A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Allen, Charles
ALLEN. (Ret. Capt., 1840. f-p., 15; h-p., 39.)
Charles Allen, born 22 July, 1779, at Blackheath, co. Kent, is son of the late Wm. Allen, Esq., of the Stamp Office, a Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital.
This officer entered the Navy, 7 May, 1793, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Diomede 44, Capt. Matthew Smith, and was in that ship when she struck on a sunken rock and was lost, off Trincomalee, 2 Aug. 1795. Joining, then, the Heroine 32, Capt. Alan Hyde Gardner, he co-operated in the ensuing reduction of the Dutch settlements in the island of Ceylon. He was ultimately promoted, from the Suffolk 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, to a Lieutenancy, 18 June, 1799, in the Victorious 74, Capts. Wm. Clark and Pulteney Malcolm; after which, on his return from the East Indies, he joined, 29 July, 1803, the Spencer 74, Capt. Hon. Robt. Stopford, obtained command, in Nov. 1804, of the Signal station at Selses, and was next appointed, 26 July, 1805, and 2 June, 1808, to the Thetis 38, Capt. Wm. Hall Gage, and Bellerophon 74, Capt. Sam. Warren. On 7 July, 1809, in consequence of the death of the gallant Lieut. Joseph Hawkey, who fell early in the action, Mr. Allen succeeded to the command of the boats of the latter ship, and of the Implacable 74, Melpomene 38, and Prometheus 18, seventeen in number, containing about 270 officers and men, in the course of a dashing attack on a Russian flotilla of 8 gunboats and 12 merchantmen, carrying altogether double the complement of men, lying at anchor under Porcola Point, on the coast of Finland, and centred between two rocks, from the summits of which they were protected by a shower of grape.[1] Notwithstanding all this, six of the gun-boats were irresistibly boarded and carried, another was sunk, and the whole convoy, with a large armed ship, captured. The loss of the British amounted to 17 men killed and 37 wounded : that of the Russians is reported to have been at least 63 killed, and a proportionate number wounded. For this daring and most important achievement, Lieut. Allen received the sincere thanks of the Commander-in-Chief, and a Commander’s commission bearing date the day of the action. Unable, however, to procure further employment, he at length retired with the rank of Captain, 10 Sept. 1840.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1800, p. 1210.