Royal Naval Biography/Gammon, William Snuggs
WILLIAM SNUGGS GAMMON, Esq.
[Commander.]
Was born at Swanmore, Bishop’s Waltham, on the 23d Mar. 1780; and entered the royal navy, as midshipman on board the Robust 74, Captain (now Sir Edward) Thornbrough, in Sept. 1796. He obtained his first commission on the 5th April, 1805. From this period we lose sight of him until the spring of 1808, when he was appointed senior lieutenant of the Proselyte 24, Captain Henry James Lyford, fitting out as a mortar vessel, for the Baltic station. The loss of that ship, near the island of Anholt, Jan. 5th, 1809, and Mr. Gammon’s subsequent hazardous undertaking, to convey intelligence of the disaster to Gottenburg, in an open boat, and through a sea covered with ice, have been noticed in Suppl. Part III. p. 171, et seq.
This officer’s next appointment was to the Frederikssteen 32, in which frigate he served under Captains Joseph Nourse and Francis Beaufort, in the Archipelago and on the south coast of Asia Minor, in 1810, 1811, and 1812[1].
On the 30th June, 1813, Lieutenant Gammon was appointed first of the Severn 40, Captain Nourse, fitting out for the North American station, where he was most actively employed until the final cessation of hostilities in 1815[2]. He obtained his present rank, “for long and active services,” May 27th, 1825.