Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vandeput, George
VANDENPUT, GEORGE (d. 1800), admiral, was illegitimate son of Sir George Vandeput, bart. (d. 1784) (Burke, Extinct Baronetcies). While serving as a midshipman of the Neptune, flagship of Sir Charles Saunders in the St. Lawrence, he was on 24 Sept. 1759 promoted to be lieutenant of the Shrewsbury, commanded by Captain (afterwards Sir) Hugh Palliser [q. v.] With Palliser in the Shrewsbury he continued till the peace in 1763. On 17 April 1764 he was promoted to the command of the Goree sloop, and on 20 June 1765 was posted to the Surprize of 20 guns. In August 1766 he was moved to the Boreas, and in June 1767 to the 28-gun frigate Carysfort for the Mediterranean, where he was for the next three years. He was then for another three years in the Solebay, on the home station, and, after a couple of temporary commands, in December 1773 commissioned the Asia for the North American station. Here he remained for three years, for the most part at, or in the neighbourhood of, Boston and New York. It appears to have been off New York in 1776—the details are only vaguely given—that a tender of the Asia captured a small vessel laden with gunpowder. Whether by accident or caution, Vandeput ordered her to lie off for the night at some little distance; and this led to one of the prisoners, in his terror, confessing that in one of the barrels was a musket-lock, which would be fired by clockwork at a given time. It had been hoped that the barrels of powder would be at once put into the Asia's magazine and the coasting vessel allowed to go free. In 1777 the Asia returned to England, and having been refitted was sent to the East Indies. She came home with convoy in the beginning of 1781, and in the following year Vandeput, in the 98-gun ship Atlas, took part in the relief of Gibraltar and the desultory action off Cape Spartel on 20 Oct. He is said by Burke to have assumed the title of baronet after his father's death, 17 June 1784. If so, it was not acknowledged by the admiralty, nor in his official position. After the peace, Vandeput commanded the Princess Augusta yacht till, on 1 Feb. 1793, he was promoted to be rear-admiral. On 4 July 1794 he was made vice-admiral, and through 1795 had command of a small squadron in the North Sea. In 1796, with his flag in the St. Albans, he was employed on convoy service to Lisbon and the Mediterranean; and in 1797, still in the St. Albans, he commanded the squadron on the coast of North America. Towards the end of the year he shifted his flag to the Resolution, and in 1798 to the Asia. He was promoted to the rank of admiral on 14 Feb. 1799. He died suddenly, on board the Asia, at sea on 14 March 1800. The body was sent, by the Cleopatra, to Providence, and there buried. He left an illegitimate son, George, who is also said to have called himself a baronet.
[Charnock's Biogr. Nav. vi. 572; Schomberg's Naval Chronology; Commission and Warrant Books in the Public Record Office; Gent. Mag. 1800, i. 488.]