Royal Naval Biography/Garth, Thomas
THOMAS GARTH, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1808.]
Was made a Commander Mar. 3, 1804; and advanced to post rank Jan. 4, 1808. His first appointment afterwards was to act as Captain of the Imperieuse frigate, which ship he joined at Portsmouth, a short time previous to the sailing of the expedition destined against Antwerp.
After assisting at the reduction of Flushing, Captain Garth proceeded up the Scheldt, where he was actively employed during the whole of the operations in that river, and on one occasion very warmly engaged with a land battery, the magazine of which was blown up by Shrapnel’s shells, discharged from the Imperieuse’s carronades. The services performed by part of his crew, on shore, will be noticed under the head of Commander Eaton Travers.
In the spring of 1810, we find Captain Garth employed under the orders of Captain (now Sir George) Cockburn, who had been sent to Quiberon bay for the purpose of co-operating with the Baron de Kolli, in an attempt to effect the liberation of Ferdinand VII., then a prisoner at Valeçay[1]. On the 27th June following, he sailed from Portsmouth for the Mediterranean station, where he was successively removed into the Cossack of 22 guns, and Cerberus 32. The capture of various armed vessels and merchantmen, by the boats of the latter ship, will be described in our memoirs of Captains Edward H. Delafosse, and John William Montagu.
Captain Garth married, April 1820, Charlotte, eldest daughter of Lieutenant-General Frederick Maitland.
Agents.– Messrs. Cooke, Halford, and Son.
- ↑ See Brenton’s Nav. Hist. Vol. IV. pp. 421–424.