Royal Naval Biography/Galwey, Edward
EDWARD GALWEY, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1802.]
Towards the close of 1797, when the Vanguard of 74 guns was commissioned for the flag of Sir Horatio Nelson, Mr. Galwey was selected by that officer to act as his first Lieutenant, from which circumstance we conclude that he had already served under that celebrated commander, and shared in some of his battles. Be that as it may, we find the following short account of him in a letter from Nelson to Earl St. Vincent, dated May 8, 1798:
“My first Lieutenant, Galwey, has no friends, and is one of the best officers in my ship.”
During the dreadful conflict in Aboukir Bay, Aug. 1, 1798, Lieutenant Galwey was sent in the only boat which had not been cut to pieces by the enemy’s shot, to assist the distressed crew of l’Orient; and subsequently to take possession of le Spartiate. He was promoted to the rank of Commander in consequence of that ever memorable victory; and during the latter part of the war we find him commanding the Plover, an 18-gun sloop, employed on Channel service. His post commission bears date April 29, 1802.
Captain Galwey commanded the Dryad frigate during the expedition against Walcheren in 1809; and subsequently on the north coast of Spain, under the orders of the late Sir Robert Mends[1]. On the 23d Dec. 1812, he drove a French national brig of 22 guns, on the rocks near Isle Dieu, where she was completely wrecked: the Dryad on this occasion was hulled several times by shot from the shore, and had her foremast badly wounded, but not a man hurt.
Returning from Newfoundland, Mar. 26, 1814, Captain Galwey fell in with the Clorinde. a French frigate, endeavouring to escape from the Eurotas of 46 guns, with which ship she had had a very severe action on the preceding day, an account of which will be found in our memoir of Sir John Phillimore, Knt., C.B. The enemy, having only his fore-mast standing, and more than one third of his crew already killed and wounded, struck his colours on receiving one shot from the Dryad, after an absurd attempt to obtain terms previous to his surrender; a proposition that would not have been acceded to even by a British brig of 18 guns, then in sight to leeward. Captain Galwey, after towing the captured frigate into port, was put out of commission. He has not since been employed.
Agent.– Thomas Collier, Esq.