A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Dacres, James Richard (a)

by William Richard O'Byrne

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DACRES. (Rear-Admiral of the Red, 1838. f-p., 23; h-p., 28.)

James Richard Dacres is only surviving son of the late Jas. Rich. Dacres, Esq., Vice-Admiral of the Red,^[1] by Miss Eleanor Blandford Pearce, of Cambridge; nephew of the late Vice-Admiral Sir Rich. Dacres, G.C.H.; and first-cousin of Capt. Sidney Colpoys Dacres, R.N.

This officer entered the Navy, in 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Sceptre 64, commanded by his father, Capt. J. R. Dacres, with whom we find him also, in 1797, serving in the Barfleur 98. From Aug. 1800, until the receipt of his first commission, which bears date 15 Nov. 1804, he further officiated, chiefly on the Home station, as Midshipman of the Impétueux 74, Capt. Sir Edw. Pellew, Clyde 38, Capt. Chas. Cunningham, Centaur 74, Capt. Bendall Robt. Littlehales, Excellent 74, Capt. Nash, Boadicea 38, Capt. John Maitland, and Culloden 74, Capt. Barrington Dacres. During that period he attended, when in the Impétueux, the expedition against Ferrol in Aug. 1800, and was present, in the Boadicea, in a short action with the French 74-gun ship Duguay Trouin, 29 Aug. 1803. After performing the duties, for seven months, of Flag-Lieutenant in the Theseus and Hercule 74’s, to his father, then Commander-in-Chief on the Jamaica station, Mr. Dacres was promoted, 5 July, 1805, to the command of the Elk sloop, from which he appears to have been posted, 14 Jan. 1806, into the Bacchante, of 24 guns. On 14 Feb. 1807, he captured, off the island of St. Domingo, the French national schooner Dauphin, of 3 guns and 71 men; and he then, associating himself with Capt.Wm. Furlong Wise, of the Mediator 32, succeeded by a well-conducted stratagem in approaching, through a most difficult navigation, the fort of Samana, a notorious nest for privateers, which, after a cannonade of four hours, and a loss to the British of 2 men killed and 16 wounded, was ultimately stormed and carried with great gallantry by the boats of the two ships under Lieuts. Henry Loraine Baker, John Norton, and Shaw.^[2] On his return to England in the Mediator, Capt. Dacres, in Dec. 1807, was placed on half-pay; and from that period we do not again find him afloat until appointed, 16 March, 1811, to the Guerrière, an old worn-out frigate, carrying 48 guns, yielding a broadside weight of 517 lbs., and 244 men. On 19 Aug. 1812, being on her way to Halifax after a very long cruize, this vessel encountered and came to close action with the United States ship Constitution, of 56 guns, throwing a broadside weight of 768 lbs., and 460 men. After nobly struggling with her huge antagonist for nearly an hour and three quarters, the Guerrière, having lost 15 men killed and 63 wounded, and being rendered quite ungovernable, with the loss of all her masts, was at length obliged to surrender – in so shattered a condition, indeed, that on the following morning she was set on fire, and blown up.^[3] The Constitution’s loss on the occasion amounted to at least 7 men killed and as many wounded. Among the badly wounded on board the Guerrière was her gallant defender, Capt. Dacres himself, who received a musket-ball in the back, while standing on the starboard forecastle hammocks animating his crew, but who could not he prevailed upon to leave the deck. By the court-martial which, on 2 Oct. following, assembled on board the Africa 64, at Halifax, to try Capt. Dacres for surrendering his ship to the enemy, he was, as may be readily imagined, “unanimously and honourably acquitted of all blame on account of her capture.” We afterwards find him in command, from 23 July, 1814, until 18 Sept. 1818, of the Tiber 38, on the Cork, Newfoundland, and Channel stations, and, from 28 Oct. 1833, until 1837, of the Edinburgh 74, in the Mediterranean. In the former ship Capt. Dacres took, 8 March, 1815, the Leo American privateer, of 7 guns and 93 men. He attained Flag-rank 28 June, 1838; and, on 9 Aug. 1845, was appointed Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope, where he is at present serving with his flag in the President 50.

Rear-Admiral Dacres, who was presented with a gratuity from the Patriotic Fund at Lloyd’s in consideration of his wound, married, 25 April, 1810, Arabella Boyd, sister of the present Sir Adolphus John Dalrymple, Bart., and sister-in-law of the late Vice-Admiral Sir John Chambers White, K.C.B. By that lady, who died 11 April, 1828, he has, with other issue, two daughters, of whom one is the wife of Lieut.-Col. Butler, and the other of Lieut. Thos. Belgrave, R.N. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.

1. Vice-Admiral Dacres, born in Feb. 1749, was eldest son of Richard Dacres, Esq., Secretary to the garrison of Gibraltar. He entered the Navy in 1762; eminently distinguished himself in command of the Carleton schooner in the memorable action on Lake Champlain in 1776; was with Commodore Ford at the capture of Port-au-Prince; participated, as Captain of the Barfleur 98, in Lord Bridport’s and Sir John Jervis’ actions of 23 June, 1795, and 14 Feb. 1797; held a command, afterwards, at Plymouth; and was for four years, from 1804 to 1808, Commander-in-Chief on the Jamaica station. The Vice-Admiral died in Jan. 1830, worn out by length of service and the baneful effects of a West India climate.
2. Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 533.
3. Vide Gaz. 1812, p. 2038.