Royal Naval Biography/Austen, Charles John
CHARLES JOHN AUSTEN, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1810.]
Brother to Captain Francis William Austen, C.B. whose services are recorded at pp. 274–283 of Vol. II. Part I.
This officer entered the naval academy at Portsmouth in 1791, and embarked in 1794, as a midshipman on board the Daedalus 32, commanded by Captain (now Sir Thomas) Williams; with whom he afterwards served in the Unicorn and Endymion frigates, continuing with him until the spring of 1801, at which period he had risen to be second Lieutenant of the latter. His first commission bears date Dec. 10, 1797[1].
At the renewal of hostilities, May 1803, Lieutenant Austen had the good fortune to be appointed first of the Endymion, on the application of her Captain, the Hon. Charles Paget, under whom he continued actively and successfully employed till his promotion to the rank of Commander, Sept. 10, 1804[2]; on which occasion he was appointed to the Indian, an 18-gun sloop, then building at Bermuda, for the protection of the islands.
During one of his first cruises. Captain Austen fell in with and was soon surrounded by four fast-sailing French frigates; but fortunately it fell calm at the moment when his capture appeared inevitable, and by using the sweeps he was enabled to push between them and gain a safe distance before another breeze sprang up. The Indian was subsequently placed under the orders of Sir John B. Warren, on the Halifax station, where Captain Austen captured la Jeune Estelle, French schooner privateer, of 4 guns and 25 men, with a cargo of flour and provisions, bound to St. Domingo; a Spanish letter of marque, of similar force; and three merchant vessels.
On the 10th May, 1810, Captain Austen was posted into Sir John B. Warren’s flag-ship, the Swiftsure 74; and shortly afterwards removed to the Cleopatra 32, in which frigate he returned home, about the summer of 1811.
Captain Austen’s next appointment was, Nov. 20, 1811, to the Namur 74, bearing the flag of his early friend and patron, Sir Thomas Williams, and employed as a receiving ship at the Nore.
The duties which Captain Austen had now to attend to were of no trifling nature, and attended with considerable responsibility, he being charged with the regulation of all the men raised for the navy in the river Thames and eastern ports, as also with the detail of manning the ships of war fitted out in the Thames and Medway. That the Lords of the Admiralty were fully satisfied with his execution of these duties during a period of nearly three years, is evident from his having been appointed to the Phoenix, a 32-gun frigate, immediately after Sir Thomas Williams’s command expired.
Early in 1815, Captain Austen proceeded to the Mediterranean; and on the renewal of hostilities with France and Naples, in consequence of Buonaparte’s escape from Elba, he was sent to the Adriatic, with the Undaunted 38, and Garland 22, under his orders, for the purposes of co-operating with the Austrian army, and endeavouring to intercept some Neapolitan men of war.
After the surrender of Naples, according to the military convention of Casa Lanza, Captain Austen entered into a correspondence with the authorities at Brindisi, relative to two frigate of the largest class, then lying there, and which the Phoenix and Garland had been watching, whilst the Undaunted scoured the coast to the northward. The commanders of these ships were at length induced to hoist the colours of their restored monarch, Ferdinand IV.; and Captain Austen soon afterwards received the unqualified approbation of Lord Exmouth for his conduct during the whole of that short campaign.
We next find Captain Austen proceeding to the Archipelago, with the Phoenix, Aquilon (32), Garland, and Reynard sloop, in search of la Junon French frigate, la Victorieuse corvette, two heavy brigs, two huge schooners, and several piratical vessels which had lately given interruption to the trade in that quarter. On his arrival among the islands, he had the mortification to find that the enemy’s squadron was no longer there; and the speedy restoration of peace left him nothing more to do than the suppression of piracy, a service which, for the time being, he effectually performed. We now come to the most unfortunate event in his professional career – the loss of the Phoenix, on the coast of Asia Minor, Feb. 20, 1816.
Having received orders, when at Smyrna, to join Sir Charles Penrose, who was about to accompany Lord Exmouth on an expedition to the coast of Barbary, Captain Austen put to sea immediately, although the wind was foul and the weather very unsettled. Being unable to clear the Archipelago before the commencement of a violent gale, he was obliged to bear up and seek shelter in the port of Chismé; but scarcely had he anchored when the wind flew round from S.W. to North, and blew a perfect hurricane. Every thing possible was done to save the ship, notwithstanding which she drove on shore, with three anchors a-head, after her masts were cut away. Happily no lives were lost, and he succeeded in saving the guns, stores, &c. which were conveyed to Malta by the Reynard and a merchant ship chartered for that purpose. It now only remains for us to add, that this disaster was solely owing to the ignorance of the Greek pilots, and that Captain Austen was fully acquitted of all blame, by a court-martial assembled on board the Boyne, in Tunis bay, April 22, 1816.
Captain Austen’s last appointment was, June 2, 1826, to the Aurora of 46 guns, which frigate he at present commands on the Jamaica station. The subject of this sketch has been twice married; 1st, in 1807, to a Miss Palmer, by whom he had three daughters; 2dly, in 1820, to a lady of the same maiden name, by whom he has one son.
Agent.– J. Woodhead, Esq.
- ↑ The very active services of the Unicorn and Endymion are fully noticed in our first volume, pp. 387–389.
- ↑ See Id. p. 854 et seq.