A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Le Feuvre, John
LE FEUVRE. (Retired Commander, 1839. f-p., 14; h-p., 34.)
John Le Feuvre was born 16 April, 1786.
This officer (whose name had been borne, from 24 April, 1794, to 3 Dec. 1795, on the books of the Royal William, flag-ship at Portsmouth of Sir Peter Parker) embarked, 12 July, 1799, as a Volunteer, on board La Juste 80, Capt. Sir Henry Trollope; and in July of the following year, being then in the Andromeda 32, Capt. Henry Inman, witnessed the capture of the French frigate La Désiree; to which, on her being soon afterwards added to the British Navy, he was transferred, as Midshipman, with Capt. Inman, under whom he took a warm part, 2 April following, in the action off Copenhagen. Continuing to serve in La Désiree, with Capts. Rich. Dacres, Chas. Bayne Hodgson Ross, and Henry Whitby, until 1804, Mr. Le Feuvre (besides assisting in the ship’s barge at the capture, on 21 Feb. in the latter year, of a French armed row-boat) was present, in 1803, at the blockade of Cape Francois, the reduction of Port Dauphin, where two forts and a 28-gun ship, La Sagesse, were taken from the enemy, and the capture of the French squadron with the remains of General Rochambeau’s army on board from Cape François. Previously to the surrender of La Sagesse he appears to have accompanied the First-Lieutenant on board that vessel in the capacity of interpreter. In July, 1804, we find him transferred to the Theseus 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Jas. Rich. Dacres; and, in the following Sept., present in a violent hurricane in which the latter ship lost her three lower masts and tiller, sprang her bowsprit, had all her boats stove or washed away, parted with 13 of her guns, and sprang so bad a leak that the officers even were obliged to work at the pumps. On 7 Oct. 1805, being then with Admiral Dacres in the Hercule 74, Mr. Le Feuvre was appointed Sub-Lieutenant of the Pitt schooner, Lieut.-Commander Michael Fitton; from which vessel, however, he removed as Acting-Lieutenant, on 30 of the same month, to the Veteran 64, Capt. Andw. Fitzherbert Evans. Being confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant by commission dated 31 March, 1806, he was subsequently appointed, in that capacity – 13 June, 1806, to the Fisgard 36, Capt. Sir Wm. Bolton, still in the West Indies, where, immediately prior to the brilliant capture of Curaçoa, he was sent for (having been at the island before) by Capt. Brisbane, and interrogated as to the strength of Fort Amsterdam – 10 Dec. 1807 (after rather more than seven months’ half-pay), to the Ranger 18, Capt. Geo. Acklom, under whom he assisted at the reduction of the Island of Anholdt in May, 1809 – 30 Nov. 1809 and 14 May, 1810, to the Clio 10, Capt. Thos. Folliott Baugh, and Adamant 50, flagship of Rear-Admirals Sir Edm. Nagle and Wm. Albany Otway, both on the Leith station – and, lastly, 6 July, 1813, to the Severn 40, Capt. Joseph Nourse, which frigate he left, after having made a voyage from Deptford to Portsmouth, in the following Nov. He accepted his present rank, 15 July, 1839.