Edward Pellew

Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB (19 April 1757 – 23 January 1833) was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. His younger brother Israel Pellew also pursued a naval career.

Childhood

Pellew was born at Dover, the second son of Samuel Pellew (1712–1764), commander of a Dover packet, and his wife, Constantia Langford.

The Pellew family was Cornish, descended from a family that came originally from Normandy, but had for many centuries been settled in the west of Cornwall. Edward's grandfather, Humphrey Pellew (1650–1721), a merchant and ship owner, son of a naval officer, resided at Flushing manor-house in the parish of Mylor. Part of the town of Flushing was built by Samuel Trefusis, MP for Penryn; the other part was built by Humphrey Pellew, who was buried there. He also had a property and a tobacco plantation in Maryland. Part of the town of Annapolis stands on what was, before the American Revolution, the estate of the Pellews.

On the death of Edward's father in 1764 the family removed to Penzance, and Pellew was educated for some years at Truro Grammar School. He was a pugnacious youth, which did not endear him to his headmaster. He ran away to sea at the age of 14, but soon deserted because of unfair treatment to another midshipman. Pellew described himself as "pock-marked, ugly, uninteresting and uneducated"; a naval historian adds that he was "tough, brave, skilful, lucky, and unscrupulous".

Early career

1770s

In 1770, Pellew entered the Royal Navy on board HMS ''Juno'' with Captain John Stott, and made a voyage to the Falkland Islands. In 1772, he followed Stott to the ''Alarm'', and in her was in the Mediterranean for three years. In consequence of a high-spirited quarrel with his captain, he was put on shore at Marseilles where he found an old friend of his father's in command of a merchant ship. He was able to get a passage to Lisbon and so home.

He was later in ''HMS Blonde'', under the command of Captain Philemon Pownoll, which took General John Burgoyne to America in the spring of 1776. In October, Pellew and midshipman Brown were detached for service in the ''Carleton'' tender on Lake Champlain, under Lieutenant Dacres. During the Battle of Valcour Island on 11 October, Dacres and Brown were both severely wounded, and the command devolved on Pellew. Pellew extricated the vessel from a position of great danger by his personal gallantry. As a reward for his service, he was immediately appointed to command the ''Carleton''. In December, Lord Howe promised him a commission as lieutenant when he could reach New York, and in the following January Lord Sandwich wrote promising to promote him when he came to England. In the summer of 1777, Pellew and a small party of seamen were attached to the army under Burgoyne, and he was present in the fighting at Saratoga, where his youngest brother John was killed. He and the rest of the force were taken prisoner. After the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, he was repatriated.

He returned to England and was promoted on 9 January 1778 to be lieutenant of the ''Princess Amelia'' guardship at Portsmouth. He wanted to be appointed to a seagoing ship, but Lord Sandwich considered that he was bound by the terms of the surrender at Saratoga not to undertake any active service. Towards the end of the year, he was appointed to the ''Licorne'' which went out to Newfoundland in the spring of 1779, returning in the winter, when Pellew was moved into the ''Apollo'' with his old captain Pownoll. On 15 June 1780, the ''Apollo'' engaged a large French privateer, the ''Stanislaus'', off Ostend. Pownoll was killed by a musket-shot, but Pellew continued the action and dismasted the ''Stanislaus'', driving her on shore where she was protected by the neutrality of the coast. On the 18th, Lord Sandwich wrote to him: "I will not delay informing you that I mean to give you immediate promotion as a reward for your gallant and officer-like conduct." On 1 July, he was accordingly promoted to the command of the sloop ''Hazard'', which was employed for the next six months on the east coast of Scotland and was then paid off.

Peacetime service

In March 1782 Pellew was appointed to the , a small French prize, so small indeed that he used to say "his servant could dress his hair from the deck while he sat in the cabin." On 28 April while cruising on the coast of Brittany, he engaged three privateers and drove them on shore. In special reward for this service, he was promoted to post rank on 25 May and, ten days later, was appointed to the temporary command of the ''Artois'', in which he captured a large frigate-built privateer on 1 July.

From 1786 to 1789, he commanded the frigate under the Commander-in-Chief, Newfoundland, returning home each winter by Cadiz and Lisbon. Afterwards, he commanded the ''Salisbury'' on the same station as flag-captain to Vice-Admiral Milbanke. In 1791, he was placed on half-pay and tried his hand at farming on Treverry Farm near Helston, a property owned by his brother who was a senior customs officer of Flushing. This met with indifferent success, during which time he attempted to sell a bull, only to find that it was in the ownership of a neighbouring farmer.

The Russians offered him a command in the Russian navy but Pellew declined the offer. He was still struggling with the difficulties of his farm when the revolutionary government of France declared war on Great Britain on 1 February 1793.

Wartime service

Pellew immediately applied for a ship and was appointed to the , a 36-gun frigate which he fitted out in a remarkably short time. He had expected a good deal of difficulty in manning her and had enlisted some 80 Cornish miners who were sent round to the ship at Spithead. He put to sea with these and about a dozen seamen, plus officers who were obliged to help in the work aloft. He filled his complement of crew by pressing from the merchant ships in the Channel, but with very few seasoned navy men. On 18 June, ''Nymphe'' sailed from Falmouth on the news that two French frigates had been seen in the Channel.

At the action of 18 June 1793, ''Nymphe'' fell in with the '' Cléopâtre'', also of 36 guns and commanded by Captain Jean Mullon, one of the few officers of the ''ancien régime'' who still remained in the French navy. After a short but very sharp action, ''Cléopâtre''s mizzenmast and wheel were shot away, making the ship unmanageable, and it fell foul of the ''Nymphe''. Pellew's crew boarded her in a fierce rush and captured her. Mullon was mortally wounded, and died trying to swallow his commission, which in his dying agony he had mistaken for the code of secret signals. The code thus fell intact into Pellew's hands, and was forwarded to the Admiralty. ''Cléopâtre'' was the first frigate taken in the war and was brought to Portsmouth. The Earl of Chatham presented Pellew to the king on 29 June, and the king knighted him.

Pellew transferred to HMS in December 1793. In 1794, ''Arethusa'' was part of the western squadron of frigates based at Falmouth under Sir John Borlase Warren. On 23 April, the squadron engaged a French squadron to the southwest of Guernsey, the stronger British force quickly overpowering their opponents in an action where ''Arethusa'' played the primary role in fighting the ''Pomone'', at the time the largest frigate in service. ''Pomone'' surrendered after an engagement that lasted less than half an hour. The French had suffered between 80 and 100 casualties; ''Arethusa'' had only three dead and five wounded. Warren's squadron went on to destroy one frigate and capture another. They also drove ashore the corvettes '' Alerte'' and '' Espion'', both of which had been Royal Navy sloops. Pellew refused to burn either ship, as they contained wounded men, and the French later refloated ''Espion''. The squadron also captured many vessels from French coastal convoys.

Service in the French Revolutionary War

By 1794, he was commodore of the Western Frigate Squadron. In 1795, he took command of , the ship with which he is most closely associated. The squadron also comprised the frigates , , , and .''Campagnes, thriomphes, revers, désastres et guerres civiles des Français de 1792 à la paix de 1856'', F. Ladimir et E. Moreau. Librairie Populaire des Villes et des Campagnes, 185
Tome 5
pp.42-43

He was a good swimmer and noted for saving the lives of several seamen who had fallen overboard. The most striking life-saving event was on 26 January 1796 when the East Indiaman was carrying more than four hundred troops, together with many women and children, when it ran aground under Plymouth Hoe. Due to the heavy seas, the crew and soldiers aboard were unable to get to shore. Pellew swam out to the wreck with a line and, with help from young Irishman Jeremiah Coghlan, helped rig a lifeline that saved almost all aboard. For this feat he was created a baronet on 18 March 1796.

On 13 April 1796, off the coasts of Ireland, his squadron captured the French frigate ''Unité'', and the ''Virginie'' nine days later.

His most noted action was the action of 13 January 1797, cruising in company with , when the British sighted the French 74-gun ship of the line ''Droits de l'Homme''. Normally, a ship of the line would over-match two frigates, but by skillful sailing in the stormy conditions, the frigates avoided bearing the brunt of the superior firepower of the French. In the early morning of 14 January, the three ships were embayed on a lee shore in Audierne to safety.

Pellew was also responsible for pressing young violinist and composer Joseph Antonio Emidy who had been playing in the Lisbon Opera orchestra.

Admiralcy and peerage

Pellew was promoted to rear admiral in 1804. He was then appointed Commander-in-Chief, East Indies. It took six months to sail out to Penang, so he took up the appointment in 1805.

When in February 1808 Pellew was at sea in his flagship, , he heard of the outbreak of war between the United Kingdom and Denmark. He immediately sailed to the Danish settlement at Tranquebar, taking it by surprise. When Admiral Drury arrived to replace Pellew as C-in-C, East Indies, and to seize Tranquebar, he found that he was too late. Pellew's seizing the moment gained him some £40,000–50,000 in prize money.

Following his return from the east in 1809, he was appointed to the position of Commander-in-Chief, North Sea from 1810 to 1811 and Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, from 1811 to 1814, and again from 1815 to 1816.

In 1814, he was made Baron Exmouth of Canonteign. In 1816, he led an Anglo-Dutch fleet against the Barbary states. Victory at the Bombardment of Algiers secured the release of the 1,200 Christian slaves in the city. For this action, he was created 1st Viscount Exmouth on 10 December 1816. Following his return to England, he became Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth from 1817 to 1821, when he effectively retired from active service. He continued to attend and speak in the House of Lords. In 1832, he was appointed Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom and Admiral of the Red Squadron of His Majesty's Fleet, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, also of the Royal and distinguished Order of Charles III of Spain, of the Military Order of William of the Netherlands, of the Royal Sicilian Order of St. Ferdinand and Merit, of the Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus of Sardinia, Knight of the Most Honourable and Most Ancient Order of the Annunziata of the Royal House of Savoy, High Steward of Great Yarmouth, and one of the Elder Brethren of the Hon. Corporation of the Trinity House.

He bought Bitton House in Teignmouth in 1812 and it was his home until his death in 1833. He was buried in Christow on the eastern edge of Dartmoor on 30 Jan 1833. A note on the parish burial record states, "No Singing, No Sermon". The museum in Teignmouth has a comprehensive collection of artefacts that belonged to him.

Marriage and family

On 28 May 1783, Pellew married Susan Frowde. They had four sons and two daughters. These children were:
* Emma Mary Pellew (18 January 1785 – March 1835). Married Captain Lawrence Halsted in December 1803.
* Pownoll Bastard Pellew, later 2nd Viscount Exmouth (1 July 1786 – 2 December 1833)
* Julia Pellew (28 November 1787 – 26 December 1831)
* Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew, later an admiral and knight (13 December 1789 – 28 July 1861)
* George Pellew, Dean of Norwich (3 April 1793 – 13 October 1866)
* Edward William Pellew, later a minister (3 November 1799 – 29 August 1869), whose daughter Frances Helen Pellew married Sir Louis Mallet

Geographical namesakes

The Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands situated in the Gulf of Carpentaria were named after Pellew by Matthew Flinders, who visited them in 1802. Other Australian geographical features include Cape Pellew (adjacent to the islands) and Exmouth Gulf.

Point Pellew, Alaska was named after Pellew by Captain George Vancouver during his expedition in 1794.Orth, Donald J., "Dictionary of Alaska Place Names", page 747, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967.

Palau (formerly the Pellew or Pelew Islands), east of the Philippines, is often said to be named for Edward Pellew, but it was called that by Captain Henry Wilson in 1783 which was well before Pellew came to prominence. It appears to be an anglicization of the indigenous name Belau.

There is also a building named after him in HMS ''Raleigh'', where Naval basic training is conducted, that is used as sleeping quarters for new recruits. Additionally, a Sea Cadet Unit in Truro is called T.S. ''Pellew''.

A building at Wyvern Barracks in Exeter, Devon is used as a temporary billet and a training facility for the Army Cadet force as well as other units. It was handed over to the army from the navy. However, it retains the name Pellew House in memory of Sir Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth.

Fictional appearances

Pellew is featured as the Captain of in some of C. S. Forester's fictional Horatio Hornblower novels. In the television adaptations, he is portrayed by Robert Lindsay and given a more prominent role. He appears as a midshipman in the novel ''Jack Absolute'' by Chris Humphreys. Pellew is the name of a minor character in several of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin novels, including ''The Reverse of the Medal'' and ''The Surgeon's Mate''. He has a small role as a captain in the American Revolution in '' Rabble in Arms'', a historical novel by Kenneth Roberts. He appears in Alexander Kent's Adam Bolitho novel '' Relentless Pursuit'', which partially relates to Pellew's expedition against the Barbary States. He also appears in the twenty-second Thomas Kydd novel, ''To The Eastern Seas'' by Julian Stockwin.

Arms

Notes

References

*
* Mahan, A.T. (1902
"Pellew: The Frigate Captain and Partisan Officer"
in: ''Types of Naval Officers: drawn from the history of the British Navy''; Chapter VII. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Available on Project Gutenberg – accessed 10 June 2007
* Osler, Edward (1854
''Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth''
London: Geo. Routledge & Co., 235 p., Available on Project Gutenberg – accessed 10 June 2007
* Parkinson, C. Northcote (1934) ''Edward Pellew, Viscount Exmouth, Admiral of the Red''. London: Methuen & Co., 478 p.
* Taylor, Stephen (2012) ''Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain'', Faber

External links

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Edward Pellew (1757–1833)
at Three Decks - Warships in the Age of Sail.
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Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
Wikipedia audio article on YouTube

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Exmouth, Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount
1757 births
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British naval commanders of the Napoleonic Wars
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