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Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 3rd Baronet
Admiral Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 3rd Baronet (14 October 1781 – 14 March 1861) was an officer in the British Royal Navy, who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Biography Beauchamp-Proctor was born at Langley Hall, Loddon, Norfolk, the eldest son of Sir Thomas Beauchamp-Proctor, 2nd Baronet, and Mary, the second daughter of Robert Palmer, of Sonning, Berkshire. His younger brothers were Colonel Richard Beauchamp-Proctor of the Grenadier Guards (d. 11 August 1850) and Captain Robert Beauchamp-Proctor of the Madras Artillery (d. 23 May 1813). His nephew, Edward Halhead Beauchamp-Proctor, also served as a naval officer. Beauchamp-Proctor entered the Royal Navy on 4 September 1794, with the rank of able seaman, aboard the 32-gun frigate under Captain Joseph Sydney Yorke. There was a family connection: Beauchamp-Proctor's grandfather Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 1st Baronet was, through his second wife Laetitia Johnson's sister Agneta, a brother-i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Langley Hall
Langley Hall is a red-brick building in the Palladian style, formerly a country house but now a private school, located near Loddon, Norfolk, England. It is a grade I listed building. The house was built in the Palladian style of nearby Holkham Hall, though much smaller: a large principal central block linked to two flanking secondary wings by short corridors. It was later enlarged with the addition of corner turrets by George Proctor and wings by Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, and addition of a Doric order, Doric portico in the 19th century. The interior of the Hall boasts fine plaster decorations in the library attributed to the court sculptor of Frederick V of Denmark, Charles Stanley. The fine ceiling in the ladies' boudoir, on 'Music and Entertainment', was painted by Andien de Clermont prior to his return to France in 1755. The Hall was originally built c.1730 for Richard Berney, on 25 hectares (60 acres) of land that until the Dissolution of the Monasteries belonged to La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Yorke
Charles Yorke Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (30 December 172220 January 1770) was briefly Lord Chancellor, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. His father was also Lord Chancellor, and he began his career as a Member of Parliament. He served successively as Solicitor General for England and Wales, Solicitor-General and Attorney general, Attorney-General for several governments, during which he was best known for writing what became the Quebec Act. He was appointed Lord Chancellor over his objections, but he committed suicide only three days after taking the post. Life The second son of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, he was born in London, and was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His literary abilities were shown at an early age by his collaboration with his brother Philip in the ''Athenian Letters''. In 1745 he published an able treatise on the law of Asset forfeiture, forfeiture for high treason, in defence of the severe sentence (law), sentence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chase Gun
A chase gun (or chaser), usually distinguished as bow chaser and stern chaser, was a cannon mounted in the bow (aiming forward) or stern (aiming backward) of a sailing ship. They were used to attempt to slow down an enemy ship either chasing (pursuing) or being chased, when the ship's broadside could not be brought to bear. Typically, the chasers were used to attempt to damage the rigging and thereby cause the target to lose performance. Bow chasers could be regular guns brought up from the gundeck and aimed through specially cut-out ports on either side of the bowsprit, or dedicated weapons made with an unusually long bore and a relatively light ball, and mounted in the bow. Stern chasers could also be improvised, or left permanently in the cabins at the stern, covered up and used as part of the furniture. Development In the Age of Sail, shiphandling had been brought to a high art, and chases frequently lasted for hours or sometimes days, as each crew fine-tuned their sail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by the Southern Ocean or Antarctica, depending on the definition in use. Along its core, the Indian Ocean has some large marginal or regional seas such as the Arabian Sea, Laccadive Sea, Bay of Bengal, and Andaman Sea. Etymology The Indian Ocean has been known by its present name since at least 1515 when the Latin form ''Oceanus Orientalis Indicus'' ("Indian Eastern Ocean") is attested, named after Indian subcontinent, India, which projects into it. It was earlier known as the ''Eastern Ocean'', a term that was still in use during the mid-18th century (see map), as opposed to the ''Western Ocean'' (Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic) before the Pacific Ocean, Pacific was surmised. Conversely, Ming treasure voyages, Chinese explorers in the Indian Oce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isle De France (Mauritius)
Isle de France () was the name of the Indian Ocean island which is known as Mauritius and its dependent territories between 1715 and 1810, when the area was under the French East India Company and a part of the French colonial empire. Under the French, the island witnessed major changes. The increasing importance of agriculture led to the importation of slaves and the undertaking of vast infrastructural works that transformed Port Louis into a major capital, port, warehousing, and commercial centre. During the Napoleonic Wars, Isle de France became a base from which the French navy, including squadrons under Rear Admiral Linois or Commodore Jacques Hamelin, and corsairs such as Robert Surcouf, organised raids on British merchant ships. The raids (see Battle of Pulo Aura and Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811) continued until 1810 when the British sent a strong expedition to capture the island. The first British attempt, in August 1810, to attack Grand Port resulted in a Frenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Post-captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain regardless of rank; * Commander (Royal Navy), Commanders, who received the title of captain as a courtesy, whether they currently had a command or not (e.g. the fictional Captain Jack Aubrey in ''Aubrey-Maturin series#Master and Commander, Master and Commander'' or the fictional Captain Horatio Hornblower in ''Hornblower and the Hotspur''); this custom is now defunct. In the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th centuries, an officer might be promoted from commander to captain, but not have a command. Until the officer obtained a command, he was "on the beach" and on half-pay. An officer "took post" or was "made post" when he was first commissioned to command a vessel. Usually this was a rating system of the Royal Navy, ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East Indies
The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around the Indian Ocean by Portuguese explorers, soon after the Cape route was discovered. Nowadays, this term is broadly used to refer to the Malay Archipelago, which today comprises the Philippine Archipelago, Indonesian Archipelago, Malaysian Borneo, and New Guinea. Historically, the term was used in the Age of Discovery to refer to the coasts of the landmasses comprising the Indian subcontinent and the Indochinese Peninsula along with the Malay Archipelago. Overview During the era of European colonization, territories of the Spanish Empire in Asia were known as the Spanish East Indies for 333 years before the American conquest. Dutch occupied colonies in the area were known for about 300 years as the Dutch East Indies till Indonesian indepen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brig-sloop
In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' encompassed all the unrated combat vessels, including the very small gun-brigs and cutters. In technical terms, even the more specialised bomb vessels and fireships were classed as sloops-of-war, and in practice these were employed in the sloop role when not carrying out their specialised functions. In World War I and World War II, the Royal Navy reused the term "sloop" for specialised convoy-defence vessels, including the of World War I and the highly successful of World War II, with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capability. They performed similar duties to the American destroyer escort class ships, and also performed similar duties to the smaller corvettes of the Royal Navy. Rigging A sloop-of-war was quite different from a civilian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Dudley Oliver
Admiral Robert Dudley Oliver (31 October 1766 – 1 September 1850) was a senior officer of the British Royal Navy during the early nineteenth century, who served in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars with distinction, seeing action several times during his career, particularly with the fleet in the Caribbean during 1782. After briefly serving in the War of 1812 off the coast of Virginia, Oliver retired from the Navy, settling near Dublin, where he was an active member of religious societies until his death in 1850. Life Oliver was born in 1766 and entered the Navy aged 13, joining in 1779 as a shipmate of the young Prince William. ''Prince George'' was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Robert Digby, and in 1781 was sent to the coast of North America during the American Revolutionary War. Oliver remained in the Americas aboard ''Prince George'' until the end of the war seeing action at the Battle of St. Kitts and the large Battle o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bomb Vessel
A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons ( long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounted forward near the bow and elevated to a high angle, and projecting their fire in a ballistic arc. Explosive shells (also called ''bombs'' at the time) or carcasses were employed rather than solid shot. Bomb vessels were specialized ships designed for bombarding (hence the name) fixed positions on land. In the 20th century, this naval gunfire support role was carried out by the most similar purpose-built World War I- and II-era monitors, but also battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. Development The first recorded deployment of bomb vessels by the English was for the siege of Calais in 1347 when Edward III deployed single deck ships with bombardes and other artillery. The first specialised bomb vessels were built towards the end ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith
George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith (7 January 1746 – 10 March 1823), was a British naval officer active throughout the Napoleonic Wars. Career Early service George Elphinstone was the fourth son of Charles Elphinstone, 10th Lord Elphinstone, and his wife Lady Clementina Fleming, the daughter and heiress of John Fleming, 6th Earl of Wigtown. Elphinstone was born on 7 January 1746 at Elphinstone Tower, Scotland. Of his three elder brothers, two joined the British Army while the third, William Fullerton Elphinstone, initially served in the Royal Navy before joining the East India Company. Elphinstone followed his third brother into the navy, joining the 100-gun ship of the line on 4 November 1761. He stayed in her only briefly, transferring to the 44-gun frigate , commanded by Captain John Jervis, on 1 January of the following year. Serving in ''Gosport'' on the North American Station, Elphinstone saw action in the campaign that culminated in the removal of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet
Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet, (22 April 1772 – 19 August 1853) was a British Royal Navy officer. As a captain (Royal Navy), captain he was present at the Battle of Cape St Vincent (1797), Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars and commanded the naval support at the Invasion of Martinique (1809), reduction of Martinique in February 1809 during the Napoleonic Wars. He also directed the capture and Burning of Washington on 24 August 1814 as an advisor to Major General Robert Ross (British Army officer), Robert Ross during the War of 1812. He went on to be First Sea Lord, First Naval Lord and in that capacity sought to improve the standards of gunnery in the fleet, forming a HMS Excellent (shore establishment), gunnery school at Portsmouth; later he ensured that the Navy had the latest steam and screw technology and put emphasis on the ability to manage seamen without the need to r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
