Royal Naval Biography/Blanckley, Edward
EDWARD BLANCKLEY, Esq.
[Commander.]
Son of H. S. Blanckley, Esq., many years Consul-General at Algiers.
This officer entered the royal navy in 1805; and served the whole of his time as midshipman under Captain the Hon. Henry Duncan, in the Mercury, Imperieuse, and Glasgow frigates. He was made a lieutenant on the 6th Feb. 1815; appointed to the Alligator 28, Captain Thomas Alexander, C.B., fitting out for the East India station, May 16th, 1822; and promoted to the command of the Sophie sloop at Rangoon, about the end of April 1825[1]. This appointment was confirmed by the Admiralty on the 10th Dec. following, previous to which the Sophie had been sold in India; from whence he returned home passenger in the Liffey frigate, Captain Thomas Coe, Jan. 21st, 1826.
In May 1831, Commander Blanckley was appointed to the Plyades sloop, fitting out for the South American station. On his passage thither he touched at Madeira, and received the thanks of the British residents in that island “for his manly protection of their interests at an eventful period.” In April 1832, being then senior officer on the north coast of Brazil, he was publicly thanked by the British merchants at Pernambuco, “for the active protection he afforded to them and their property, during the revolt and massacre,” which had recently occurred in that city. In Jan. 1834, he was at Coquimbo; and in the beginning of April at Bahia, from whence he returned to England, bringing home 400,000 dollars on freight, June 4th following. The Pylades was paid off at Plymouth on the 26th of the latter month.