of his local knowledge he was afterwards sent by Hood to communicate with the garrison of Brimstone Hill, and on the second occasion, being unable to regain his ship—the fleet putting to sea at very short notice [see Hood, Samuel, Viscount]—he gave himself up to the French general, but was permitted to depart. He rejoined the Russell at St. Lucia, and was present in the actions to leeward of Dominica on 9 and 12 April. In January 1783 he was confirmed in the rank of lieutenant, but remained with his family at St. Christopher's till the outbreak of the war with France in 1793, when he was appointed to the Zebra sloop with Captain Robert Faulknor [q. v.], in which he took part in the brilliant assault on Fort Royal. Sir John Jervis consequently appointed him to the flagship, the Boyne, and on 5 Aug. promoted him to be commander of the Woolwich. On 2 Feb. 1796 he was posted to the command of the Perdrix of 22 guns, in which he continued until she was paid off in August 1799. In 1804 Fahie was again sent out to the West Indies in command of the Hyæna, from which, in 1805, he was moved into the Amelia, and again, in 1806, into the Ethalion, in which ship he assisted at the capture of the Danish West India islands by Sir Alexander Cochrane in December 1807. In November 1808 he was appointed to the Belle Isle of 74 guns, one of the squadron which reduced Martinique in February 1809. He afterwards exchanged with Commodore Cockburn into the Pompée, employed in April 1809 in the blockade of three French ships which had anchored in the roadstead of the Saintes. On the night of 14 April they put to sea, closely followed by the Hazard and Recruit sloops and the Pompée, the rest of the squadron being at a considerable distance. The chase continued during the 15th. At nightfall the French ships separated; the Pompée and her little consorts attached themselves to the Hautpoult; and, mainly through the persistent gallantry of Captain Charles Napier [q. v.] of the Recruit, assisted towards the close by the Castor frigate, brought her to action about four o'clock on the morning of the 17th, and captured her after a sharp combat lasting an hour and a half (James, Nav. Hist. 1860, v. 19). In the following August Fahie was appointed to the Hautpoult, which had been commissioned as the Abercromby; in November he was ordered to wear a broad pennant, and in February 1810 assisted in the reduction of Guadeloupe, from which he was sent by Cochrane to take possession of St. Martin's and St. Eustatius. In June he sailed for England in charge of a valuable convoy, and the Abercromby having been refitted, in December he joined the flag of Sir George Berkeley at Lisbon. During the three following years he commanded the Abercromby in the Channel and the Bay of Biscay, and in 1815 was appointed to the Malta, which, on the escape of Bonaparte from Elba, was sent out to the Mediterranean, where Fahie was employed for some months as senior officer on the coast of Italy, a service for which the king of the Two Sicilies nominated him a commander of the order of St. Ferdinand and Merit. Fahie attained flag rank on 12 Aug. 1819, and in January 1820 was appointed commander-in-chief on the Leeward Islands station, from which in the following year he was sent to Halifax. With the close of his command, in September 1824, his active career terminated. In October he was nominated a K.C.B., and became a vice-admiral on 22 July 1830. In his intervals of half-pay, and on his retirement, he lived almost entirely in the West Indies, where he died, at Bermuda, on 11 Jan. 1833. He was twice married, first, to Elizabeth Renie Heyliger, daughter of Mr. William Heyliger of St. Eustatius; and secondly, to Mary Esther Harvey, daughter of the Hon. Augustus William Harvey, member of council of Bermuda.
[Ralfe's Naval Biog. iv. 34; Marshal's Roy. Nav. Biog. ii. (vol. i. pt. ii.) 715.]