Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Slade, Adolphus
SLADE, Sir ADOLPHUS (1804–1877), vice-admiral, admiral in the Turkish service, and author, was fifth son of General Sir John Slade, bart. [q. v.], of Maunsell Grange, Somerset. In August 1815 he entered the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, and passed through the course with distinction, carrying off the gold medal. He was afterwards, for three years, on the South American station; and in 1824, as mate of the Revenge, flagship of Sir Harry Burrard Neale [q. v.], was present at the demonstration against Algiers. In October 1827 he was in the Hind cutter, the tender to the Asia, at the battle of Navarino, and on 27 Nov. he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In the following year, while on half-pay, he travelled through France, Italy, the Grecian Isles, and reached Constantinople in May 1829. Thence he went for a cruise in the Black Sea with the Turkish fleet, and after the peace of Adrianople, as the guest of Captain Edmund Lyons (afterwards Lord Lyons) [q. v.] in the Blonde, he visited the several Russian ports. From Varna he went by land to Adrianople, and for the next two years travelled through much of the country on both sides of the Bosphorus. In 1833 he published ‘Records of Travel in Turkey, Greece, &c., and of a Cruise in the Black Sea with the Capitan Pasha in the Years 1829–30–31’ (2 vols. 8vo). In January 1834 he was appointed additional lieutenant of the Caledonia, flagship of Sir Josias Rowley [q. v.], by whom, during the next three years, he was employed on several missions to Greece and Constantinople, and on one occasion to Sebastopol, on the defences of which and the improved state of the Russian navy he wrote a valuable report. In 1837 he published ‘Turkey, Greece, and Malta’ (2 vols. 8vo). Again on half-pay he travelled on the continent, and in 1840 published ‘Travels in Germany and Russia, including a Steam Voyage by the Danube and Euxine from Vienna to Constantinople in 1838–9’ (8vo, 1840). On 23 Nov. 1841 he was promoted to the rank of commander. He then studied for some time at the Royal Naval College, and in 1846–7 commanded the Recruit on the coast of Spain and at the Azores.
On 10 Jan. 1849 he was advanced to post rank, and shortly afterwards, when war appeared imminent between Austria and Turkey, Slade was lent to the Porte for service with the Turkish fleet. He then, being allowed to retain his rank in the English navy, entered the Turkish service, as Mushaver Pasha; and for the next seventeen years was the administrative head of the Turkish navy, which, with much difficulty, he brought to a point of relative efficiency. His period of service included the Crimean war, in which, however, he does not appear to have been actively employed, but in 1867 he published an interesting account of it from his point of view, ‘Turkey and the Crimean War’ (8vo). His services were acknowledged by the Turkish government with the Medjidie and the Osmanieh (both of the second class), and by the English government with the K.C.B. (10 Aug. 1858). On 2 April 1866 he obtained, in course of seniority, the rank of rear-admiral in the English navy. He then retired from the Turkish service, and resided principally in England. He became a vice-admiral on 6 April 1873, and died in London, unmarried, on 3 Nov. 1877. Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of ‘A few Words on Naval Construction and Promotion’ (8vo, 1846), and ‘Maritime States and Military Navies’ (8vo, 1859).
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict.; Times, 15 Nov. 1877; Slade's works, which are largely autobiographical.]