Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/1206

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1192
TOZER—TRACEY—TRACY.

vice, to storm one of the batteries, he was once more very severely wounded by a canister-shot from an 18-pounder lodging in his left groin and by a musket-shot in his left hand. “Lieut. Tozer, I lament,” says Capt. Ussher in his official letter, “is most severely wounded; his gallantry I have often noticed.”[1] In consideration of his services and his suiferings he was promoted to the rank of Commander 15 June, 1814 (four months after he had invalided from the Undaunted); and allotted a pension for his wounds of 150l. per annum 2 Dec. 1815. He commanded the Cyrené 20, at Bermuda, from 25 July, 1818, until 16 Jan. 1822; and the William and Mary yacht, under Capt. John Chambers White, from 3 April, 1829, until advanced to his present rank 14 Jan. 1830. Since the latter date he has been on half-pay.

Capt. Tozer is Senior of 1830. He married, 5 June, 1827, Mary, eldest daughter of Henry Hutton, Esq., of Lincoln.



TOZER. (Lieutenant, 1819.)

Caleb Evan Tozer, while serving as Midshipman, either in the Contest or Mohawk, assisted, 11 July, 1813, at the capture, by the two cutters belonging to those sloops, of the United States schooner Asp, carrying 1 long 18-pounder and 2 18-pounder carronades, with swivels, &c., and a complement of 25 men; which vessel, although she had been hauled close to the beach under the protection of a large body of militia, was boarded and carried with determined bravery; the British sustaining a loss of 2 men killed and 6 wounded, and the enemy of their Commander (a Lieutenant) killed and 9 others either killed or wounded. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 11 Oct. 1819; and from 13 Feb. 1837 until within a short period of his death, which took place in 1847, was employed in the Coast Guard. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.



TRACEY. (Lieutenant, 1828.)

Augustus Frederick Tracey entered the Navy 20 Oct. 1811; passed his examination in 1819; and obtained his commission 17 Sept. 1828. His succeeding appointments were – 9 Sept. 1829, to the Hyperion 42, Coast-Blockade ship, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye, lying at Newhaven – 9 July, 1830, to the Kent 78, Capt. Sam. Pym, on the Mediterranean station, whence he returned to England and was paid off at the close of 1831 – and 17 May, 1833, to the Caledonia 120, Capt. Thos. Brown, with whom he returned to the Mediterranean. He was superseded from the ship last mentioned in the summer of 1834; and has since been on half-pay.

Lieut. Tracey has been for many years Governor of Tothill-fields Prison, Westminster. He married, 5 Nov. 1835, Georgiana, daughter of the late G. Palliser, Esq., and was left a widower 20 Feb. 1845.



TRACEY. (Lieut., 1829. f-p., 18; h-p., 13.)

Benjamin Wheatley Tracey, born 22 July, 1805, at the Cove of Cork, is son of the late Geo. Thos. Tracey, Esq., Purser and Paymaster R.N. (1795); and brother-in-law of Commander John Jas. Hough, R.N., and of Capt. Robt. Kellow, R.M., who died in 1844.

This officer entered the Navy, 14 Jan. 1816, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Albion 74, Capt. John Coode. In that ship, of which his father was at the time Purser, he fought in the ensuing Aug. at the battle of Algiers. Being paid off from her on her return from the Mediterranean in May, 1819, he next, in March, 1820, joined, in the capacity of Midshipman, the Vigo 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Robt. Lambert at St. Helena, where he remained until Jan. 1822. Between the latter date and March, 1824, he served at Portsmouth in the Ramillies 74, Capt. Edw. Brace, and Starling 4, Lieut.-Commander Chas. Turner; and he was next from March until Oct. 1824 and from Dec. 1824 until Feb. 1826, employed at Chatham and Plymouth, as Mate, in the Basilisk cutter, Lieut.-Commander John Jas. Hough, and Windsor Castle 74, Capts. Hugh Downman and Edw. Durnford King. He was then transferred to the Java 52, Capts. John Wilson and Wm. Fairbrother Carroll; to which ship, stationed in the East Indies, he continued attached as Mate and Lieutenant (commission dated 30 Jan. 1829) until Jan. 1830. From 29 Aug. 1831 until 1836 he commanded a station in the Coast Guard. This was his last appointment.

Lieut. Tracey is a claimant of the Tracey peerage. He married, 16 April, 1831, Elizabeth, daughter of Wm. Howard, Esq., of Cork, and has issue three sons and two daughters. Agent – J. Hinxman.



TRACY. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 19; h-p., 34.)

John Tracy was born 23 Nov. 1774. He is a descendant of the ancient Barons of Devon.

This officer entered the Navy, in 1794, on board the Incendiary fire-ship; in which vessel and the Porcupine 24 (the former attached to the force sent in 1795 to co-operate with the French Royalists in Quiberon Bay) he was for about two years creditably employed on the Channel station, under Capts. Rich. Bagot and John Draper, as A.B., Coxswain, Quartermaster, and Midshipman. Being then nominated Master’s Mate of the Ardent 64, Capts. Rich. Rundle Burgess and Thos. Bertie, he fought in that ship and was wounded[2] in the action off Camperdown 11 Oct. 1797, and was present in her in 1799 in the expedition to Holland, where he assisted in landing the troops and witnessed the surrender of the Dutch squadron under Rear-Admiral Storey. During the winter of the latter year a six-oared cutter, with 8 men, belonging to the Arrow sloop, Capt. Wm. Bolton, in attempting to land in a heavy gale at North Yarmouth, was swamped at some distance from the shore. Two of the crew were drowned, a fate which, as it was found impossible to get a boat out to their assistance, must inevitably have attended the remainder, had not Mr. Tracy, who happened to be on shore, seized the beachmen’s line, fastened it round his body, and, regardless of danger, dashed in among the breakers, through which he succeeded in reaching the unfortunate men, who, having the rope then secured to them, were hauled on shore amidst the acclamations of the beholders! On 6 Oct. 1800 Mr. Tracy was made Lieutenant into the Explosion bomb, Capt. John Sykes; and on 13 of the same month he was removed to the Heldin 28, Capt. John Phillips, under whom we find him, in Aug. 1801, present in Lord Nelson’s attack upon the Boulogne flotilla. In the following Jan, he was paid off. Assuming command, 28 Sept. 1803, of the Princess Augusta,, a small hired cutter, of 8 guns (4-pounders) and 25 men, he was occasionally employed in that vessel in the conveyance of despatches and other communications to Russia. He was strongly recommended also by his senior officer, Capt. Robt. Dudley Oliver, for valuable service he performed off Havre-de-Grace. On 13 June, 1804, he had 3 or 4 men, including himself slightly, wounded, in an action of two hours and three quarters, fought near the mouth of the river Tees, with a French privateer of 14 guns, full of men, which in the end sheered off, on observing the approach of two small vessels, manned with sea-fencibles, from Redcar. The Princess Augusta, in this very gallant affair, received several shot near the water’s edge, and was much shattered in her rigging. The conduct of her brave commander was highly approved by the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Keith, and the Board of Admiralty. He afterwards (besides making prize, 28 Jan. 1807, of the Jena privateer, of 8 guns and 46 men[3]) took within 12 months as many as 19 of the enemy’s vessels, and drove on shore on the coast of Holland and de-

  1. Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 2011.
  2. Vide Gaz. 1707, p. 986. – In consideration of the injuries he sustained on this occasion he was allotted a pension which ceased on his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant.
  3. Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 142.