Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/1044

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
1030
SAUMAREZ—SAUNDERS—SAUNDERSON.

of Borodino. After serving for a few weeks as Acting-Flag-Lieutenant to Sir Jas. Saumarez in the Victory 100 and Pyramus 36, he was presented with a commission bearing date 5 Dec. 1812; and he was next, 2 Feb. 1813, appointed to the Bacchante 33, Capts. Wm. Hoste and Fras. Stanfell. While under the former of those officers in the Adriatic he conducted a considerable body of Croatian troops from the Bocco di Cattaro to Fiumé, where he arrived at a period when a force of the kind was most urgently required both for the protection of the town and for the purpose of co-operating with the army under General Nugent at the siege of Trieste. On the surrender of the latter place he was sent by Rear-Admiral Thos. Francis Fremantle to Prince Maximilian with the terms of the capitulation. On his passage afterwards with despatches to Capt. Hoste, the transport vessel in which he was embarked not being able, from contrary winds and strong currents, to proceed to the place of rendezvous, he quitted her in an open boat, and by pulling along the coast, from Lissa to the anchorage off Melida, arrived in Nov. 1813, not, however, without having incurred much risk, and been forced by violent gales to take refuge for three days upon a barren and uninhabited island between Lissa and Curzola. Through these means the despatches were delivered, which led to the immediate attack, and ultimate surrender, of the fortress of Cattaro; where Lieut. Saumarez was the chief officer of the Bacchante engaged on shore in the direction of the batteries, and, under the instructions of Capt. Hoste, carried on the capitulation with General Gauthier. In Jan. 1814 he contributed to the reduction of Ragusa; and on proceeding, in the course of the same year, to the coast of North America, was there very actively employed, particularly at the capture of Castine, Belfast, and other places, in Penobscot Bay. In Dec. 1818, Lieut. Saumarez, who had been paid off from the Bacchante about July, 1815, received an appointment to the Sybille 44, bearing the flag of Sir Home Popham in the West Indies. He was there, 19 May, 1819, made Commander into the Beaver sloop -, and on 17 April, 1824, he was advanced to Post-rank. He accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.

In Aug. 1815 Capt. Saumarez was presented with the Honorary Medallion of the Royal Humane Society, for “his meritorious and highly laudable conduct,” in having, in May, 1814, under circumstances of the greatest peril, risked his own life to save that of Robert Taylor, a seaman, who had fallen overboard between Malta and Sicily; and in 1818 the Cross of the Order of Leopold of Austria was conferred upon him “for the signal services he had rendered during the campaign of 1813.” On his return in the Beaver from the West Indies he submitted to the Admiralty some observations on the yellow fever, by which he had been three times attacked in the course of one year, and had the gratification of receiving their Lordships’ approbation for the attention he had given to the subject. The thanks of the Committee of West India merchants were conveyed to him in April, 1821, “for the interesting information conveyed in his letter of the 16th” of that month, as to the most eligible track to be pursued by their homeward-bound shipping. Capt. Saumarez married 12 Feb. 1825, and has issue three sons and one daughter. His second son, Thomas, is a Lieutenant R.N.



SAUMAREZ. (Lieutenant, 1848.)

Thomas Saumarez is son of Capt. Rich. Saumarez, R.N.

This officer obtained his commission 10 March, 1848.



SAUNDERS. (Lieut., 1822. f-p., 22; h-p., 15.)

William Clewes Saunders entered the Navy 3 Aug. 1810, as Third-cl. Boy, on board the Pheasant 18, Capt. John Palmer, under whom he was for upwards of four years employed, part of the time as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, in the Channel and at Newfoundland. Between Oct. 1814 and Oct. 1818 he served on the Home and again on the Newfoundland stations in the Wanderer 20, Capts. J. Palmer and Wm. Dowers, San Josef 110, flag-ship of Sir Rich. Strachan, and Tiber 38, Capt. Jas. Rich. Dacres. He then proceeded, as Admiralty- Midshipman of the Sapphire 26, Capt. Henry Hart, to the West Indies; where he acted, from 9 June until 16 Dec. 1820, as Lieutenant in the Ontario 18, Capts. Whitworth Lloyd, Wilson Braddyll Bigland, and Jodrell Leigh, and was again for 14 months employed as Admiralty-Midshipman in the Euryalus 42, Capts. Thos. Huskisson, Isham Fleming-Chapman, and W. B. Bigland, and Tamar 26, Capt. Sir Wm. Saltonstall Wiseman. He was confirmed a Lieutenant, 6 May, 1822, in the Sybille 44, bearing the flag of Sir Chas. Rowley at Jamaica; and was next, 11 April, 1823, appointed to the Phaeton 46, Capt. Henry Evelyn Pitfield Sturt, under whom, prior to being paid off in 1826, we find him conveying the Right Hon. C. R. Vaughan, British Ambassador, to North America, and bringing three millions of dollars home from the West Indies. He has filled the appointment, since 29 Oct. 1840, of an Agent for Transports afloat.



SAUNDERSON. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 8; h-p., 33.)

James Saunderson, born about 1795, is youngest son of the late Fras. Saunderson, Esq., for 30 years M.P. for co. Cavan, by Anne White, heiress of the Bassetts, of Miskin, Glamorganshire. He is brother of Alex. Saunderson, Esq., of Castle Saunderson, Colonel of the Cavan Militia, and lately M.P. for that co.; of Colonel Hardress Waller Saunderson, who served throughout the Peninsular war as Captain of the 39th Regt., and was wounded at Albuera; and of Capt. Wm. Bassett Saunderson, h.-p. unattached, who likewise fought in the Peninsula, and was there Captain of the 44th. The first-mentioned of these gentlemen is married to a sister of the present Lord Farnham; and the second to a daughter of the Earl of Carhampton. Another brother, Francis, Rector of Kildaller, married Lady Catherine Crichton, sister of the Earl of Erne. The Lieutenant is a cousin of Mr. John Sanderson, Lieutenant R.N.

This officer entered the Navy, in Starch, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Tonnant 80, Capt. Thos. Brown, bearing the flag in the Channel of Rear-Admiral Elias Harvey, with whom, after having pursued to the West Indies a squadron which had effected its escape from Brest, he removed as Midshipman, in July of the same year, to the St. George 98. In that ship, attached to the force in the Baltic, he remained for a period of three months. In July, 1807, he was placed under the orders of Rear-Admiral Hon. Michael De Courcy in his old ship the Tonnant; and, in Oct. 1808, three months after he had been discharged, he went back to the St. George, then bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Fras. Pickmore; in which ship, deducting a few months passed on board the Phobbe 36, Capt. Jas. Hillyar, he continued employed until transferred, in May, 1810, to) the Menelaus 38, Capt. Sir Peter Parker. While in the latter frigate he assisted at the reduction of the Isle of France, and, on repairing to the Mediterranean, bore a prominent part, in the course of 1812, in many gallant boat affairs conducted by the present Capt. Rowland Mainwaring. He assisted, in particular, at the cutting out, without loss, of the St. Joseph, a beautiful French brig, pierced for 16 guns, lying within pistol-shot of one battery, flanked by another, and also by musketry from the shore, near the Bay of Frejus; at the boarding and carrying of the French xebec La Paix, mounting 2 long 6-pounders, with a complement of 30 men, protected by a galling fire from the towers of Terracina; at the capture, under a heavy fire from the batteries in the river Mignone, near Civita Vecchia, of the French letter-of-marque St. Esprit, pierced for 12 guns, but with only 2 6-pounders mounted; and at the destruction of the customhouse and magazines at Méjan, in the Bay of Marseilles. For the conspicuous gallantry he ex-