William Fisher (18 November 1780 – 30 September 1852), was an officer of 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 ...

and a novelist. Fisher was the second son of John Fisher and Martha Goate of Great Yarmouth,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, was born on 18 November 1780, and entered the navy in 1795. After serving in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, and as acting lieutenant of on the coast of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, he was confirmed in the rank on 3 September 1801. In 1805 he was lieutenant of during the chase of

Pierre-Charles Villeneuve Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve (31 December 1763 – 22 April 1806) was a French naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. He was in command of the French and the Spanish fleets that were defeated by Nelson at the Bat ...

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 Greate ...

during the Trafalgar Campaign; and in 1806 was promoted to be commander. In 1808 he commanded the 18-gun in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

, and in the same ship, in 1809–10, was employed in surveying off

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. In March 1811 he was promoted to post-rank, and in 1816–17 commanded in succession the 20-gun ships and on the coast of Guinea, in both of which he captured several slavers and pirates, some of them after a desperate resistance. About 1827 he demonstrated the use of quick-connect hoses for the purpose of watering ships. The system was soon adopted, and to this day, is in universal use for fire engines. From March 1836 to May 1841 he commanded in the Mediterranean, and in 1840, during the operations on the coast of Syria as part of the Egyptian–Ottoman War, was employed as senior officer of the detached squadron off

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

, with the task of keeping open the mail communication through Egypt. For this service he received the Turkish gold medal and diamond decoration. He had no further service afloat, but became, in due course, a rear-admiral in 1847. During his retirement he wrote two novels : ''The Petrel, or Love on the Ocean'', in 1850, which passed through three editions, and ''Ralph Rutherford, a Nautical Romance'', in 1851. He died in London, on 30 September 1852. Of Fisher's novels, naval historian John Knox Laughton wrote "A man who had been so long in the navy during a very stirring period, who had surveyed the Mozambique, and captured slavers and pirates, had necessarily plenty of adventures at command, which scarcely needed the complications of improbable love stories to make them interesting ; but the author had neither the constructive skill nor the literary talent necessary for writing a good novel, and his language throughout is exaggerated and stilted to the point of absurdity." Fisher married, in 1810, Elizabeth, sister of Sir James Rivett-Carnac, governor of Bombay, by whom he had two children, a daughter and a son. By the son he was a grandfather of George Carnac Fisher, Bishop of Southampton and then Ipswich.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, William 1780 births 1852 deaths 19th-century English novelists Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Military personnel from Great Yarmouth Royal Navy rear admirals 19th-century Royal Navy personnel English male novelists 19th-century English male writers

Further reading

References