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A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Gosset, Henry

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1726146A Naval Biographical Dictionary — Gosset, HenryWilliam Richard O'Byrne

GOSSET. (Captain, 1829. f-p., 17; h-p., 21.)

Henry Gosset is son of Matthew Gosset, Esq., by Grace, youngest daughter of Admiral Sir Thos. Frankland, Bart.; and first-cousin both of Rear-Admiral Wm. Bowles, C.B., M.P., and of Capt. Edw. Augustus Frankland, R.N.

This officer entered the Navy, 15 June, 1809, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Euryalus 36, Capt. Hon. Geo. Heneage Lawrence Dundas. After attending the ensuing expedition to Flushing he proceeded to the Mediterranean, where he frequently came into contact with divisions of the Toulon fleet, and where, on his removal with Capt. Dundas to the Edinburgh 74, he witnessed, as Midshipman, in 1813-14, the capture of Port D’Anzo and Via Reggio, the unsuccessful attack on Leghorn, the occupation of Santa Maria and of the enemy’s other forts in the Gulf of Spezia, and the taking of Genoa. Being subsequently appointed to the Havannah 36, Capt. Gawen Wm. Hamilton, he took part in many of the anti-American operations in the Chesapeake – was present during the hostilities against Baltimore – and on one occasion, while in the Havannah’s barge, assisted in boarding and carrying the armed schooner Franklin, in charge at the time of a Lieutenant and 34 seamen belonging to the U.S. frigate Constitution. He afterwards, on returning to Europe, contributed to the cutting out, 18 July, 1815, of a convoy and several armed vessels lying under the protection of a fort at Corrijou, near Brest. Towards the close of the same year Mr. Gosset escorted Napoleon Buonaparte to St. Helena, where he served for some time under Sir Geo. Cockburn in the Northumberland 74. On 18 March, 1816, he joined the Naval Establishment on the island of Ascension, in the capacity of Acting-Lieutenant. His first commission was dated on 30 of the following Dec, but he did not quit Ascension until July, 1817; subsequently to which period he became attached, on the Cork and Jamaica stations – 22 July, 1821, to the Harlequin 18, Capts. Chas. Christ. Parker and John Weeks – and, 22 March, 1823, to the Hussar 46, Capt. Geo. Harris. He was advanced to the command, 10 July, 1826, of the Ferret sloop, also employed in the West Indies, and was next appointed on that station to the Espiègle and Valorous. He was confirmed to Post-rank, 1 Jan. 1829, in the Mersey 26, but invalided home immediately afterwards, and has not since been afloat.

Capt. Gosset is Senior of 1829.