Royal Naval Biography/Tremlett, William Henry Brown
WILLIAM HENRY BROWN TREMLETT, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1802.]
This officer is a son of the late Mr. George Tremlett, a Master in the R.N., by Mary, only child of Mr. Tuck, Solicitor, of Langley Hall, near Chippenham, in Wiltshire[1]. He was born at Dartmouth, where his uncle held the situation of Collector of the Customs, Nov. 15, 1777; and embarked as a Midshipman on board the Salisbury 50, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Elliot, in 1788. During the Spanish and Russian armaments he served in the same ship, under Vice-Admiral Milbanke, on the Newfoundland station[2]; and at the commencement of the French revolutionary war we find him joining the Royal Sovereign, a first rate, in which ship he assisted at the defeat of the French fleet on the memorable 1st June, 1794[3].
The Royal Sovereign formed part of the squadron under Vice-Admiral Cornwallis, when that veteran officer effected his highly celebrated retreat[4]; soon after which Mr. Tremlett was made a Lieutenant, and appointed to the Lion, a 64-gun ship, attached to the expedition then about to sail for the West Indies, under Rear-Admiral Christian.
In 1796, the Lion was employed on the North Sea station, where Lieutenant Tremlett brought himself into notice by his intrepid conduct in rescuing the crew of the Reunion frigate from the very perilous situation in which they were placed by her striking on a sand bank[5], where she was afterwards totally wrecked. For his “humane and manly exertions” on this occasion, the thanks of the court-martial assembled to investigate the circumstances attending her loss, were conveyed to Lieutenant Tremlett, through their President, the late Admiral Savage, who publicly declared that he deserved to have a civic crown placed on his head, and expressed a hope that the Board of Admiralty would do him justice, by immediately advancing him to superior rank.
The Lion subsequently proceeded to the Mediterranean, where Lieutenant Tremlett assisted at the capture of the Santa Dorothea, a Spanish frigate, of 42 guns and 370 men, on the 15th July, 1798[6]. A few days previous to that event he appears to have been engaged in a desperate affair with an armed Greek, off Malaga, and exposed to the most imminent peril through the misconduct of two boats under his orders, they having deserted him at the moment when he was pushing alongside, and their flight not being observed by him until too late to attempt a retreat. In consequence of this shameful dereliction of duty on the part of those from whom he expected support, he had the mortification of seeing destruction dealt with an unsparing hand among his brave companions, 20 of whom were either killed or wounded, whilst himself and 3 men only escaped unhurt. This sanguinary business occupied no more than seven minutes, during which no less than that number of shot passed through his hat and coat, whilst another knocked off the handle of his dirk; yet, strange to say, his person was never touched!!
Mr. Tremlett’s next appointment was, as first Lieutenant, to the Santa Dorothea; in which ship he assisted at the capture of the San Leon, a Spanish national brig of 16 guns, and several smaller vessels[7]. He also bore a part in an action with seventeen gun boats, by which she was attacked when entering Gibraltar bay with a fleet of merchantmen under her protection. For those and other services he was advanced to the rank of Commander on the 1st Jan. 1801; and posted April 29, in the following year.
His next appointment was to the Sea Fencible service at Cromer, where he met with a serious accident whilst exercising that corps at their great guns in June 1804, a grape-shot, weighing eight ounces, having entered his right foot, where it remained two years and a half before it could be extracted.
Captain Tremlett was appointed to the Alcmene, a 32 gun frigate, about April 1808; and in June following he entered into communication with the Spanish authorities at Corunna, assisted in their councils for three days, and then embarked the deputies sent from Galicia to solicit the assistance of Great Britain in the war about to commence between France and Spain. On his return to Corunna with those gentlemen, Sir Charles Stuart, and a quantity of specie, he received the rank of General in the patriotic army, which was the first instance of such a mark of distinction being conferred upon an Englishman.
On the 22d Dec. in the same year, Captain Tremlett gave chase to two French frigates of the largest class, which he compelled to take shelter under the citadel of St. Martin’s, on Isle Rhé, after a run of 130 miles. The following day he resolved to attack one of them at her anchorage, arid endeavour to carry her by boarding; but was prevented from executing his bold design by the Alcmene running aground through the ignorance of her pilot. He however blockaded them so closely as to prevent their escape, which was of itself a service of no little importance, they being full of troops, bound to the relief of Guadaloupe.
Captain Tremlett’s exertions were unfortunately terminated by the loss of his ship on a rock near the Loire in 1809, previous to which he had captured and destroyed upwards of fifty sail of the enemy’s vessels on various parts of the coast between Isle Dieu and Cape Finisterre. He subsequently made repeated visits to his Spanish friends, whose efforts in the cause of liberty form the subject of a long letter addressed by him to the conductors of the Naval Chronicle in May 1812[8].
The subject of this memoir’s eldest brother, George Neate Tremlett, served as a Midshipman in the battle of June 1, 1794; assisted at the capture of three French men of war off l’Orient in June 23, 1795; and was present at the defeat of M. Bompard by Sir John B. Warren, Oct. 12, 1798. His name still appears on the list of Lieutenants, to which rank he was promoted Aug. 1, 1794. Another brother, Richard Stiles Tremlett, Lieut. R.N., who had previously shared the sufferings of the gallant Riou in H.M.S. Guardian, was killed in a duel with the late Lord Camelford, at Martinique.
Agent.– J. Hinxman, Esq.
- ↑ Captain Tremlett’s father was brought up in the royal navy, and served as a Midshipman during the reign of George II. He was on board the Zephyr of 14 guns, when that sloop beat off a French 36-gun frigate, after a battle of four hours. His cousin, the Rev. John Gandy, is the present venerable and truly respectable Rector of St. Andrews, Plymouth. Captain T.’s grandfather was a merchant at Exeter.
- ↑ The Salisbury was successively commanded by Captains Erasmus Gower, William Domett, and Edward Pellew.
- ↑ See Vol. I, p. 336.
- ↑ See id. note * at p. 354.
- ↑ See Vol. I. p. 543.
- ↑ See id. p. 376.
- ↑ See Vol. II, Part I, p. 191.
- ↑ See Nav. Chron. Vol. 28, p 208, et seq.