Thomas Huskisson (1784–1844) was an officer in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. Thomas Huskisson was half-brother of

William Huskisson William Huskisson (11 March 177015 September 1830) was a British statesman, financier, and Member of Parliament for several constituencies, including Liverpool. He is commonly known as the world's first widely reported railway passenger casu ...

, the British politician.

Naval career

Huskisson joined the Royal Navy in 1800 and saw action at the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...

on in 1805. In early 1808 Lieutenant Huskisson commissioned the schooner . He had come out to the

Jamaica station Jamaica station is a major train station of the Long Island Rail Road located in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. With weekday ridership exceeding 200,000 passengers, it is the largest transit hub on Long Island, the fourth-busiest rail station ...

on , and once there Vice-Admiral Sir B. S. Rowley appointed him to ''Fleur de la Mer'' and put him to cruising off San Domingo. There he rescued a gentleman who had fallen afoul of

Henri Christophe Henri Christophe (; 6 October 1767 – 8 October 1820) was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti. Christophe was of Bambara ethnicity in West Africa, and perhaps of Igbo descent. Beginning with t ...

. Huskisson also visited Cartagena, where he was able to intercede and win the release of seven persons who had accompanied General Miranda's British-supported and unsuccessful attempted invasion of the

Captaincy General of Venezuela The Captaincy General of Venezuela ( es, Capitanía General de Venezuela), also known as the Kingdom of Venezuela (), was an administrative district of colonial Spain, created on September 8, 1777, through the Royal Decree of Graces of 1777, t ...

in 1806. Huskisson was promoted to commander on 19 January 1809, but did not find out about his promotion until May, at which time he transferred to command the . On 16 October, ''Pelorus'' and discovered a

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

moored under the St Mary battery. Fire from ''Hazard'' and ''Pelorus'' destroyed the battery while boats from both ships boarded the privateer. Her crew had abandoned the vessel but fired from the shore where two field pieces joined them. Unable to move the prize, the British blew her up. The privateer was armed with one long 18-pounder on a pivot carriage and two swivels; the British estimated that she had had a crew of 80-100 men. The action cost the British 15 men dead and wounded, with ''Pelorus'' accounting for two dead and six wounded, one mortally. In February 1810 ''Pelorus'' participated in the capture of Guadeloupe. Huskisson was promoted

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in 1811 and took command of the 22-gun . In June 1815 Huskisson recommissioned the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

. On 7 July she captured the French vessels ''Aimable Antoinette'' and ''Marie''. From 25 August 1818 to end 1820, ''Euryalus'' was in the West Indies. She served as the flagship in the Leeward Islands from November 1819 when Huskisson was promoted to

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the

Leeward Islands Station The Leeward Islands Station originally known as the Commander-in-Chief at Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands was a formation or command of the Kingdom of Great Britain and then the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed at English Harbour, Antigua, L ...

: Huskisson continued in this role until May 1820. Huskisson became Paymaster of the Navy in 1827 and was admitted to Greenwich Hospital in 1830.

Works

*His memoirs were published as ''Eyewitness to Trafalgar'' edited by David Beaumont Ellison. (Ellisons Editions 1984 - place of publication unknown). .

Family history

Thomas' half-brother was

MP, who married Emily Milbanke, the youngest daughter of Admiral

Mark Milbanke Admiral Mark Milbanke (12 April 1724 – 9 June 1805) was a British naval officer and colonial governor. Military career Milbanke was born into an aristocratic Yorkshire family with naval connections, his father was Sir Ralph Milbanke, 4th Bar ...

, the commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. Admiral Milbanke assisted his entry into the Navy. His brother John Huskisson was commissioned in 1798 into the Army and served with the 51st Regiment in

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, while his other brother

George Huskisson William Huskisson (11 March 177015 September 1830) was a British statesman, financier, and Member of Parliament for several constituencies, including Liverpool. He is commonly known as the world's first widely reported railway passenger casu ...

was commissioned in the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

. In 1813 Thomas Huskisson married Elizabeth Wedge (1788–1873), daughter of Francis Wedge of Forton, Staffordshire, and had 6 children, including William Milbanke Huskisson, of the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

and John Huskisson, a lieutenant colonel in the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huskisson, Thomas 1784 births 1844 deaths Royal Navy officers