Royal Naval Biography/West, Henry
HENRY WEST, Esq.
[Commander.]
Second son of the late Rev. Edward Matthew West, rector of Clifton-Mabank, and vicar of Bradford-Abbas and Haydon, co. Dorset, by Anne, daughter of the late Rev. Edward Cotes, vicar of Sherborne and Caundle-Bishop’s, both in Dorsetshire, and many years chaplain to his great-uncle, William, Lord Digby.
This officer entered the royal navy in May 1801, as midshipman on board the Resistance 38, Captain (now Sir Henry) Digby, destined to North America; and continued in that ship, under Captain (now Vice-Admiral) the Hon. Philip Wodehouse, until she was wrecked near Cape St. Vincent, on her way to the Mediterranean, May 31st, 1803[1]. He subsequently served, for about four years, in the Victory, first rate, flag-ship of the immortal Nelson; Termagant sloop, Amphion 32, Africa 64, and Lavinia 38.
The Amphion, Captain Samuel Sutton, formed part of the squadron under Captain (now Sir Graham) Moore, at the capture of three Spanish frigates, laden with treasure, and the destruction of their consort, la Mercedes, off Cape St. Mary, Oct. 5th, 1804[2]. In the following year she accompanied Lord Nelson to the West Indies, in pursuit of the combined fleets of France and Spain[3]. The Africa, Captain Henry Digby, bore a part at the ever-memorable battle of Trafalgar, on which occasion Mr. West, then master’s-mate, had charge of the signal department, and was severely wounded.
In 1807, while in charge of a prize taken by the Lavinia, Captain Lord William Stuart, the subject of this sketch had the misfortune to be captured by a Spanish corvette, off Ushant; and he appears to have remained a prisoner, at Bilboa and St. Sebastian, until the French took possession of the latter city, on the abdication of Charles IV., when he made his escape to St. Andero, and was sent home by the British Consul-General with despatches from the Junta of Oviedo to Mr. Canning, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, by whom we find him afterwards employed on a mission to Coruna. His first commission, appointing him lieutenant of the Merope sloop, bears date Aug. 16th, 1808.
In the course of the same year, Mr. West rejoined the Lavinia, of which frigate he was third lieutenant at the reduction of Walcheren, in Aug. 1809. He subsequently served in the same ship, under Captain George Digby, on the Mediterranean station. His next appointment was, April 24th, 1813, to be first of the Jaseur sloop, Captain George Edward Watts, then recently launched, and destined to North America.
The Jaseur’s first cruise was off the Delaware, where she captured several of the enemy’s vessels. Judging it expedient to land his prisoners, Captain Watts sent an officer with a flag of truce, for this purpose. The prescribed period for his return having long elapsed, it was apprehended some accident had befallen him, to ascertain which, Lieutenant West was despatched (Nov. 26th, 1813) with a second flag to Lewes, a town within the entrance of the above river. The treatment he met with on landing, was of so ungenerous and unmanly a nature as to reflect disgrace upon the American name. He was surrounded, bullied, and insulted; while all his boat’s crew, excepting one man, were enticed from their allegiance, and induced to desert. With the assistance of that man only, he pushed off when nearly dark, and notwithstanding a tempestuous night and heavy sea, succeeded in reaching his ship, at a distance of six or seven leagues, bringing with him an illiterate and impudent letter from the Yankee commandant, commenting upon the informality of the flag of truce, and interdicting any further intercourse of a similar nature. A debilitating fever was the consequence of this great exertion of body and mind, from the effects of which it was many years before Lieutenant West recovered.
We next find the Jaseur employed in the Chesapeake, v.here her first lieutenant, in a boat containing only six men besides himself, captured and brought out from under a battery, the American privateer Grecian, mounting four carriage guns and five swivels, with a complement of twenty-seven men. For this service, by which a fine schooner, pierced for twenty guns, was added to the British navy, Mr. West received a letter of thanks from Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander I. Cochrane. He afterwards assisted at the capture of the towns of Benedict and Marlborough, on the banks of the Patuxent[4]; and during his stay in the waters of the Chesapeake, above thirty vessels of different descriptions were taken and destroyed by boats under his command.
In Oct. 1814, Lieutenant West, then acting commander of the Jaseur, was charged with despatches and ordered by Rear-Admiral Griffith to convoy some transports from fax and Shelburne to Castine. He returned home, under the command of the late Captain Nagle Lock, in 1816. Letters of which the following are copies were subsequently addressed to him:–
“15, Surrey Street, Strand, 8th Aug. 1816.
“My dear Sir,– In reply to your letter, requesting my opinion of your professional conduct and character, during the period you served as first lieutenant of the Jaseur, under my command; I beg to assure you, that the only fear I entertain is, that my pen will rarely do justice to its office; when I say that, if zeal and ability as an officer constituted a fair claim to consideration, you ought not to have been overlooked in the list of candidates for promotion, it would be saying what might with truth be said of hundreds in the same profession; but when I add, that to your zeal and ability you unite the qualities of bravery, and in private life those requisites which decidedly mark the gentleman, I sum up a grand total not commonly to be met with in one individual.
“The courage and conduct you evinced when you so gallantly boarded and captured the Grecian, in a boat containing only six men besides yourself, is at once a fact which speaks for itself, and supersedes almost the necessity of eulogium.
“It has rarely fallen to my lot to perform so gratifying a task as thus to bear testimony to the merits of one who ever occupied a high place in my good opinion; and admitting the past to be a guarantee for the future, I run no hazard in asserting that in whatever situation of professional service you may be placed, you will do credit to your employers. I remain, my dear Sir, with real esteem, most faithfully yours.
(Signed)“G. E. Watts.”
“Carlsruhe, 26th Jan. 1831.
“Sir,– In reply to your letter of the 31st Dec, I regret to say that, from the want of official documents, I am unable to comply with your request. I perfectly recollect that the event you mention took place, but from the distance of time I am unable to speak to particulars. The letter you received from Captain Watts, dated 8th Aug. 1816, is so much in your favor, that I should consider it as fully sufficient to lay before the Admiralty; and as Sir Thomas Hardy is now a member of that Board, he may possibly recollect your very gallant conduct in capturing the privateer with so inadequate a force. I sincerely wish you every possible success, and have only to regret that your applications to the late Admiralty were not attended with that success which your conduct merited. I remain. Sir, &c.
(Signed)“Alex. Inglis Cochrane.”
In Feb. 1831, Lieutenant West was appointed first of the Windsor Castle 70, Captain the Hon. D. P. Bouverie, then at Cork, destined to the Tagus. In June following, he was paid off from that ship; and on the 25th of the same month promoted to the rank of commander.
This officer married, first, in 1822, his cousin, the only surviving daughter of the Rev. Henry Cotes, vicar of Bedlington, co. Durham; and secondly, April 29th, 1828, Frances Anne Hussey, youngest daughter of the late Samuel Huthwaite, Esq., of Hartley Lodge, co. Northumberland.