12-pounder carronades, and 226 men, at the end of a close action of 45 minutes, attended with a loss to the enemy of 12 killed and 20 wounded, but to the Comus (whose force consisted of 24 long 9-pounders and 8 24-pounder carronades, with a complement of 145 men) of only 1 wounded. For his gallantry on this occasion Mr. Watts, who had headed the boarders,[1] was promoted to the rank of Commander by a commission bearing date 17 Sept. 1807. Previously, however, to his return to England he contributed to the capture of several other vessels, and was more than once engaged with the enemy on the coast of Norway. His next appointments were, 26 Dec. 1808, in 1809, and 5 April, 1813, to the Ephira 10, Woodlark 12, and Jaseur 18, on the North Sea, Baltic, and North American stations. In the Ephira he was employed, in the spring of 1809, with a small squadron of gun-vessels under his orders, in the river Elbe. While there he made many captures, and afforded much annoyance to the enemy’s convoys passing from Hamburgh, Glückstadt, and Altona to Tonningen and Kiel. In July of the same year we find him assisting, under Capt. Wm. Goate of the Mosquito brig, at the expulsion of the French from Cuxhaven and Ritzbuttle. At the former place, having landed with the officer just named and a party of seamen, he aided in taking possession of and in ultimately destroying a battery mounting 6 24-pounders and garrisoned by about 80 men, who, as the British approached, retreated.[2] Landing again a few days afterwards, with Lord Geo. Stuart, of L’Aimable 32, he went in pursuit of a strong body of the enemy’s troops, in number about 250, then occupying Gessendorf a town situated at a distance of 28 miles from the point of debarkation. On their road the seamen became exposed to a heavy fire of grape and round from a battery of 4 12-pounders, whose occupants, however, on perceiving the determined manner of the former, made off, as did the troops in the town. In narrating the particulars. Lord Geo. Stuart thus expresses himself:– “I beg leave particularly to mention Capt. Watts of the Ephira, who, in the most gallant and handsome manner, advanced intrepidly in front of the attacking party, amid the enemy’s galling fire, and rendered himself equally conspicuous afterwards by his unremitting exertion in the complete demolition of the battery, in the execution of which service, I am concerned to say, he received a wound in the leg.”[3] Capt. Watts’ services in the Woodlark, during the four years that he was stationed in the Baltic, were arduous and energetic in the extreme. With a crew of only 76 men and boys, he had at one time not less than 13 Prize-Masters absent; and he himself, in addition to all calls, was at watch and watch for nearly four months. In May, 1810, he captured a Danish brig under the batteries of Fladstrand; and on 27 of the same month he pursued a cutter-privateer through a navigation of such intricacy that his pilots abandoned their charge. The vessel in question, the Swan of 6 24-pounders and 35 men, was destroyed, and another, a new ship, the Success, laden with wheat and linen, subsequently taken by the boats under the present Retired-Commander Thos. Crawford.[4] When not cruizing Capt. Watts was often employed in escorting convoys through the Great Belt; and so great was his anxiety to ensure their safety that he had been known to keep under sail during the whole night, an operation which, repeated, caused him for successive weeks to be constantly on the alert, without changing the clothes he had on. In 1812 the Mars 74, Capt. Henry Raper, whom the Woodlark was leading in to the attack of a flotilla stationed beyond the entrance of the Malmo Channel, took the ground in a position that exposed her to the Danish gun-boats; whereupon Capt. Watts, although under every disadvantage, brought the latter to action in order to divert their attention from the 74, who, on at length floating, made the signal of recall. The loss on board the Woodlark in this affair extended to 13 killed and wounded. Capt. Watts’ appointment to the Jaseur, we may here observe, was the result of an application made in his favour to Lord Melville by Rear-Admiral Geo. Hope, to whom he had been warmly recommended by his constant patron, the Duke of Kent. In her he saw much service in the Chesapeake and on other parts of the coast of North America. While in the Chesapeake he was directed by Rear-Admiral Cockburn (whose approbation he had the fortune to elicit) to endeavour to discover a navigable passage through Tangier Strait, and to procure fresh provisions for the use of the squadron. He succeeded in establishing himself 15 miles higher than any square-rigged vessel had before reached, and harassed the enemy to the full extent of his power. In one instance he gave chase to a vessel in person, in his own boat, penetrated 12 or 14 miles up the river Wicomico, and not only destroyed her, but captured and burnt nine others. Such were the remonstrances produced among the American authorities by this performance, that the Baltimore flotilla, under Commodore Barney, was sent to essay either the capture or destruction of the Jaseur; but the Commodore was himself obliged to seek shelter in the Patuxent by the Dragon 74, Capt. Robt. Barrie. Among other operations, Capt. Watts assisted at the capture of the towns of Benedict and Marlborough, on the Patuxent; and at different times he took and annihilated upwards of 30 vessels, in addition to a letter-of-marque, the Grecian, cut out by his boats from under a battery. In Oct. 1814, having been advanced to Post-rank 7 June preceding, he returned to England. He has not been since able to procure employment.
During his career afloat Capt. Watts received 17 wounds, besides having his arm fractured. He obtained the Good Service Pension 23 July, 1848. He had hoped that his services might have been thought worthy the Companionship of the Bath. He married, first, 20 Oct. 1820, Jane, daughter of Geo. Waldie, Esq., of Hendersyde Park, Roxburghshire; and (that lady dying 6 July, 1826), secondly, 18 June, 1830, Elizabeth Foulis, daughter of John Robinson Foulis, Esq., of Buckton and Heslerton, co. York (only brother of the late Sir Wm. Foulis, Bart., of Ingleby Manor), by Decima Hester Beatrix, eldest daughter of Sir Christopher Sykes, Bart., of Sledmere, co. York. He has issue four sons and three daughters. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.
WATTS. (Lieut., 1828. f-p., 21; h-p., 16.)
Stephen Ross Watts was born 29 Nov. 1799.
This officer entered the Navy, 11 May, 1810, as Midshipman, on board the Victory 100, Capt. Philip Dumaresq, stationed in the Baltic; and was next, from Dec. 1812 until July, 1816, employed in the Channel and Mediterranean in the Ville de Paris 110 and Boyne 98, both commanded by Capt. Geo. Burlton, and Leviathan 74, Capts. Adam Drummond and Thos. Briggs. He served afterwards on the North American, Home, St. Helena, Brazilian, and West India stations, in the Forth 40, Capt. Sir John Louis, Pactolus 38, Capt. Wm. Hugh Dobbie, Bulwark 74, Capt. Fred. Warren, Sophie 18, Capt. Sir Wm. Saltonstall Wiseman, Redpole 10, Capt. Wm. Devereux Evans, Phaeton 46, Capt. Augustus Montagu, Mersey 26, Capt. Edw. Collier, Newcastle 60, Capt. Arthur Fanshawe, Jaseur 18, Capt. Henry Edw. Napier, Britannia 120, Capt. Alex. Skene, Spartiate 76, Capt. Gordon Thos. Falcon, Aurora 46, Capt. Henry Prescott, Victory 104, Capt. Chas. Inglis, Talbot 28, Capt. Hon. Fred. Spencer, Victory again, Capt. Inglis, Dartmouth 42, Capt. Thos. Fellowes, Fairy 10, Capt. Geo. Wm. Conway Courtenay, and Pickle schooner, Lieut.-Commander John Walker. Having passed his examination 1 June, 1819, he was nominated, in Jan.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 1157.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1126.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1212.
- ↑ On the night of 3 May, 1811, the Woodlark captured, after a smart chase over the Natter reefs, a very fine row-boat, 30 feet long, armed with two brass howitzers and small arms and commanded by a Lieutenant of the Danish Navy, with 20 men; one of the Danes was killed and one wounded. – Vide Gaz. 1811, p. 1128.
