Sir George Augustus Alexander Westphal (27 March 1785 – 12 January 1875) was a

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

n admiral in the Royal Navy who served in more than 100 actions. He was

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...

on HMS ''Victory'' during 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 ...

Early life

Westphal was born on 27 March 1785 in

, the son of George Westphal and older brother of Admiral

Philip Westphal Philip Westphal (178216 March 1880) was an admiral in the Royal Navy. He was designated a Person of National Historic Significance for Canada in 1945. Biography Philip Westphal was born in 1782, the son of George Westphal and younger brother of ...

. He joined the Royal Navy aged 13 as a first class volunteer on board the Royal navy frigate stationed in North America. Later he moved to serve on the home station and in the West Indies as a Masters mate and midshipman on and . In March 1803 Westphal joined the 32 gun

fifth rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower. Rating The rating system in the Royal N ...

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 ...

HMS ''Amphion'' as a midshipman whilst transporting Horatio Nelson to the Mediterranean to take command. Westphal was transferred to HMS ''Victory''.

Battle of Trafalgar

On 21 October 1805 Westphal was in the

fighting on Nelson's flagship ''Victory''. Westphal was shot in the head and taken to the sick bay, where he was laid near the injured Nelson. Westphal explained in an 1842 article in the ''United Service magazine'': Many years after the battle, the Admiralty asked Westphal to identify Nelson's coat after Prince Albert had bought it for the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

. Westphal was able to authenticate it with his fragments.

After Trafalgar

Westphal served as a midshipman on , the flagship of

Lord Collingwood Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood (26 September 1748 – 7 March 1810) was an admiral of the Royal Navy, notable as a partner with Lord Nelson in several of the British victories of the Napoleonic Wars, and frequently as ...

. ''Ocean'' was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line commanded by Captain Frances Pender. Westphal went on to serve as a midshipman on , a 120-gun first-rate ship of the line and flagship of

John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (9 January 1735 – 13 March 1823) was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Jervis served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into ...

. On 15 August 1806 Westphal was promoted to lieutenant on the sloop in the West Indies. He was captured when the French

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 ...

''Alerte'' took , the merchant ship he was returning to England on, during which action he was again severely wounded while leading her resistance. However he escaped from prison in

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe (; ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Gwadloup, ) is an archipelago and overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and the ...

and was picked up by an American ship. He returned to the West Indies as a lieutenant aboard , and later , ships under the command of Commodore Sir

George Cockburn Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet, (22 April 1772 – 19 August 1853) was a British Royal Navy officer. As a captain he was present at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars an ...

. He fought on land during the 1809 invasion of Martinique. Blue plaque for George Augustus Westphal in Hove

After another period in home waters, he returned to West Indies where he served aboard HMS ''Chesapeake''. On 11 (or 12) July 1813, Westphal, by then

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...

of , led a group of boats into Ocracoke Inlet during Rear Admiral Sir

's campaign against

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

and

Ocracoke Island Ocracoke
, from the North Carolina Collection website at the

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. Their targets were two privateer schooners, ''Anaconda'' and ''Atlas'', as well as a revenue cutter. As the British boats approached, the Americans opened fire. Westphal's division, attacked and captured both privateers. However, the revenue cutter escaped up the

Neuse River The Neuse River ( , Tuscarora: Neyuherú·kęʔkì·nęʔ) is a river rising in the Piedmont of North Carolina and emptying into Pamlico Sound below New Bern. Its total length is approximately , making it the longest river entirely contained in No ...

New Bern New Bern, formerly called Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 29,524, which had risen to an estimated 29,994 as of 2019. It is the county seat of Craven County and t ...

, where she gave warning of the British forces, permitting the preparation of defences that forestalled the Royal Navy from any further advance. Both privateers were condemned at Halifax and the British took them into service, under her name, and ''Atlas'' as HMS ''St Lawrence''. Westphal, newly promoted to commander with backdate to 8 July, commissioned ''Anaconda''. The ''Anaconda'' was refitted at Halifax, and Westphal received a crew of 60 men, most of whom were the dregs of the fleet, offered by their captains when Admiral

John Borlase Warren Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, 1st Baronet (2 September 1753 – 27 February 1822) was a British Royal Navy officer, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1807. Naval career Born in Stapleford, Nottinghams ...

asked for drafts.Marshall (1832), Vol. 3, Part 2, pp.195-8. Her first task was to escort a convoy of twelve merchant vessels from there to the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. While doing so she fought off an attack by two large American privateers. One of the privateers surrendered after losing her jib-boom and fore-top-mast but then escaped when the ''Anaconda'' lost her own fore-top-mast chasing after the second privateer. Warren then transferred the ''Anaconda'' 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 ...

. In March 1814, the ''Anaconda'' was stationed off the

Mississippi delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

under the orders of Captain Clement Milward of . After their defeat at

Fort Bowyer Fort Bowyer was a short-lived earthen and stockade fortification that the United States Army erected in 1813 on Mobile Point, near the mouth of Mobile Bay in what is now Baldwin County, Alabama, but then was part of the Mississippi Territory. T ...

, the British turned their attention to an attack on New Orleans. In the run-up to battle, Captain Nicholas Lockyer captured an American flotilla, consisting primarily of five

gunboats A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to shore bombardment, bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for troopship, ferrying troops or au ...

, in the

Battle of Lake Borgne The Battle of Lake Borgne was a coastal engagement between the Royal Navy and the U.S. Navy in the American South theatre of the War of 1812. It occurred on December 14, 1814 on Lake Borgne. The British victory allowed them to disembark their tro ...

. ''Anaconda'' did not contribute her boats and crew to the battle, but evacuated the 77 men who had been wounded there. During Sir

Alexander Cochrane Admiral of the Blue Sir Alexander Inglis Cochrane (born Alexander Forrester Cochrane; 23 April 1758 – 26 January 1832) was a senior Royal Navy commander during the Napoleonic Wars and achieved the rank of admiral. He had previously captain ...

's expedition against New Orleans in December, Cochrane ordered Westphal to lighten ''Anaconda'' and to get her into

Lake Borgne Lake Borgne (french: Lac Borgne, es, Lago Borgne) is a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Louisiana. Although early maps show it as a lake surrounded by land, coastal erosion has made it an arm of the Gulf of Mexico. Its name comes fro ...

. Westphal took ''Anaconda'' with great difficulty over shoals. ''Anaconda'', gun-vessels, and hired craft then moved the advance guard up the bayou in preparation for the

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. By forcing ''Anaconda'' over a bank five miles wide that was only eight feet under water, Westphal was able to get her into position 20 miles ahead of the other British warships where she could protect the boats bringing up supplies and troops. Captain

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

of wrote in a letter that ''Anaconda''s protection surely saved many of the boats from capture by the Americans. Westphal later landed with the greater part of ''Anacondas crew, who then fought in the naval brigade under Captain Edward Troubridge. At the

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

they helped man the batteries. In February 1815, ''Anaconda'' and the schooner ''Shelburne'' under Westphal's orders cruised off the Florida coast north of

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

. ''Anaconda'' was paid off in April 1815. She underwent a survey at Jamaica that found that she had sustained too much damage in the New Orleans campaign to merit retention in service. ''Anaconda'' was condemned and then sold on 5 May 1815. Westphal returned to Britain in July as a passenger aboard .

Post-war

Westphal married Alicia Chambers in 1817. He was promoted to

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) ...

on 12 August 1819. In 1822 Westphal took command of HMS ''Jupiter'', and in her took Lord Amherst to India to serve as governor general. Westphal was knighted on his return to England and served as

flag captain In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First ...

to Sir

in 1832 but was invalided out of active service in 1834.

Retirement

Westphal retired to

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

where he lived (1836–1875) until his death. On the retired list, he was promoted to rear admiral (17 August 1851), vice admiral (10 September 1857) and finally admiral (23 March 1863). When Westphal died on 12 January 1875, he was the last surviving Royal Navy officer to have fought at Trafalgar on board HMS ''Victory''. He had lived until the age of 90, some 70 years after seeing Nelson die. He was buried in the family vault at the St Andrew's Church, Church Road, Hove.

Legacy

Westphal, Nova Scotia Westphal is an unincorporated community located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and outside of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Some of Westphal is considered part of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and some of it is considered separate from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The ...

* Admiral Westphal Elementary School

External links

Plaque - Admiral Sir George Augustus Westphal served in over 100 actions and wounded at Trafalgar on HMS Victory lived here 1836-1875 by Hove Borough Council

Gravesite of Admiral Sir George Augustus Westphal

Image of Nelson's Jacket used to assist Westphal

References

;Texts
Biography of Westphal
* * Weston, William (1550?-1615) Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 60, Westphal, George Augustus by John Knox Laughton.
Nova Scotians - George Augustus Westphal
* ;Endnotes {{DEFAULTSORT:Westphal, George Augustus Royal Navy admirals Canadian knights Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars 1785 births 1875 deaths