Royal Naval Biography/Butterfield, William
WILLIAM BUTTERFIELD, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1802.]
This officer is related by his mother’s side to the late William Masterman, of Restormel Park, near Lostwithiel, Cornwall, Esq. M.P. for the borough of Bodmin, in the same county; under whose patronage he entered the naval service as a Midshipman on board the Buffalo of 60 guns, commanded by Captain William Truscott, in Mar. 1781. He afterwards removed with that officer into the Nonsuch 64, and continued to serve with him till the peace of 1783. The former ship bore a part in the Dogger Bank action, Aug. 5, 1781[1], on which occasion she sustained a loss of 20 men killed and 64 wounded. The Nonsuch formed part of Sir George Rodney’s fleet in the battles of April 9th and 12th, 1782[2]; and subsequently proceeded to New York, for the purpose of bringing home a body of Hessian troops, in British pay. She was paid off at Chatham in Aug. 1783.
From this period Mr. Butterfield served successively in the Grampus 50, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Edward Thompson, on the African station; Winchelsea frigate, commanded by the present Viscount Exmouth, employed at Newfoundland; Culloden 74, and Melampus of 36 guns, on Channel service. He passed his examination for a Lieutenant in 1788; a circumstance which we are induced to mention in consequence of an opinion being prevalent that he was originally impressed into the navy.
In 1790, an unfortunate fracas between Mr. Hancorn, junior Lieutenant of the Melampus, and some of her Midshipmen, at a well-known tavern on Portsmouth Point, led to a trial at Winchester; but the latter party consenting to apologize for their intemperate conduct, the business was allowed to terminate without the infliction of any punishment, it being very clearly seen that the assault complained of by the Lieutenant had been produced by his own tyrannical conduct, particularly towards the subject of this memoir, whom he had on one occasion caused to be lashed to a grating and triced up to the mizen-peak, where he was exposed to the gaze of all the ships at the anchorage, and this for no greater offence than that of coming on deck fully equipped, before he acquainted him that the first Lieutenant, then absent, had just before consented to his dining out of the ship; or to use Mr. Hancorn’s own expression, for “getting under way before he had received his sailing orders.”
Disgusted at this treatment, Mr. Butterfield quitted the navy., arid made several voyages in the merchants’ service. At the commencement of the French war in 1793, he was impressed from the Anna, an American vessel lying in the Thames, and sent with a draft of men from the Enterprise tender to complete the complement of the Majestic 74, commanded by the late Sir Charles Cotton, who soon restored him to his former station on the quarter-deck; and by the exertion of his interest obtained him a commission, appointing him junior Lieutenant of the same ship, April 11th, 1794.
On the memorable first of June, when Earl Howe defeated the republican fleet under M. Villaret de Joyeuse, the Majestic was stationed a-stern of the Royal George, bearing the flag of Sir Alexander Hood, who publicly acknowledged the support she afforded him during the battle. Her loss amounted to 3 men killed, and 18 wounded.
In Sept. following, the Majestic was ordered to convey Vice-Admiral Caldwell to the Leeward Islands, where Lieutenant Butterfield was allowed to exchange into the Andromache frigate, for the purpose of re-joining Sir Charles Cotton, who had been suddenly removed into the Impregnable 98.
Proceeding from the West Indies to Halifax, on her way to England, the Andromache was totally dismasted in a hurricane. After sailing from the latter place she detained an American brig, supposed to be laden with French property, which was put in charge of Mr. Butterfield, who ultimately returned home as a passenger on board l’Oiseau of 36 guns, and on his arrival was appointed to the Mars, a third rate, commanded by his patron Sir Charles Cotton, in which ship he continued under the command of that officer, and his successor, Captain Alexander Hood, till his promotion to the rank of Commander, in consequence of his being senior Lieutenant in the action between the Mars and l’Hercule, which is thus described by Schomberg, in his Naval Chronology, Vol. III, p. 98 et seq.
“On the 21st April, 1798, Captain Hood, in the Mars, was directed, by signal from Lord Bridport, to chase a strange sail seen inshore, which, on his approach, he observed to be an enemy’s ship of the line, and that she was endeavouring to escape through the Passage du Raz; but the tide proving contrary, and the wind easterly, obliged her to anchor at the mouth of the passage. This afforded Captain Hood an opportunity of attacking her, which he performed in a most noble and gallant manner, laying the Mars so close alongside the enemy, as to unhinge several of the lower-deck ports. In this situation a most bloody conflict commenced, and continued an hour and a half, when she surrendered. Towards the close of the battle Captain Hood received a wound in the thigh, which proved mortal; he lived to receive the joyful news of the enemy’s submission, and expired covered with immortal glory[3]. She proved to be l’Hercule, of 74 guns and 700 men, the first time of her being at sea, from l’Orient, going to join the Brest fleet. The carnage on board the enemy’s ship must have been dreadful; upwards of 400 men were killed and wounded; her hull on the larboard side was shockingly burnt and torn to pieces. The loss sustained by the Mars amounted to 17 killed, 5 died of their wounds, 60 wounded[4][5], and 8 missing, in all 90[6].”
The subject of this memoir was soon after appointed to the Hazard sloop of war, employed on the Irish station, where he captured le Neptune French national ship, formerly the Laurel English East Indiaman, of 10 guns and 53 men, having on board 270 soldiers, from the Isle of France, bound to Brest. The enemy having brought all his guns on one side, made an obstinate defence of an hour and fifty minutes, and had upwards of 20 men killed and wounded. The Hazard had only 6 men wounded.
From this period Captain Butterfield was employed in keeping up a communication between the flag at Cork and the different squadrons cruising off Ireland. In Nov. 1798, he assumed the temporary command of the Foudroyant, an 80-gun ship, vacant by the death of Sir Thomas Byard, on the 30th of the preceding month; and after conducting her from Lough Swilly to Plymouth, rejoined the Hazard, in which vessel we find him affording protection to the trade between Ireland and the Downs, during the remainder of the war. There is no service more arduous and unprofitable than that of convoying merchantmen. Most of those placed under Captain Butterfield’s care were heavy sailers, deeply laden, weakly manned, badly found, and sometimes leaky; demanding the greatest skill, perseverance, and patience, to keep them together. Privateers were continually on the watch, waiting only for a gale of wind, or a fog, to separate the unskilful from the rest; yet, with all these difficulties to contend with, Captain Butterfield had the good fortune never to lose a single vessel confided to his charge.
In addition to the above services, Captain Butterfield, whilst in the Hazard, on one occasion fell in with a transport-ship, totally dismasted, and in a miserably shattered state, she having been twice run foul of by other vessels at sea. By great exertions on his part this ship was brought safely into port, and her valuable cargo, intended for the use of the army serving against the rebels in Ireland, forwarded to its destination. For his meritorious conduct in this instance he received the public thanks of Sir Robert Kingsmill, commander-in-chief at Cork. Returning to port with his prize, le Neptune, he discovered a large French privateer, with the Britannia, an English extra India ship in tow. Being crowded with prisoners, and short of complement, several of the Hazard’s crew having been sent away in a recaptured vessel previous to the action, any attempt to secure the enemy or his prize must have proved abortive. He, however, gave such correct information of their position and course to a British frigate which he afterwards met with, as enabled the latter to retake the Britannia. On another occasion he rescued the Triton Indiaman from imminent danger on the coast of Ireland, her crew, principally Lascars, being completely done up by the seventy of the weather, and several privateers hovering about her, when first seen by the Hazard. For this service, and conducting her safe to Portsmouth, the house of David Scott, and Co., of London, presented him with a piece of plate value 150 guineas.
Captain Butterfield was promoted to post rank, April 29, 1802; and appointed principal agent to the transports attached to Sir Home Popham’s expedition against the Cape of Good Hope, in June 1805. On the passage out the fleet touched at Madeira, for the purpose of refreshing the troops, and completing the water of the ships of war, transports, and Indiamen under convoy, which was performed under the able superintendence of Captain Butterfield, who never quitted the beach for four days. His services at the reduction of the Cape were officially acknowledged by the Commodore[7].
After the conquest of that colony, Captain Butterfield received part of the Dutch garrison on board a division of the transports, and proceeded to St. Helena, where he rendered great assistance to the Hon. Captain Percy, of the Volontaire, by manning that frigate with part of the crews under his command, and supplying their place with prisoners, whom he prevailed upon to assist in working the different vessels in which they were embarked.
Captain Butterfield subsequently served in the Sea Fencibles at Tralee; and on the breaking up of that corps, in 1810, he was appointed pro tempore to the Courageux of 74 guns. At the latter end of the same year he removed into the Malacca, a new frigate, and sailed for the Cape station; from whence, after cruising for some time off the Isle of France, he was ordered to the East Indies, where he had the mortification to be dismissed his ship by the sentence of a court-martial, held at Madras, in Aug. 1812. The circumstance that led to his trial was briefly as follows:- On his arrival in India, finding himself senior officer there, in consequence of the recent demise of Vice-Admiral Drury, as stated at p. 514, and the absence of Commodore Broughton, he proceeded to Calcutta, and despatched the Minden, 74, to England with the October convoy, at the urgent request of the merchants, but without sufficient authority for so doing. His zeal for the public service gave offence to Commodore Braughton, who, on his return from Java, where he had been joined by the Malacca, applied to Sir Samuel Hood, the new commander-in-Chief, for a court-martial, which terminated in Captain Butterfield’s dismissal from that frigate, to the great regret of her crew, from whom he received a warm and affectionate address previous to his return to England, as a passenger on board the Modeste, an address alike gratifying to his feelings, and honorable to his character[8].
At the general promotion in June 1814, Captain Butterfieid was appointed to succeed Sir Home Popham in the command of the Stirling Castle 74; but peace with France having previously taken place, the only service he had an opportunity of performing in her was that of bringing the guards from Bourdeaux to England. We are sorry it is not in our power to insert a copy of a very handsome letter which we know he received from the officers of that distinguished corps, acknowledging the attention he paid to their comforts during the passage. The Stirling Castle was paid off at Plymouth about Nov. 1814.
Captain Butterfield has been more than once married, and is the father of a large family. One of his sons is a Midshipman in the R.N.
Agent.– Thomas Stilwell, Esq.
- ↑ See Vol. I, note § at p. 175 et seq.
- ↑ See Vol. II. Part I, note † at p. 52; and Vol. I, note * at p. 35 et seq.
- ↑ Captain Hood was a nephew to Lords Bridport and Hood. He received a musket-ball in the faemoral artery.
- ↑ Among the wounded were Messrs. George Argles and George Arnold Ford, third and fifth Lieutenants of the Mars. The former officer, however, remained at his post, and acquired as much credit for his bravery in the action as for his local knowledge and professional skill, which enabled him to pilot the Mars alongside the enemy. The conduct of Mr. John Bowker, the second Lieutenant, was also very exemplary. Both these gentleman have since attained post rank.
- ↑ Errata: see Supplement Part 2 p 432. In teh previous footnote after wounded, insert officially reported; and after second lieutenant, insert who had a fair claim to be included in the report
- ↑ The cost of simply making good the damages l’Hercule had sustained by the fire of the Mars, was estimated at 12,500l.
- ↑ It is worthy of remark, that Captain Butterfield and the other agents transports, Lieutenants Cochrane and Patey, did not receive any prize-money for the capture of the Cape, although the commanders and mates of the Hon. East India Company’s ships did; the former receiving 1000l., and the latter 500l. each.
- ↑ Captain Butterfield, previous to his leaving the Mars, was presented by that ship’s company with a very elegant sword, as a token of their gratitude for his constant humane attentions to the sick.