Navarin 20 Oct. 1827.[1] Prior to going into action be furnished Sir Edw. Codrington with a plan of the position and force of the Ottoman fleet, and enabled him to affix their proper stations to the ships under his orders. For this essential service he received the thanks of his chief; and for his conduct during the engagement he was promoted to the rank of Commander 22 Oct. 1827. From 19 March, 1833, until Oct. 1835, he filled an appointment in the Coast Guard at North Yarmouth, at which place he is now Harbour-Master.
SMYTH. (Lieutenant, 1832.)
Thomas Smyth died, 20 Feb. 1846, at Kingston, Jamaica, where he was Harbour-Master.
This officer entered the Navy 27 July, 1824; passed his examination in 1830; and on the occasion of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, 26 June, 1832, was nominated Additional of the Winchester 52, flag-ship of Sir Edw. Griffith Colpoys, Commander-in-Chief in North America and the West Indies. His subsequent appointments afloat were – in Jan. 1833, to the Pearl 20, Capt. Robt. Gordon, on the same station, whence he returned to England and was paid off in Dec. 1834 – 25 March, 1836, to the Hercules 74, Capt. Maurice Fred. Fitzhardinge Berkeley, fitting at Sheerness – and, 24 April, 1837, as Senior, to the Comus 18, Capts. Hon. Plantagenet Pierrepont Gary and Evan Nepean, with whom he served on the station first named until Dec. 1841. Agents – Holmes and Folkard.
SMYTH. (Lieutenant, 1842.)
Thomas Johnson Smyth died in 1846.
This officer entered the Navy 21 Nov. 1829; passed his examination 30 Nov. 1836; and after serving in the Mediterranean and at Plymouth as Mate in the Tyne 26, Capt. John Townshend, and Caledonia 120, flag-ship of Sir David Milne, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 27 July, 1842. His succeeding appointments were – 2 Aug. 1842, as Additional, to the Madagascar 44, Capt. John Foote, on the coast of Africa – 21 Jan. 1843, to the Ferret 6, Capt. Josiah Oake, on the same station – and, 8 Nov. 1845, to the Juno 26, Capt. Patrick John Blake, fitting for the Pacific, where he died.
SMYTH. (Captain, 1843.)
William Smyth entered the Navy 9 April, 1813; passed his examination in 1819; and obtained his first commission 8 May, 1827. He served afterwards – from 4 June, 1831, until the early part of 1835, in the Samarang 28, Capt. Chas. Henry Paget, on the South American station – from 11 May, 1836, until promoted to the rank of Commander on his return to England 15 Nov. 1837, as Senior Lieutenant, in the Terror bomb, Capt. Geo. Back, employed on a voyage of discovery to the Arctic regions – and, from 19 Sept. 1838 until advanced, on being paid off; to Post-rank 25 Dec. 1843, in the Grecian 16, in South America and at the Cape of Good Hope. He has not been afloat since.
Capt. Smyth is author of the ‘Narrative of a Journey from Lima to Para,’ published in 1836 – a work in which he was assisted by the present Commander Fred. Lowe, R.N. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
SMYTH, K.F.M., D.C.L., V.P.R.S., Pres. R.A.S., &c. (Captain 1824. f-p., 19; h-p., 23.)
William Henry Smyth, born 21 Jan. 1788, at Westminster, is only son, by Georgina Caroline, grand-daughter of the Rev. Mr. Pilkington, of the late Joseph Brewer Palmer Smyth, Esq., of New Jersey, who, embracing the Royalist cause during the War of Independence in America, fought under General Burgoyne in the battles which preceded the catastrophe at Saratoga, and was in consequence deprived of the very considerable landed property he possessed. He is descended, paternally, from the celebrated Capt. John Smith, whose valour and genius proved so instrumental to the colonization of Virginia; and wears the armorial bearings granted to that distinguished person.
This officer, who had witnessed in a merchant-vessel the reduction of Tobago, and had taken part in the E.I.Co.’s frigate Cornwallis in an expedition against the Mahe Islands in 1804, entered the Navy, 18 March, 1805, when the latter ship was purchased by Government, and placed under the command of Capt. Chas. Jas. Johnston, with whom he continued to serve in the scp 74, until transferred, in Oct. 1809, to the Milford 74, Capts. Henry Wm. Bayntun and Edw. Kittoe. He was in consequence present, in the Cornwallis, in several typhoons in the China seas; also in a variety of skirmishes with the enemy’s formidable batteries on the Isle of France; and in a gallant attack made, 11 Nov. 1806, in company with the Sceptre 74, upon the French frigate Sémillante, 3 armed ships, and 12 sail of merchantmen at anchor in St. Paul’s Bay, Ile de Bourbon. He also cruized for a long time in the Pacific. On his return to Europe in the Powerful, Mr. Smyth accompanied the expedition of 1809 to the Scheldt. After participating, in the Milford, in numerous attacks upon the enemy’s coasting-trade near Rochefort, he proceeded to Cadiz, where, being appointed to the command, 4 Sept. 1810, of a large Spanish gun-boat, the Mors-aut-Gloria, carrying 1 long brass 36-pounder, a 6-inch howitzer, and a British crew of 35 men, he continued arduously employed in its defence until 1811. Uniting during that period in nearly every service performed by the flotilla, he was present, 12 Sept. 1810, and had two of his men severely burnt, in an action with the enemy’s batteries near Matagorda. On 19 of the same month, aided by two vessels similar to his own, he silenced a small battery in the Bay of Bulls. On 3 Oct. the Mors-aut-Gloria was twice struck by shot; on the 5th she was in an engagement with forts Napoleon and Luis – the former mounting 16 heavy guns and 4 mortars – the latter 14 guns, 2 mortars, and 2 howitzers; and on the morning of 1 Nov. she bore a conspicuous part in an affair with seven of the enemy’s gun-vessels, protected by Fort Concepcion, several redoubts, and a corps of horse-artillery on the beach. She was subsequently, 23 Nov., exposed for many hours to a fire from Fort Catalina in an attempt to create a diversion in favour of an attack upon some gun-vessels in the river of Santa Maria. On his retnrn to Cadiz, after witnessing the termination of the battle of Barrosa, Mr. Smyth, who had acquired an accurate knowledge of the circumjacent coast and channels, and had been in consequence sent with despatches to Lieut.-General Graham during his march from Tarifa to Barrosa, was placed in charge of a large flat, armed with a 32-pounder carronade. In this boat he had 3 men mortally wounded, and was nearly sunk, by the enemy’s batteries in the neighbourhood of Matagorda. A few days afterwards, 16 March, 1811, he rendered material assistance, in the Milford’s barge, to a water-logged American ship on shore near Cape Trafalgar; and on the 20th he commanded a boat in an unsuccessful expedition against some piratical privateers near Chipiona. On finally leaving Cadiz the Milford, which, during the operations we have detailed, had borne the flag of Sir Rich. Goodwin Keats, cruized off the coast of Spain, and then Joined the fleet off Toulon. Here Mr. Smyth removed, 1 Aug. 1811, to the Rodney 74, Capts. John Carter Allen and Edw. Durnford King, in which ship he attained the rating of Master’s Mate 14 Dec. following, and was actively employed until paid off on his return to England in Nov. 1812. As a reward for his highly-lauded exertions at Cadiz, and for a valuable survey he had made while there of the Islorde-Leon and the neighbouring coast, accompanied by a detail of the strength of the various French and Spanish batteries, he was presented by Lord Melville with a Lieutenant’s commission dated 25 March, 1813, and appointed to a command in the flotilla employed under Sir Robt. Hall in the defence of
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1827, p. 2325.
