A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Adams, Charles James
ADAMS. (Lieut., 1815 f-p., 7; h-p., 33.)
Charles James Adams is cousin of Capt. John Adams, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy 8 May, 1807, as Fst.-cl. Vol. on board the Porcupine 24, Capt. Hon. Henry Duncan, with whom he continued to serve in the Mercury 28, and Imperieuse 38, on the Mediterranean station, until the conclusion of hostilities in 1814. During his attachment to the Porcupine, Mr. Adams was instrumental to the cutting out, on the night of 10 July, 1808, of a large polacre ship of 8 guns and upwards of 20 men, moored close to the beach on the coast of Romania, within pistol-shot distance of two batteries and a tower, and of three heavy gun-boats, to whose conjoined fire, as well as that of a body of troops, he was for a considerable time exposed.[1] He subsequently, when in the Mercury, in the spring of 1809, assisted at the capture of Capo d’Istria, a town near Trieste, and in an attack made in company with the Spartan 38, on Pesaro and Ceseratico, where the fortifications were destroyed, and 25 sail of merchantmen taken. While in the Imperieuse, Mr. Adams further participated in the gallant capture and destruction, 2 Nov. 1811, in conjunction with the Thames 32, of 10 gun-boats and 22 richly-laden feluccas, defended by a strong tower and two batteries in the harbour of Palinuro, on the coast of Calabria, at which place the British were opposed by a land force of 700 men. He next contributed, 27 June, 1812, to the destruction of a French convoy, and of the batteries at Languelia and Alassio – was also present, on 17 Aug. in the same year, in a spirited skirmish with a powerful Neapolitan squadron in the Bay of Naples – and, in 1813-14, witnessed the capture of Port D’Anzo, and the operations against Leghorn and Genoa. He then returned home on board the Apollo 38, Capt. Edwards Lloyd Graham, and since his promotion, 6 March, 1815, has been unemployed. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.
- ↑ Vide Gaz, 1808, p. 1439.