Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/806

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792
MORTON—MOSS.

Nepomucino 74’s, bearing each the broad pendant of Commodore Chas. Vinicomhe Penrose, and, as Acting-Lieutenant, to the Columbine and Swallow sloops, Capts. Wm. Shepheard and Edw. Reynolds Sibly) we find him employed in the gun-boat service at Gibraltar and Tarifa. After performing for 19 months the duties of Master’s-Mate in the Caledonia 120, and Prince 98, flag-ships in the Mediterranean and at Portsmouth of Sir Edw. Pellew and Sir Rich. Bickerton, he was advanced, 17 Dec. 1813, to a Lieutenancy in the Venerable 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Philip Chas. Durham, in which, when on his passage to the West Indies, and in company with the Cyane sloop, he contributed to the capture, not without opposition, of the French 40-gun frigates Iphigénie and Alcmène, 16 and 20 Jan. 1814. His last appointments were – 12 March, 1814, to the Vestal 36, Capt. Sam. Bartlett Deeckar, which vessel was paid off three months afterwards at Barbadoes – and, 4 Feb. 1815, to the Malta 80, Capts. Wm. Chas. Fahie, Thos. Boys, Chas. Ogle, and Thos. Gordon Caulfeild. Under Capt. Fahie, besides witnessing the surrender of Naples, he took part in the reduction of Gaeta in 1815, and commanded a division of boats at the cutting out of a large Russian ship from under its batteries. For those services he received, in common with the other officers employed, the thanks of the Neapolitan and British ministers. The Malta was put out of commission in Feb. 1817, and Lieut. Mortimer, rendered incapable of further employment from the effects of injuries he had received during his career afloat, was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 9 Dec. 1831.

He married, 8 Sept. 1835, Miss Prideaux, eldest daughter of the late John James, Esq., of Sidmouth, by whom he has issue one son.



MORTON. (Commander, 1827. f-p., 13; h-p., 27.)

Charles Morton, born in the vicinity of London, is member of a family seated for some centuries in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

This officer entered the Navy, 30 Oct. 1807, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Volontaire 38, Capt. Chas. Bullen, whom he followed as Midshipman, in Feb. 1811, into the Cambrian 40. In the former frigate he escorted the Duke of Orleans and his brother, Count Beaujolois, to Malta, served for some time with the in-shore squadron off Toulon, witnessed in 1809 the capture of the island of Pomegue, near Marseilles, and the destruction, near Cape Croisette, of Fort Rioux, mounting 14 guns, was present at an attack made, 31 Oct. in the latter year, on a large French convoy in the Bay of Rosas, and co-operated in 1810 with the patriots on the coast of Catalonia. In the Cambrian we find him assisting, in the course of 1811, at the reduction of the towns of St. Philon and Palamos, whose batteries were destroyed and guns embarked; also at the capture of 19 merchant-vessels at Cadaques, and at the defence of Tarragona. In Nov. 1814, after he had been for nearly three years employed on the Home and Mediterranean stations in the Bulwark and Pompée 74’s, Capts. Thos. Brown and Sir Jas. Athol Wood, he rejoined Capt. Bullen on board the Akbar 50, of which ship, having first conveyed despatches from Flushing to Antwerp, he was created an Acting-Lieutenant by Rear-Admiral Sir Thos. Byam Martin, 13 April, 1815. He was confirmed on the return of the Akbar from the Halifax station 10 Dec. 1816; and he was next, 11 Dec. 1823, appointed First of the Maidstone 42, fitting for the broad pendant of his friend Commodore Bullen, who had been nominated to the chief command on the coast of Africa. While on that station Lieut. Morton was most actively employed in the suppression of the slave-trade. He was promoted to the rank of Commander 6 Oct. 1827, a few weeks after the Maidstone had been paid off, and has not been since afloat.

Commander Morton is the author of “An Essay on the Electrical Formation of Hailstones, in opposition to the absurd Theories of the learned Philosophers,” and is the inventor of a plan for increasing the power and rapidity used in the art of swimming. He married, 23 Sept. 1829, Eliza, only daughter of the late John Thompson, Esq., of Hanover, Jamaica.



MORTON. (Lieut., 1812. f-p., 12; h-p., 33.)

Thomas Constant Paggett Morton entered the Navy, 2 Sept. 1802, as Sec.-cl. Boy, on board the Argo 44, Capts. Benj. Hallowell and Geo. Parker, employed in succession on the coast of Africa, and in the West Indies, Mediterranean, and North Sea. While in the West Indies, in 1803, he co-operated in the reduction of the islands of Ste. Lucie and Tobago. Becoming Midshipman, in Oct. 1804, of the Proselyte 28, Capts. Geo. Nich. Hardinge, Geo. Sayer, and John Chas. Woolcombe, he again, in the early part of 1805, sailed for the West Indies in escort of a large convoy. From Nov. in the latter year until Oct. 1811 we find him serving in the Illustrious 74, Capts. Wm. Shield, Wm. Robt. Broughton, Robt. Worgan Geo. Festing, and Robt. Maunsell, at first off Cadiz, and then in the East Indies, where, having assisted at the capture of Java, he removed to the Dasher sloop, Capt. Wm. Kelly. On his return to England in March, 1812, he became Master’s Mate of the Thisbe 28, bearing the flag of Sir Chas. Hamilton at Deptford; and in the following June he was received, in a similar capacity, on board the Impétueux 74, flag-ship off Lisbon of the late Sir Geo. Martin. He was confirmed a Lieutenant, 15 Oct. in the same year, in the San Juan 74, successive flag-ship of Rear-Admirals Sam. Hood Linzee and Hon. Chas. Elphinstone Fleeming at Gibraltar, whence, in the summer of 1814, he returned home in the Shearwater 10, Capt. John Townsend Coffin. He has since been on half-pay.



MOSS. (Lieutenant, 1825.)

Charles Moss entered the; Navy 1 Sept. 1808, and was for some time Master’s Mate of the Sheldrake 16, Capt. Jas. Pattison Stewart, in which vessel he came into frequent contact with the Danish flotillas in the Baltic, co-operated, in 1811, in the brilliant defence of Anholdt, and was severely wounded in boarding a Danish sloop on the coast of Jutland. He passed his examination in 1814; obtained his commission 27 May, 1825; and was subsequently appointed – 2 Nov. 1825, as a Supernumerary, to the Hyperion 42, Coast Blockade ship, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye – 6 July, 1832, to the Coast Guard, which he left in the early part of 1834 – 2 July, 1840, to the same service – and, 15 Oct. 1841, to the command of the Wickham Revenue cruizer. He continued in the latter vessel until the end of 1846, and is now again in the Coast Guard. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.



MOSS. (Lieutenant, 1822. f-p., 13; h-p., 23.)

Sidney Moss entered the Navy, in Sept. 1811, as a Boy, on board the Berwick 74, Capts. Sir Robt. Laurie and Edw. Brace, in which ship, with the exception of a few months passed in 1814 in the Edinburgh 74, Capt. John Lampen Manley, he continued employed, the greater part of the time in the capacity of Midshipman, until July, 1816. He saw much service during that period on the coast of Spain, and assisted at the blockade of Toulon, the reduction of Genoa and Gaeta, and the capture of a host of the enemy’s vessels. He also, at the commencement of 1816, accompanied Lord Exmouth to Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli for the accomplishment of objects connected with the abolition of Christian slavery. On leaving the Berwick he served for several months on Lake Ontario in the Montreal, Commodore Sir Robt. Hall; after which, returning to England in the Pactolus 38, Capt. Nich. Lockyer, he was for upwards of three years employed on the Home station in the Sybille 44, Capt. Clias. Malcolm, Queen Charlotte 100, bearing the flags of Sir Edw. Thornbrough and Sir Geo. Campbell, and, as Admiralty-Midshipman, in the Severn, Coast Blockade ship, Capt. Wm. M‘Cul-