Royal Naval Biography/Rowed, Henry
HENRY ROWED, Esq.
[Commander.]
Son of the late Henry Rowed, of Caterham Court, co. Surrey, Esq.
This officer obtained his first commission on the 30th May, 1794; and was wounded while serving with the Anglo-Russian armies, at the Helder, in Sept. 1799. We next find him commanding the hired armed cutter Union, employed on the coast of France, where, in May 1800, he displayed great gallantry at the attack and capture of two merchant brigs, under a heavy fire from the shore. On the 9th Sept. 1803, being then in command of the hired cutter Sheerness, he performed another exploit, for the account of which we are indebted to Mr. James:
“Lieutenant Henry Rowed, having the look-out on the French fleet in Brest harbour, observed, close in shore, two chasse-marées stealing towards the port. Sending a boat, with the mate and seven men, to cut off one, the Sheerness herself proceeded in chase of the other, then nearly five miles distant, and close under a battery about nine miles to the eastward of Bec du Raz. At 10 a.m. it fell calm, and the only mode of pursuing the enemy was by a small boat suspended at the stern of the Sheerness, and which with difficulty would contain five persons. Lieutenant Rowed acquainted the crew with his determination to proceed in this boat, and called for four volunteers to accompany him. Immediately John Marks the boatswain, and three others, came forward; and the boat put off in chase of the chasse-marée, then about four miles distant, and, by the aid of her sweeps, nearing the shore very fast.
“After the boats had pulled for two hours, the chasse-marée was seen to run on shore under the above-mentioned battery. Notwithstanding this, and that there were thirty French soldiers drawn up on the beach to protect the vessel. Lieutenant Rowed continued the pursuit; and, as he laid her on board on one side, her crew deserted her from the other. It was then that the soldiers opened a heavy fire of musketry upon the British, who immediately commenced cutting the cable, and used other means to get the vessel afloat. In order that the soldiers might not see how to point their pieces, the fore-sail was hoisted; but the haliards, almost at the same moment, were shot away. Fortunately for the enterprising crew now on board the chasse-marée, the tide was flowing and aided their exertions: she got off, and the boat commenced towing her from the shore. Fortunately, also, not a man of the five was hurt, although forty-nine musket-balls, intended for them, had lodged in the side and masts of the vessel.
“Scarcely had the prize been towed a third of a mile, when a French boat, containing an officer and nine men, armed with muskets, and who had pulled up in the wake of the chasse-marée unobserved, suddenly made her appearance alongside. In an instant, and without waiting for any orders, John Marks, dropping his oar, and neglecting to take any kind of weapon in his hand, leaped from the boat on board the vessel; and, running to the side close off which the enemy lay, stood, in a menacing attitude, unarmed as he was, for at least half a minute, until his four companions, with a supply of muskets and ammunition, and who could only quit their ticklish boat one at a time, got to his assistance. If not astonishment at the sight, it must have been a generous impulse, that prevented the Frenchmen from shooting or cutting down the brave boatswain; for they were, it seems, near enough to have done even the latter. Seeing that Lieutenant Rowed and his four men were determined to defend their prize, they, after a feeble attempt to get possession, sheered off, keeping up for a short time, as they receded from the vessel, an ineffectual fire of musketry. The battery also opened a fire upon her as she was towing off; but it proved equally harmless with that from the soldiers, both on the beach and in the boat.”
In consequence of this truly gallant exploit, the Committee of the then recently established Patriotic Fund at Lloyds, resolved that a sword of £50 value, with a suitable inscription, or that sum in money, at his option, should be presented to Lieutenant Rowed, “as a token of the sense entertained of his distinguished merit;” and that a silver call and chain, likewise suitably inscribed, should be given to John Marks, “for his exemplary bravery[1].”
Mr. Rowed’s last appointment was, Nov. 6th, 1811, to the Swan cutter; in which vessel he continued until promoted to the rank of commander, June 15th, 1814. He died on the 6th Jan. 1831.
- ↑ The Patriotic Fund was established on the 20th July, 1803, between which period and Mar. 1st, 1820, the amount of subscriptions was £595,000; the greatest part of which appears to have been paid away in annuities and donations, swords, vases, and other honorary marks of distinction.