Royal Naval Biography/Symons, James
JAMES SYMONS, Esq.
[Commander.]
Son of the late Lieutenant James Symons, of the royal naval hospital at Plymouth.
This officer was made a lieutenant in Feb. 1808; appointed to the Vestal troop-ship, about Aug. 1810; and sentenced to be dismissed from H.M. service, Oct. 27th, 1811, for disobedience of orders and neglect of duty, in having suffered Mr. William Nicholls, master of an American merchant brig, to go on shore and be at large, contrary to the express directions of his captain; when the said Mr. Nicholls was under detention on a charge of having, after the brig which he commanded had been detained and ordered to Plymouth, overpowered the prize crew, and turned them adrift in a boat ninety miles distant from the land.
In 1813, we find Mr. Symons restored to his former rank, and serving under Captain (now Sir David) Milne, in the Venerable and Bulwark 74’s. His last appointment was to the Leander 50, fitting out for the flag of the same officer, as commander-in-chief on the Halifax station; of which ship he was second lieutenant at the memorable battle of Algiers. He obtained a commander’s commission on the 17th Sept. 1816; married, Sept. 1st, 1818, Miss Jacobson, of Plymouth; and died, we believe, in 1829.