Royal Naval Biography/Symonds, Thomas Edward
THOMAS EDWARD SYMONDS, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1813.]
Was made commander Jan. 22, 1806; and appointed to the Tweed, a new 18-gun sloop, fitting for the Jamaica station, in the spring of 1807. His conduct while employed in co-operation with the Spanish troops investing the city of St. Domingo is thus described by Captain William Pryce Cumby, in an official letter to Vice-Admiral B. S. Rowley, dated July 7, 1809:–
“This despatch will be delivered to you by Captain Symonds, of the Tweed, to whose zealous attention in conducting the sloops, schooners, and guard-boats, during a close and vigorous blockade of two months, I owe considerable obligation; and although the services of the squadron you did me the honor to place under my orders may not have been of a brilliant nature, I trust I may be permitted on this occasion, to bear testimony to the unremitting perseverance with which the vessels maintained the stations assigned them, through all the variety of weather incident to the season, on a steep and dangerous shore, where no anchorage was to be obtained, as well as to the vigilance and alacrity of those men who were employed in the night guard-boats, by whose united exertions the enemy’s accustomed supply by sea was entirely cut off, and the surrender of the city greatly accelerated[1].”
In Oct. 1810, Captain Symonds, then on the North Sea station, captured the Steinbill, Danish cutter privateer, of 10 guns and 30 men. He continued to command the Tweed until his promotion to post rank, Sept. 29, 1813,
Agents.– Messrs. Stilwell.