Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pole, Charles Morice
POLE, Sir CHARLES MORICE (1757–1830), admiral of the fleet, born on 18 Jan. 1757, was second son of Reginald Pole of Stoke Damerell in Devonshire, and great-grandson of Sir John Pole of Shute, third baronet, and of his wife Anne, daughter of Sir William Morice [q. v.] In January 1770 he entered the Royal Academy in Portsmouth Dockyard, and two years later was appointed to the Thames frigate, with Captain William Locker [q. v.] In December 1773 he was moved into the Salisbury, of 50 guns, going out to the East Indies with the broad pennant of Commodore Sir Edward Hughes [q. v.], by whom he was promoted on 26 July 1777 to be lieutenant of the Seahorse. In the following year he was moved to the Ripon, carrying the broad pennant of Sir Edward Vernon [q. v.], and in her took part in the rencounter with M. Tronjoly on 9 Aug. He afterwards commanded a party of seamen landed for the siege of Pondicherry, and on the surrender of the place, on 17 Oct. 1778, was promoted to the command of the Cormorant sloop, in which he returned to England with Vernon's despatches. On 22 March 1779, ten days after his arrival, he was advanced to post rank, and appointed to the Britannia, with Rear-admiral George Darby [q. v.] In July 1780 he was moved into the Hussar frigate, which he took out to North America, but she was lost, by the fault of the pilot, in endeavouring to pass through Hell Gate. Pole was fully acquitted by a court-martial, and was sent home with despatches. He was then appointed to the Success, of 32 guns, and in March 1782 was sent out to Gibraltar, in charge of the Vernon store-ship. By the way, on the 16th, he fell in with the Spanish Santa Catalina, of 34 guns, said to have been the largest frigate then afloat. As she had also a poop, she was at first supposed to be a ship of the line; it was only when Pole, determining at all risks to save the Vernon, gallantly closed with the Spaniard, that he discovered she was only a frigate, though of considerably superior force. He, however, engaged and, after two hours' close action, captured her. He had partly refitted her, in the hope of taking her in, when, on the 18th, a squadron of ships of war came in sight, and sooner than let her fall into the enemy's hands he set her on fire. When too late it was found that the strange sail were English. During the peace Pole commanded the Crown guardship for three years. In 1788 he was appointed groom of the bedchamber to the Duke of Clarence. In the Spanish armament of 1790 he commanded the Melampus frigate, stationed off Brest to report any movement of the French ships; in 1791 he was moved to the Illustrious of 74 guns, and again, in 1793, to the Colossus, in which he went out to the Mediterranean, and was present at the occupation of Toulon, under the command of Lord Hood. In 1794 the Colossus returned to England, and joined the Channel fleet under Lord Howe.
On 1 June 1795 Pole was promoted to be rear-admiral, and in November, in the Colossus, sailed for the West Indies as second in command, under Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian [q. v.], with whom he returned to England in October 1796. In March 1797 he was appointed first captain of the Royal George, or, as it would now be called, captain of the fleet, with Lord Bridport [see Hood, Alexander, Viscount Bridport]. In 1799, with his flag in the Royal George, he commanded a squadron detached against some Spanish ships in Basque roads, which were found to be too far in under the batteries of the Isle of Aix to be attacked with advantage. In the following year he went out to Newfoundland as commander-in-chief, returning on his promotion to the rank of vice-admiral, on 1 Jan. 1801. In the following June he relieved Lord Nelson in command of the fleet in the Baltic. The work had, however, been practically finished before his arrival, and little remained for him to do except to bring the fleet home. On 12 Sept. he was created a baronet. He was then sent in command off Cadiz, where he remained till the peace. In 1802 he was returned to parliament as member for Newark, and entered zealously on his duties. He was made an admiral in the Trafalgar promotion of 9 Nov. 1805, but had no further service afloat. From 1803 to 1806 he was chairman of the commission on naval abuses [see Dundas, Henry, first Viscount Melville], and in 1806 became one of the lords of the admiralty. From 1806 to 1818 he was M.P. for Plymouth, taking an active interest in all measures connected with naval administration, and speaking with the freedom of a man independent of party. On 20 Feb. 1818 he was nominated a G.C.B. On the accession of William IV he was appointed master of the robes, and was promoted to be admiral of the fleet on 22 July 1830. He died at Denham Abbey, Hertfordshire, on 6 Sept. 1830.
Pole married, in 1792, Henrietta, third daughter of John Goddard, a Rotterdam merchant, of Woodford Hall, Essex, and niece of ‘the rich Mr. Hope of Rotterdam;’ but, dying without male issue, the baronetcy became extinct. His portrait by Beechey has been engraved.
[Marshall's Royal Naval Biogr. i. 86; Naval Chronicle (with a portrait after Northcote), xxi. 265; Ralfe's Naval Biogr. ii. 129; Pantheon of the Age, ii. 158; Foster's Baronetage, s.n. Pole of Shute. There are many casual notices of him in Nicolas's Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson (see index).]