Royal Naval Biography/Wyvill, Christopher
CHRISTOPHER WYVILL, Esq.
[Captain of 1832.]
We first find this officer serving as midshipman on board the Thames frigate, commanded by the present Lord Radstock, and employed in one of her boats at the capture and destruction of seven large Neapolitan gun-vessels, five armed scampavias, and thirty-one transports, laden with stores and provisions for Murat’s army at Scylla, July 25th, 1810[1].
On the 5th Oct. following, Mr. Wyvill assisted at the capture of ten transports, near Agricoli, in the Gulph of Salerno; and on the 10th June 1811, at the destruction of ten large armed feluccas, on the beach near Cetraro. He shortly afterwards followed Captain Waldegrave into the Volontaire frigate, and was particularly mentioned by him in an official letter addressed to the commander-in-chief on the Mediterranean station, reporting the capture and destruction of two batteries and fourteen merchant vessels, at Morjean, near Marseilles, Mar. 31st, 1813[2]. His first commission bears date July 5th, 1813.
After serving on board several ships, and for nearly three years as flag-lieutenant to Sir John P. Beresford, Commander-in-chief on the Leith station, Mr. Wyvill was made commander, July 29th, 1824 ; and in 1827, he appears to have been appointed to the Cameleon sloop, employed in the Mediterranean. On his passage thither in the Dartmouth 42, that fine frigate narrowly escaped being burnt, owing to some men having set fire to a cask of spirits which they had clandestinely opened. Her preservation was greatly attributable to the spirited behaviour and personal exertions of Commander Wyvill, who, with one of the gunner’s-mates, plugged the cask and slung it, apparently in the midst of the flame. On the 31st Jan. 1828, he was present in the Cameleon at the destruction of several Greek piratical vessels, lying in the port of Carahousa[3]. He obtained the rank of captain Feb. 22d, 1832.