Royal Naval Biography/Askew, Charles Crackenthorp
CHARLES CRACKENTHORP ASKEW, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1822.]
Son of John Askew, of Pallinsburn, co. Northumberland, Esq., by Bridget, daughter of John Watson, of Goswick, co. Durham, Esq.
This officer entered the navy Feb. 21, 1798, as midshipman, on board the Vestal frigate. Captain Charles White; and served under that officer in the expedition against Ostend, conducted by Major-General Coote and Captain Sir Home Popham[1]. We next find him with the gallant Riou, in the Amazon 38, at the sanguinary battle of Copenhagen[2]; during which his captain was slain, and 36 of his shipmates killed and wounded.
After the renewal of the war with France, in 1803, Mr. Askew, then serving in the same frigate, under Captain William Parker, assisted at the capture of le Felix privateer, of 16 guns and 96 men. He subsequently accompanied the squadron under Lord Nelson to the West Indies, in pursuit of the combined fleets; and, returning from thence, assisted in capturing the Principe de la Paz, Spanish privateer, mounting 24 long 9-pounders and 4 brass swivels, with a complement of 160 men[3]. His first commission bears date Nov. 27, 1805.
On the 4th of the following month. Lieutenant Askew was appointed to the Dictator 64, Captain James Macnamara; and on the 30th December, 1806, he was removed from that ship to the Thalia 36, then commanded by Captain James Walker, on the Guernsey station, but afterwards by Captain Thomas Manby, and employed in protecting the Greenland fishery. While serving under the latter officer, he successively visited Davis’s Strait, the coast of Labrador, Newfoundland, the Western Islands, Cadiz, and Gibraltar[4]. Under his successor. Captain James Giles Vashon, he served in the expedition to the Scheldt, in the year 1809. He was promoted from the Thalia, to the command of the Moselle sloop, on the Jamaica station, Nov. 26, 1811.
Captain Askew’s subsequent appointments were, June 7, 1814, to the Shamrock brig, which vessel he paid off, Oct. 9, 1815; and. May 22, 1821, to the Martin ship-sloop, fitting for the Mediterranean station, where he received his post commission, bearing date July 19, 1822.
This officer married, Feb. 13, 1828, Sarah, third daughter of the late Patrick Dickson, of White Cross, Berwickshire.
Agents.– Messrs. Maude & Co.