Royal Naval Biography/Fowke, George
GEORGE FOWKE, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1798.]
This officer was made a Post-Captain July 9, 1798; previous to which he commanded the Swallow sloop of war in the West Indies, where he captured several of the enemy’s privateers. He assisted at the capture of the neutral islands in 1801; and soon after had the misfortune to be wrecked in the Proselyte frigate, off St. Martin’s. During the late war he commanded in succession the division of prison ships stationed in the river Medway; the Royal William[1], and Prince, three-deckers, bearing the flag of the commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth; and the depot for prisoners of war at Stapleton. Since the peace, he had the superintendence of the ordinary at Sheerness, for the established period of three years.
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- ↑ The long services of the Royal William (alias “Old Billy”), protracted beyond those of any other ship ever built, ended in 1813, at which period she was examined, and her timbers found so defective, that she was ordered to be broken up. It is not known when this memorable ship was first built; but it is recorded of her, that she came into harbour to be laid up in ordinary, on the 2d Oct. 1679; went out March 16, 1700; came in again on the 26th July 1702; was ordered, July 31, 1714, to be taken to pieces, for the purpose of being rebuilt; and was undocked on the 3d September 1719.