Royal Naval Biography/Cutfield, William
WILLIAM CUTFIELD, Esq.
[Commander.]
Eldest son of Mr. J. Cutfield, upwards of fifty years a master in the royal navy, and latterly master-attendant at Deal.
This officer entered the navy in 1796; served as midshipman and mate, under Captains John Bazely, Richard Budd Vincent, and William Hargood, in the Overyssel 64, Arrow sloop, and Belleisle 74. At the memorable battle of Trafalgar he was wounded in the breast.
On the 17th March, 1806, Mr. Cutfield was made a lieutenant; and soon afterwards appointed to the Grasshopper sloop. Captain Thomas Searle, in consequence of whose warm commendation of his conduct in an action near Faro, on the coast of Portugal, April 23d, 1808[1] he was promoted to the rank of commander on the 19th of the ensuing month.
In 1809, Commander Cutfield was appointed to the command of all the small hired craft attached to the Walcheren expedition; in July, 1814, to the Woodlark sloop; and, Oct. 14th, 1821, to the Barracouta, surveying-vessel, fitting out for the coast of Africa. On his return from the surrey of one of the rivers which run into Delagoa Bay, after an absence of fourteen days in an open boat, he fell a victim to the fever of the country, which also proved fatal to sixty-eight of his companions. He was then, Nov. 30th, 1822, in the thirty-fifth year of his age.