Royal Naval Biography/Mainwaring, Thomas Francis Charles
THOMAS FRANCIS CHARLES MAINWARING, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1810.]
This officer was made a Lieutenant by Sir Roger Curtis, at the Cape of Good Hope, in 1800; from which period we find him successively serving under Captains William Hotham, Lord Mark Kerr, and Thomas Dundas; in the Adamant 50, Fisgard 38, and Naiad of similar force; on the Cape, Channel, and Mediterranean stations. In the latter frigate he witnessed the defeat of the combined fleets off Cape Trafalgar; and afterwards assisted in rescuing one of our dismasted ships from destruction[1]. His commission as a Commander bears date Jan. 31, 1806.
Captain Mainwaring’s first appointment was, to the Tartarus sloop, fitted as a fire-ship; and in Aug. 1807, he appears to have been charged with the landing of the troops under Sir Arthur Wellesley (now Duke of Wellington) in Wibeck bay, preparatory to the investment of the Danish capital.
Early in 1808, Captain Mainwaring was appointed pro tempore, to the Vanguard 74, which ship was the first of her class that ever wintered in the Baltic. He retained the command of her until June following, and then rejoined the Tartarus.
In 1810, we find that sloop sinking two French privateers, off Pillau; after which Captain Mainwaring conveyed Gustavus, the ex-King of Sweden, from Riga to England, under circumstances particularly difficult and singular; for which service he was promoted to post-rank, Nov. 27, in the same year. During the last two years of the war, he commanded the Royal George a first rate, on the Mediterranean station.