1798, in company with the Mars 74, at the famous capture of L’Hercule, a ship of similar force, on which occasion he was sent on board the prize in order to assist in clearing her decks of the dead, the dying, and the general wreck. On leaving La Nymphe in April, 1799, he was placed by his friend, Admiral Sir Thos. Pasley, in command, with the rating of Master’s Mate, of the Caroline gun-vessel; and in the course of the same and the two following years was successively appointed by him, with the rank of Acting-Lieutenant, to the Terpsichore 32 and Seagull 18, Capts. Wm. Hall Gage and Thos. Lavie, to the command of the Swan hired-cutter (in which vessel he captured the lugger-privateer Vengeance), and to the San Fiorenzo 36, Capt. Wm. Chas. Paterson. While the latter ship was on one occasion becalmed and engaged with 12 or 14 Spanish gun-vessels off Cabritta Point, Mr. Luckraft was despatched in a boat to Gibraltar for assistance, and in executing this mission he was exposed, in going and returning, to the whole fire of the enemy. In July, 1801, although he had been performing First-Lieutenant’s duty, and was strongly recommended, as he had frequently been before, for promotion, he was superseded from the San Fiorenzo, and again ordered to serve as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, at first in command of the Experiment fire-vessel, and then on board the Royal Sovereign 100, flag-ship of Sir Henry Harvey. On 29 March, 1802, however, at the joint instance of the last-mentioned officer and of Sir Thos. Pasley, he was at length officially promoted to a Lieutenancy in the Ranger sloop, Capts. Rich. Goddard and Chas. Coote.[1] In that vessel he served in the North Sea and off Boulogne until Sept. 1803; and in June, 1804, after having been for a few months employed in the Meteor bomb, Capt. Jas. Master, and Tigre 80, Capt. Dacres, he obtained command of the Phoebe hired cutter, of 12 guns. In the following Nov. his intrepidity in giving chase to the notorious privateer Le Contre Amiral de Magon, of 17 guns and 84 men, was the fortunate means of the latter being captured by the Cruizer 18, Capt. John Hancock. When next, in the early part of 1805, in the Harpy 18, Capt. Edm. Heywood, Mr. Luckraft was in almost daily collision with the enemy’s flotilla in the neighbourhood of Boulogne, where, in an action with seven of their schuyts, he boarded and carried one of them at the head of a few men from the main chains of the Harpy, who then proceeded in pursuit of the remainder. On 30 May in the same year, a few weeks previously to which he had joined the Flora 36, Capt. Loftus Otway Bland, we find him assuming command of the Pigeon schooner. He shortly afterwards received from on board H.M.S. Tribune the Earl of Harrowby, at the time on an embassy to Berlin, and conveyed his Lordship and suite up the Elbe to Hamburgh. Towards the close of Nov. 1805, the Pigeon, through the ignorance of her pilot, was unfortunately lost off the Texel, while on her passage with despatches for General Don at Bremerlehe, and her Commander and crew in consequence became prisoners to the Dutch. Being set at liberty in 1806, Mr. Luckraft soon proceeded for the benefit of his health to the Mediterranean, where, although on half-pay, he cruized for some time as a Supernumerary in various ships. In Nov. 1808, while on his passage home for the purpose of taking up an appointment awarded to him, he fell into the hands of the Turks, among whom he remained a captive until enabled, at the end of 1809, to effect his escape. With the exception of a few months passed in 1815 in the Impress service at Deal, the Lieutenant was not again employed until 1825, in April of which year he was appointed to the office of Agent on board the Virilia transport, and ordered to Janeiro. During the voyage, and when off the Cape de Verde Islands, the latter vessel was fallen in with and chased by a powerful pirate, who, however, notwithstanding her overwhelming force, was foiled in every attempt to board, and ultimately compelled to strike her colours, although she contrived to effect her escape. Not long after this gallant affair Mr. Luckraft was thrown by a roll of the ship down the after-hatchway, and fractured his right leg. There being no surgeon on board, the wound was so badly treated as to be the cause of eventual paralysis of the leg and thigh. He was discharged on the return home of the transport in Dec. 1825, and did not again go afloat.
Lieut. Luckraft married, 30 April, 1800, Miss Martha Wilson, of Torpoint, Cornwall, by whom he has left issue (with one daughter married to Lieut. Wm. Geo. Pearne, R.N.) two sons, the elder, John Pasley, a Master R.N., and the other, Chas. Maxwell, a Lieutenant.
LUCKRAFT. (Capt., 1840. f-p., 28; h-p., 23.)
William Luckraft is an eider brother of Capt. Alfred Luckraft, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 25 June, 1796, as a Volunteer, on board the Asia 64, Capt. Robt. Murray, and was for upwards of four years employed in that ship on the Halifax station, part of the time in the capacity of Midshipman. He then joined the Assistance 50, Capt. Rich. Lee, under whom he was wrecked between Dunkerque and Gravelines 29 March, 1802. Being set free after 10 days of captivity, he became in succession attached, in the course of the same year, to the Brilliant 28, Capt. Adam Mackenzie, Suffisante 14, Capt. Christopher John Williams Nesham, and Concorde 36, Capt. John Wood. In the latter ship we find him proceeding to the East Indies, where, in 1805, having previously assisted at the capture of La Fortune, a very heavy privateer, he removed to the Culloden 74, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. Pellew, and was by him appointed Acting-Lieutenant of the Sceptre 74, Capt. Joseph Bingham, and Rattlesnake 18, commanded by Capts. John Bastard and Wm. Warden, and for a short time by himself. As a reward for the manner in which he subsequently, with the sloop’s boats under his orders, boarded and carried Les Deux Soeurs privateer, of 14 guns and 76 men, Mr. Luckraft, who had witnessed the capture of La Bellone, a similar vessel, mounting 30 guns, with a complement of 194 men, was confirmed a Lieutenant 11 Dec. 1807. Having, however, several months prior to the receipt of his commission, rejoined the Culloden, he contributed on the date last mentioned, as it chanced, to the destruction at Griessee, in the island of Java, of the dockyard and stores, and of all the men-of-war remaining to Holland in the East Indies. Returning to Europe in 1809, he was next, in Nov. of that year, in Nov. 1811, and in March, 1814, appointed to the Sheldrake 16, Meteor bomb, and Bombay 74, Capts. Jas. Pattison Stewart, Peter Fisher, and Henry Bazely – the two former on the Baltic, the latter on the Mediterranean station, where he served until Aug. 1816. In March, 1811, he officiated as First-Lieutenant of the Sheldrake at the defence of Ahholdt, when attacked by a powerful Danish flotilla, and on that occasion was instrumental to the capture of two of the enemy’s largest gun-boats. He was Senior of the Meteor in the operations against South Beveland, at the siege of Danzig, and at the blockade of the Scheldt. During the six years immediately antecedent to his promotion to the rank of Commander, which took place 27 July, 1825, he was employed in the Channel and West Indies as First of the Spartan 46, and Pyramus 42, Capts. Wm. Furlong Wise and Fras. Newcombe. His last appointment was, 17 July, 1838, to the Second-Captaincy of the Bellerophon 80, Capt. Chas. John Austen, for his conduct under whom in the operations on the coast of Syria, including the bombardments of Beyrout and Acre he was advanced to the rank he now holds 4 Nov, 1840.
- ↑ The magazine of the Ranger having in one instance caught fire by the ignition of some loose powder, Lieut. Luckraft, in the most undaunted manner, and with the greatest presence of mind (while the major part of the crew wa3 hastening away), rushed into the flames, removed all the powder-casks with his own hands, and saved the ship from destruction.
