This officer entered the R.N. College 8 Aug. 1808, and embarked, 9 Aug. 1811, as Midshipman, on board the Elephant 74, Capt. Fras. Wm. Austen. After serving for two years and four months in that ship, on the North Sea and Baltic stations, he successively joined the President and Maeander frigates, Capts. Fras. Mason, Archibald Duff; and John Bastard, under whom he served, off the coasts of Ireland and Portugal and in the East Indies, until Jan. 1816. Having passed his examination in the previous Oct., he was shortly afterwards appointed Mate of the Minden 74, Capt. Wm. Paterson, with whom, subsequently to the battle of Algiers, he proceeded to India, where he officiated as Signal Officer to Sir Rich. King until May, 1820. He then returned to England with a broken constitution, as Acting-Lieutenaut, in the Seringapatam 46, Capt. Wm. Walpole; and, on his arrival home in the following Oct., found that for his conduct at Algiers he had been promoted, four years previously, to the rank of Lieutenant, although his commission, bearing date 16 Sept. 1816, had not, in consequence of some mistake, been forwarded to him. His health has not permitted him to serve since. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
K.
KAINS. (Captain, 1846. f-p., 26; h-p., 23.)
John Kains was born 21 Jan. 1788.
This officer (whose name had been home, since 1798, on the books of the Northumberland, Fortitude, and St. Domingo 74’s) embarked, in 1800, as Sec.-cl. Boy, on board the Theseus 74, Capts. John Bligh, Edw. Hawker, Fras. Temple, and Barrington Dacres. Proceeding in that ship to the West Indies, he there, in 1803-4, assisted, as Master’s Mate, at the blockade of St. François, St. Domingo – the reduction of Port Dauphin, where two forts and a 28-gun ship. La Sagesse, were taken from the enemy – the capture of the French squadron with the remains of General Rochambeau’s army from Cape François – and the unsuccessful attempt upon Curaçoa. He was also, while at St. Domingo, employed in cutting out merchant-vessels from most of the harbours in that island. Quitting the Theseus in Sept. 1805, he joined the Ruby 64, Capt. Chas. Rowley, stationed in the North Sea, where, with the exception of a few weeks passed as Acting-Lieutenant in the Amaranthe 18, Capt. Edw. Pelham Brenton, he further served, from Dec. in the same year until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 1 July, 1807, on board the Majestic 74, flag-ship of Vice- Admiral Thos. Macnamara Russell. Being then appointed to the Thais 18, Capt. Isaac Ferrieres, he was present in that sloop at the ensuing reduction of the Danish West India islands, and also, on his return from a visit to South America and the Cape of Good Hope, in the operations of 1809 against the island of Walcheren. After he had been attached for a short period, as First-Lieutenant, to the Vesuvius bomb, Capt. Wm. Saunders, Mr. Kains joined, in a similar capacity, 5 Feb. 1810, the Grampus 50, Capt. Wm. Hanwell, and sailed with a fleet of Indiaraen for China. During his absence from England, and when in the Java Sea, he took command of the boats and disarmed a Malay piratical proa. His last subordinate appointment was, 23 Oct. 1811, to the Senior Lieutenancy of the Warrior 74, Capt. Hon. Geo. Byng, afterwards Viscount Torrington, whose highest praise, as well as that of the Commander-in-Chief, we find him eliciting by his cool and gallant conduct, on 13 July, 1813, in boarding and capturing, with the boats of the latter ship and the Aetna bomb under his orders, the Danish national lugger Teigeren, mounting 3 6-pounders, and defended by a heavy fire of musketry from the shore, whither the crew, on the approach of the British, had effected their escape. To add to the excellence of the achievement, it was performed in the proximity of three of the enemy’s gun-boats, at a moment, too, when the vessel, having been fired by her crew, was in a perfect blaze, with the flames raging on her magazine-chest, and with every indication of an instant explosion. On 30 Nov. following Lieut. Kains had the honour of steering the boat which conveyed H.S.H. the Prince of Orange from the Warrior to the Dutch shore. He attained the rank of Commander 8 Jan. 1814, and was afterwards employed – from 6 June, 1833, until July, 1836, in the Coast Guard – from 18 April, 1837, until Feb. 1839, in the Ordinary at Chatham, as Commander of the Brune 22, and Poictiers 74 – and, from 5 Feb. 1839 until Oct. 1844, as Superintendent, with his name on the books of the Royal Sovereign yacht, of the Packet Service at Holyhead. He acquired his present rank 9 Nov. 1846, and is now on half-pay.
Capt. Kains married, 2 Feb. 1814, Miss Gold, of Gillingham, co. Kent.
KANE. (Lieutenant, 1841.)
Colin Campbell A. Kane entered the Navy 5 Sept. 1834; passed his examination 3 Oct. 1840; and, while Mate of the Conway 26, Capt. Chas. Ramsay Drinkwater Bethune, was employed in the operations of May, 1841, against Canton, where he landed and assisted at the destruction of the whole line of defences, extending about two miles from the British factory, and mounting in the whole 64 pieces of cannon.[1] He assumed the rank of Lieutenant 8 Oct. 1841, and was afterwards appointed – 22 Oct. 1842, to the Caledonia 120, flag-ship of Sir David Milne at Plymouth – 14 Feb. 1843, to the Thunderer 84, Capt. Dan. Pring, employed on particular service – 4 May, 1843, to the Lily 16, Capt. Geo. Baker, at the Cape of Good Hope – in 1843-4, to the Cornwallis 72, and Agincourt 72, flag-ships of Sir Wm. Parker and Sir Thos. John Cochrane on the East India station – and, 9 June, 1845, as First, to the Osprey 12, Capt. Fred. Patten, in which vessel he was wrecked on the western coast of New Zealand in March, 1846.
KATON. (Vice-Admiral of the Blue, 1841. f-p., 21; h-p., 42.)
James Katon was born 5 July, 1770, and died 14 Dec. 1845, at Gosport. He was son of Lieut. Edw. Katon, R.N., who died in 1779, and brother-in-law of the late Capt. Henry Vaughan, R.N. Two of his brothers, both in the Royal Marines, fell victims to the yellow fever in the West Indies; and a third died a Captain of that corps and Barrack-Master of the Portsmouth division.
This officer entered the Navy, 3 July, 1783 (under the auspices of Lord Hood), as Midshipman, on board the Princess Royal 98, Capt. Jonathan Faulknor, whom he followed into the Triumph 74, both guard-ships at Portsmouth. He was next, between May, 1786, and Sept. 1791, employed, on the Newfoundland, Channel, and West India stations, in the Echo, Falcon, and Orestes sloops, Capts. Robt. Carthew Reynolds, Thos. Laugharne, and Thos. Revell Shivers, and Marlborough 74, Capt. Sam. Cornish. Joining Commodore Linzee, in Dec. 1792, on board the Alcide 74, he served in 1793 at the occupation of Toulon, and was present in the early part of the following year at the siege of St. Fiorenza, where he landed with a detachment of men under Capt. Edw. Cooke, and assisted at the storming of Convention Hill, preparatory to the evacuation of the town by the enemy’s troops. On 14 March, 1794, having been promoted on 18 of the previous month to a Lieutenancy in the Courageux 74, Capts. Benj. Hallowell, Wm. Waldegrave, Chas. Elphinstone, and Augustus Montgomery, he shared in the conspicuous part home by that ship in Vice-Admiral Hotham’s partial action off Genoa; after which he again served with his old Commander, then Rear-Admiral Linzee, on board the Windsor Castle 98, and Victory 100 – also with Capt. Shuldham Peard in the St. George 98- once more with Rear-Admiral Linzee In the Princess Royal 98 – for 20 months with Sir Roger Curtis in the Prince
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1841, p. 2512.
