Royal Naval Biography/Bathurst, Walter
WALTER BATHURST, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1799.]
This officer was made a Lieutenant in 1790; and confirmed as a Post-Captain, Oct. 24, 1799. Previous to the latter promotion, he had taken the Ville de Paris, a first rate, to the Mediterranean, where he received the fiag of Earl St. Vincent, and from, whence he brought her home as a private ship, about August in the same year. The Earl re-hoisted his flag in the Ville de Paris, as commander-in-chief of the Channel fleet, April 25, 1800; and Captain Bathurst soon after joined the Eurydice of 24 guns; in which ship, being on his return from convoying the outward bound Quebec trade, he captured le Bougainville French privateer of 14 guns and 67 men; and a Danish East Indiaman, about April 1801. On the 20th Oct. following, he sailed for the East Indies with despatches relative to the peace of Amiens.
Whilst on that station, Captain Bathurst removed successively into the Terpsichore and Pitt frigates; the former of which captured a Dutch East Indiaman early in 1805; the latter was employed blockading Port Louis, and took several prizes in Jan. 1806. On the 20th of that month she had 1 man killed and her hull much damaged by the fire from Fort Canonnier, to which she was exposed during twenty minutes, without being able to return a single gun.
The Pitt subsequently resumed her original name, Salsette, and was employed in the Baltic, under the orders of Sir James Saumarez. On the 23d June 1808, Captain Bathurst captured the Russian cutter Apith of 14 guns and 61 men; 4 of whom were killed, and 8, including her commander, a Lieutenant in the Imperial navy, wounded, before she could be induced to surrender. The Salsette, on this occasion, had a marine killed by the cutter’s fire.
In July 1809, Captain Bathurst conducted a division of Earl Chatham’s army to Walcheren. Towards the latter end of 1810, he removed into the Fame 74; in which ship he was actively employed on the Mediterranean station during the remainder of the war.
Captain Bathurst married, in 1808, Miss Marianne Wood, of Manchester Street, Manchester Square, London.
Agent.– M‘Inerheney, Esq.