HON. SIR CHARLES PAGET, Knt.
Rear-admiral of the Blue; a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order; a Groom of His Majesty’s Bedchamber; and Member of Parliament for Carnarvon.
This officer, the fifth son of Henry, the late Earl of Uxbridge, by Jane, eldest daughter of Arthur Champagné, Dean of Clonmacnoise, and a brother of the present Marquis of Anglesey, was born Oct. 7, 1778; entered the naval service at an early age, and commanded the Martin sloop of war, attached to Admiral Duncan’s fleet, in the memorable battle off Camperdown, Oct. 11, 1797[1]. He was advanced to the rank of Post-Captain on the 17th of the same month; and in the following year appointed to the Brilliant, a small frigate, in which he captured le Dragon, of 14 guns, laden with cocoa, cotton, coffee, and indigo, from Guadaloupe bound to l’Orient; and the St. Iago, a Spanish privateer of 10 guns and 60 men. The Brilliant formed part of the armament sent against Ferrol, under the orders of Sir John B. Warren, in the autumn of 1800[2]. On the 20th March following, she experienced a very heavy gale of wind in the Channel, during which she strained so much as to render it necessary for 14 of her guns to be thrown overboard. She arrived at Plymouth in a very leaky state, on the 6th April, 1801. Some time previous to the gale, Captain Paget had been chased by a French squadron commanded by M. Nielly, but fortunately escaped under cover of the night.
His next appointment was to the Hydra, of 38 guns, in which ship he proceeded to the Mediterranean, where he remained about twelve months. On the 6th April, 1803, he commissioned the Endymion, a frigate of the largest class; and in the course of the ensuing summer, captured la Bacchante, a French corvette, of 18 guns, pierced for 22, and 200 men, from St. Domingo bound to Brest; l’Adour store-ship, pierced for 20 guns, from Martinique to Rochefort; and le General Moreau, schooner privateer, of 16 guns and 85 men. The former vessel persisted in her endeavours to escape till she
