Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miller, Ralph Willett
MILLER, RALPH WILLETT (1762–1799), captain in the navy, was born at New York on 24 Jan. 1762. Willett was his mother's family name; his father, a loyalist, lost all his property in the American revolution. At an early age Miller was sent to England; he entered the navy, and in 1778 was serving in the Ardent with Rear-admiral James Gambier (1723–1789) [q. v.] He is said to have been ‘in all the actions fought by Admirals Barrington, Rodney, Hood, and Graves, and was three times wounded.’ He must have gone to the West Indies in December 1778, in one of the ships under Commodore Hotham [see Hotham, William, Lord]. On 25 May 1781, just after Hood's action with De Grasse, off Fort Royal of Martinique [see Hood, Samuel, Viscount], he was promoted by Rodney to be lieutenant of the Terrible. In the action off Cape Henry on 5 Sept. 1781, the Terrible received such damage that she had to be abandoned and burnt (Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs, v. 277). Miller, it seems, joined one of the ships which went back to the West Indies with Hood, and returned to England towards the end of 1782. On 20 Dec. he was appointed to the Fortitude. In 1793 he was a lieutenant of the Windsor Castle in the Mediterranean, and at the evacuation of Toulon was placed, individually, under the orders of Sir W. Sidney Smith [q. v.], for the destruction of the French ships and arsenal (Barrow, Life of Sir Sidney Smith, i. 148). He was shortly afterwards moved by Hood into the Victory, and was actively employed in the boats and on shore at the reduction of San Fiorenzo, Bastia, and Calvi. In July 1794 he volunteered to set fire to the French squadron in Golfe Jouan, and was promoted on 1 July to the Poulette, with orders to fit her as a fireship, for that purpose. He made five successive attempts to take her in to the French anchorage, but calms and contrary winds always prevented him. On 12 Jan. 1796 he was posted to the command of the Mignonne, but was moved into the Unité by Sir John Jervis and sent into the Adriatic.
In August 1796, when Commodore Nelson hoisted his broad pennant in the Captain, Miller was selected to be his flag-captain, and was thus in command of the Captain in the battle of Cape St. Vincent [see Nelson, Horatio, Viscount]. In May 1797 he moved with Nelson to the Theseus, was with him during his command of the inshore squadron off Cadiz through June, and in the disastrous attack on Santa Cruz on 20 July, when he was landed in command of the small-arm men of the Theseus. After Nelson returned to England the Theseus remained with the fleet off Cadiz, but the next year was detached to join Nelson in the Mediterranean, and took an effective part in the battle of the Nile. Miller sent his wife (17 Oct.) a remarkably able description of the battle (Nicholas, vol. vii. pp. cliv–clx), finishing it in sight of Gibraltar, where he was sent with Sir James Saumarez (afterwards Lord de Saumarez) [q. v.], in charge of the prizes. Towards the end of December the Theseus was again sent to the Levant, and under the orders of Sir Sidney Smith took part in the operations on the coast of Egypt and Syria. Miller was killed on board his ship during the defence of St. Jean d'Acre, by the accidental explosion of some shells on 14 May 1799. ‘He had long,’ wrote Smith to Lord St. Vincent, ‘been in the practice of collecting such of the enemy's shells as fell in the town without bursting, and of sending them back to the enemy better prepared and with evident effect. He had a deposit on board the Theseus ready for service, and more were preparing, when, by an accident for which nobody can account, they exploded at short intervals,’ killing and wounding nearly eighty men, wrecking the poop and the after part of the quarter-deck, and setting fire to the ship. The monument in St. Paul's, by Flaxman, was erected to Miller's memory by subscription among his brother officers who fought with him at the Nile and St. Vincent (Nicolas, iv. 276, v. 5; Ross, Memoirs of Lord de Saumarez, ii. 305). He left a widow and two daughters.
[Naval Chron. ii. 581; Nicolas's Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson, ii. 465 and passim (see index at end of vol. vii.); see also Barrow's Life of Sir W. Sidney Smith; commission and warrant books in the Public Record Office.]