Royal Naval Biography/Sulivan, Thomas Ball
THOMAS BALL SULIVAN, Esq.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1814.]
This officer obtained the rank of lieutenant Dec. 31, 1799; and was first of the Anson 44, Captain Charles Lydiard, at the capture of the Spanish frigate Pomona, near the Havannah, Aug. 23, 1806[1].
On the 15th Sept. following, the Anson had 15 men killed and wounded, in a brush with the Foudroyant French 80, bearing the flag of Mons. Villaumez, of which the following brief account is given by Captain Lydiard:–
“Yesterday, at day-light, the Havannah bearing W.S.W., distant five leagues, discovered a large ship about 6 miles a-head; all sail was immediately made in chase, but the wind being very light and variable, it was 1 p.m. before we closed with her, and then she was not free from the Moro castle. After half an hour’s action (nearly calm), finding she had not been weakened by a former one, as I hoped had been the case, and the ship drifting fast in shore, I was obliged to haul off. I should be wanting injustice to the officers and ship’s company of the Anson, if I did not express to you my strongest approbation of their conduct. I am sorry to add, that we have had 2 valuable seamen killed, 4 dangerously wounded, and 9 slightly; the sails and rigging are much cut.”
The Anson formed part of the squadron under Captain (now Sir Charles) Brisbane, at the capture of Curaçoa, Jan. 1, 1807[2]; in consequence of which memorable event, Lieutenant Sulivan was made commander immediately after her arrival in England with the glorious tidings. His commission as such bears date Feb. 23, 1807.
We next find this officer serving as a volunteer on board the Anson, and he continued in her until she was wrecked near the Lizard, Dec. 29, 1807[3]. He appears to have been subsequently employed as an agent for transports.
Early in 1813, Captain Sulivan was appointed to the Woolwich 44, armée en flûte, and ordered to convey Sir James Lucas Yeo, 4 commanders, 8 lieutenants, 24 midshipmen, upwards of 400 seamen, and the frames of several gun-vessels from England to Quebec, for the lake service in Canada. On the 6th Nov. in the same year, he had the misfortune to lose that ship, off Barbadoes.
Captain Sulivan’s next appointment was. Mar. 26, 1814, to the Weser troop-ship, in which he was very actively employed on the North American station, until the conclusion of the war. The official report of the destruction of Commodore Barney’s flotilla, in the Patuxent river, Aug. 22, 1814[4]. informs us, that he was the senior officer of his rank present on that occasion, and that his “cheerful and indefatigable exertions,” in the command of a division of boats and tenders, “most justly” entitled him to the “warmest acknowledgments of Rear-Admiral Cockburn, by whom he was earnestly recommended to Sir Alexander Cochrane’s “favorable notice.” The following is an extract of the Rear-Admiral’s public letter, announcing the failure of the expedition against Baltimore:–
“An advance of this description, against superior numbers of an enemy so posted, could not be effected without loss. I have the honor to enclose a return of what has been suffered by those of the naval department acting with the army on this occasion[5]; and it is, Sir, with the greatest pride and pleasure I report to you, that the brigade of seamen with small arms, commanded by Captain Edward Crofton, assisted by Captains Sulivan, Money, and Ramsay (the three senior commanders in the fleet), who commanded divisions under him, behaved with a gallantry and steadiness which would have done honor to the ablest troops, and which attracted the admiration of the army.”
Captain Sulivan was promoted to post rank Oct. 19, 1814; and nominated a C.B. in 1815. He married, April 19, 1808, Henrietta, youngest daughter of Captain Bartholomew James, R.N.
Agent.– John Chippendale, Esq.
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part II. p. 738 et seq.
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part II. p. 740.
- ↑ See Nav. Chron. vol. xix. pp. 55 and 452.
- ↑ See Vol. I, Part II, p. 525.
- ↑ Total 31 killed; Lieutenant Sampson Marshall, of the Diadem, Captain John Robyns, R.M. Mr. C. Ogle, midshipman of the Tonnant, and 46 men wounded; 1 man missing.