Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/966

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
952
RAMSAY—RAMSDEN.

flat-bottomed boats under his orders, he supplied the army with provisions during its advance upon Washington. On 12 Sept. he distinguished himself in command of a division of seamen attached to the army under General Ross at the defeat of the enemy near Baltimore;[1] and between 10 Jan. and 1 March, 1815, he shared in a variety of expeditions on the coast of Georgia, where he commanded the force employed at the capture of the town of Frederica and of the island of St. Simon’s.[2] On 9 April, 1815, being first on the Admiralty list for promotion, Capt. Ramsay was appointed by Sir Alex. Cochrane to the (lately American) frigate President. He was confirmed in his present rank 13 June, 1315, and nominated, 4 of the same month, a C.B. He accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846. Capt. Ramsay married 23 Jan. 1800, and has issue five sons and three daughters. Of the former, one, John Douglas, is a Lieutenant R.N.; and another, Alexander, the youngest, a First-Lieutenant R.M. (1841). The eldest is a Captain in the Bengal Army. Capt. Ramsay’s second daughter is married to Capt. Wm. Milner Neville Sturt, also in the Hon. Co.’s army, on the Bengal establishment. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.



RAMSAY. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 1 1; h-p., 32.)

Robert Ramsay entered the Navy, 24 Aug. 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Monarch 74, Capt. John Clarke Searle, bearing the flag of Lord Keith in the Downs; removed, in Aug. 1805, to the Powerful 74, Capts. Robt. Plampin, Rich. Buck, Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew, and Chas. Jas. Johnston; and from Oct. 1803 until Aug. 1815, when he took up a commission bearing date 21 of the preceding Feb., was employed as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, chiefly on the Home station, in the Unicorn 32, Capt. Alex. Robt. Kerr, Defender gun-brig, Ferret sloop, Capt. Halliday, Raisonnable 64,Cheerful, Lieut.-Commander W. Smith, and Spey 20 and Towey 24, both commanded by Capt. Hew Steuart. In the Powerful he assisted as Midshipman at the capture, 13 June and 9 July, 1806, of the privateers La Henriette, of 20 guns and 124 men, and (after a running fight of nearly two hours and some loss) La Bellone, of 30 guns and 194 men. He was also, 11 Dec. 1807, present in the same ship at the annihilation, 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; and in 1809 he was in her in the expedition to the Walcheren. In the Unicorn he contributed to the capture, in Feb. and April, 1810, of Le Gascon privateer of 16 guns and 113 men, and L’Espérance (formerly H.M. 22-gun ship Laurel) armée en flûte, with a valuable cargo of East India produce. Since he left the Towey he has not been afloat.

Lieut. Ramsay has been for some years employed as an Emigration Agent in Ireland. He married, in 1837, Anne, daughter of F. O’Donnell, Esq., of Cardonagh, in that country.



RAMSAY. (Captain, 1838. f-p., 24; h-p., 14.)

William Ramsay, born in July, 1796, is youngest surviving son of Sir Alex. Ramsay, Bart.

This officer entered the Navy, 17 Aug. 1809, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Veteran 64, Lieut.-Commander Marshall, lying in Portsmouth Harbour. He was next, from Feb. 1810 until May, 1814, employed in the Adriatic in the Eagle 74, Capt. Chas. Rowley; and from the latter date until April, 1816, on the American and Cape of Good Hope stations, in the Liverpool 40, Capt. Arthur Farquhar. As Midshipman of the Eagle, we find him present at the capture of Fiumé, Trieste, and other places. The Liverpool, on her passage home from the Cape, took the ground at the foot of Shakspeare’s Cliff, near Dover,, and was not rescued from her perilous position until all her masts and spars had been cut away, and her guns, provisions, and stores thrown overboard. From July, 1816, until June, 1821, Mr. Ramsay was employed at St. Helena, as’ Master’s Mate and Admiralty Midshipman, in the Eurydice 24, Capt. Robt. Wauchope, Blossom 24, Capt. Fred. Edw. Vernon (now Harcourt), and Vigo 74, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Robt. Lambert. He was then nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Brazen 26, Capt. Wm. Shepheard, in which vessel (the appointment being confirmed by commission dated 8 Sept. in the same year) he continued employed on the Cork station until Jan. 1823. He subsequently joined – 27 Dec. 1824, the Albion 74, Capts. Sir Wm. Hoste and John Acworth Ommanney, under the latter of whom he fought at Navarin 20 Oct. 1827 – 13 May, 1829, the Atholl 28, Capts. Alex. Gordon and Edw. Webb, of which vessel, employed on the coast of Africa, he became First- Lieutenant – and, in Feb. 1830, the Dryad 42, Capt. John Hayes, on the same station. While attached to the two ships last mentioned, Lieut. Ramsay was entrusted with the command of the Black Joke tender, mounting 1 pivot long 18-pounder and 1 carronade of the same calibre, with a complement of 44 officers and men. In that vessel, on 25 April, 1831, he fell in with, and, after a long action, boarded and carried the Marinerito a beautiful Spanish slaver-brig of 303 tons, 5 18-pounders, and 77 officers and men, in complete man-of-war order. The British in the struggle sustained a loss of 1 man killed and 7, including Mr. Ramsay, severely wounded; their opponents of 15 killed or drowned, 4 desperately wounded, and several others severely and slightly so. On board the Marinerito, at the commencement of the conflict, were 496 slaves, 46 of whom, on the vessel being taken, were found dead, and 107 in such a state from confinement and want of air that it was thought advisable to land them at Fernando Po.[3] Being rewarded for his valour on the occasion by a Commander’s commission bearing date 15 Aug. following, Capt. Ramsay, in Feb. 1832, returned to England. From 28 May, 1834, until paid off in April, 1837, he commanded the Dee steamer in the West Indies; he attained his present rank 28 June, 1838; and since 5 Dec. 1845 has been in command of the Terrible steam-frigate, of 21 guns and 800 horse-power, now in the Mediterranean. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.



RAMSDEN. (Commander, 1826. f-p., 15; h-p., 24.)

Frank Ramsden was born 28 March, 1797. This officer entered the Navy, 19 March, 1808, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Tigre 74, Capt. Benj. Hallowell, employed at first in the Channel and afterwards in the Mediterranean, where, with the exception of a short attachment, towards the close of 1811, to the Royal William, flag-ship of Sir Roger Curtis at Spithead, he continued employed as Midshipman in the Royal George 100 and Blake 74, each bearing the flag of the above-named officer, then Rear-Admiral Hallowell, Caledonia 120, flag-ship of Sir Edw. Pellew, and Malta 84, bearing the flag again of Rear-Admiral Hallowell, until Feb. 1815. In the Tigre he united, in Oct. 1809, in the pursuit which led to the self-destruction, near Cape Cette, of the French ships-of-the-line Robuste and Lion; and witnessed the capture and destruction, by the boats of a squadron, of several armed and other vessels in the Bay of Rosas, detailed in our memoir of the present Sir Augustus W. J. Clifford. In the Malta he was present at the siege of Tarragona, and in different operations on the coast of Catalonia, in 1813. After serving with Sir John Duckworth in the Impregnable 104, and again with Rear-Admiral Hallowell in the Royal Sovereign 100 and Tonnant 80, on the Plymouth and Cork stations, he was promoted, 7 Nov. 1818, to the rank of Lieutenant. His subsequent appointments were – 6 Dec. 1822, to the Prince Regent 120, bearing the flag of Admiral

  1. Vide Gaz. 1814, pp. 2077-78.
  2. Vide Gaz. 1815, p. 871.
  3. The particulars here given of the action between the Black Joke and Marinerito differ from those detailed in our history of the services of Capt. C. J. Bosanquet, but we believe are the more correct.