Royal Naval Biography/Raggett, Richard
RICHARD RAGGETT, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1798.]
This officer was made a Lieutenant, Dec. 15, 1778; and obtained the rank of Commander about 1793. From this period he commanded the Pluto and Dart sloops of war, on the Newfoundland, and North Sea stations, until posted, April 21, 1799. The latter vessel formed part of Sir Home Popham’s squadron at Ostend, in May 1798[1]. At the close of the war in 1801, we find him serving as Flag-Captain to Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Harvey, in the Royal Sovereign, a first rate.
Early in 1805, Captain Raggett was appointed to the Leopard 50, bearing the flag of the late Admiral Billy Douglas, on the Downs station. In 1807, he commanded the Africaine frigate, and conveyed Lieutenant-General Lord Cathcart from England to Swedish Pomerania, at that period invaded by a French army, and defended by the Swedish Monarch in person[2]. On the arrival of Admiral Gambier in the Sound, with a fleet destined to attack Copenhagen, he proceeded with the same nobleman to join the expedition; and after the surrender of the Danish navy, had the charge of fitting out one of the captured frigates, which was conducted safely to the river Medway, by part of the Africaine’s crew. Towards the close of the same year, he accompanied a small armament under Sir Samuel Hood, sent to obtain possession of Madeira; the garrison of which island surrendered without resistance on the 26th Dec. He has since commanded the Defiance, Conqueror, Spencer, and Albion, third rates. The latter ship was put out of commission, May 31, 1822.
Agent.– J. Hinxman, Esq.
- ↑ See Vol. I. note at p. 713, et seq.
- ↑ Gustavus, King of Sweden, after a most heroic defence, was obliged to evacuate Stralsund and retire to the island of Rugenj from whence he proceeded to Carlscrona in a Swedish ship of war, accompanied by the British sloop Rosamond, commanded by the present Captain J. W. Deans Dundas, who had been for some time stationed in Pert Bay, for the purpose of receiving his Majesty, in the event of his being obliged to abandon the capital of Pomerania.