Henry Blackwood
Sir Henry Blackwood, Bt | |
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Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |
Early life
Blackwood was the fourth son of
With the frigates
He was promoted
Early in 1799, the Brilliant returned to
On the night of 30 March 1800 Guillaume Tell, of 80 guns, taking advantage of a southerly gale and intense darkness, weighed and ran out of the harbour. Although this ship of the line vastly outclassed Penelope, Blackwood immediately followed, and, having the advantage of sailing, quickly came up with her; then, in the words of the log:
- 'luffed under her stern, and gave him the larboard port broadside, bore up under the larboard quarter and gave him the starboard broadside, receiving from him only his stern-chase guns. From this hour till daylight, finding that we could place ourselves on either quarter, the action continued in a foregoing manner, and with such success on our side that, when day broke, the Guillaume Tell was found in a most dismantled state.
At five o'clock
HMS Euryalus
In April 1803 Blackwood was appointed to
Loss of HMS Ajax
In 1807, while captain of Ajax in the Dardanelles under the command of Admiral Sir John Duckworth, his vessel accidentally caught fire, with the loss of 252 lives. This still counts as one of the greatest tragedies in British naval history. Blackwood survived by clutching an oar[1] for an hour in the water before being rescued by Canopus.
HMS Warspite
Following the obligatory court-martial hearing over the loss of Ajax, after being acquitted Blackwood was given command of Warspite, where one of his midshipmen was his nephew Price Blackwood, 4th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye. With this command he sailed in the North Sea and later with the Channel Fleet, receiving a small squadron command during the blockade of Toulon in 1810.[1] He continued to serve in Warspite after her repairs in 1812, returning to the Channel Fleet, and serving at the blockades of Brest and Rochfort during a cruise that took Warspite to Vlissingen, Netherlands; Douarnenez, France; Basque Roads, France; and Cawsand, Cornwall.
One of his midshipmen, James Cheape, describes Blackwood as a disciplinarian who seemed to order lashings almost daily.[6] Elsewhere Cheape describes the conflict between Blackwood and Lord Keith when in November 1813, Cheape says he wrote that Lord Melville ordered a line of battleships to the "Western Islands", and wanted Warspite to be among them. Lord Keith, however, advised Captain Blackwood, "that he could not possibly send him as he had orders to send another ship" and sent his friend Captain West's ship instead. Captain Blackwood then sent a "private letter to Lord Keith – saying he wished Warspite to have the preference before any other ship – when showed the letter to Lord Keith he would not read it – so I suppose they don't speak now." This caused Blackwood to resign his command immediately after a continuous active service of six years.
Rear admiral
On 4 June 1814, Blackwood attained the rank of
Later life
From 1830 to his death he served as a
He died after a short illness, differently stated as
Blackwood was married three times and left a large family.[1]
The
The region of Blackwood in Adelaide South Australia was named by William Light who served with him during the Napoleonic Wars
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Henry Blackwood at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ 3 November 1790
- ^ 6 July 1794
- ^ 2 June 1795
- ^ a b Troude, vol. 3, p. 130
- ^ James Cheape Letters (Warspite, 2 June 1812 – 1 April 1814) 1808–1818, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan, 1992. M-2890.4.
- ^ "No. 16919". The London Gazette. 23 July 1814. p. 1487.
- ^ "Cornwall Terrace". Archived from the original on 12 October 2012.
- ^ "Index of Officers: B" (PDF). Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humantities, Loyola University Chicago.
- ^ Dictionary of British Sculptors, 1660–1851, Rupert Gunnis
Further reading
- The Trafalgar Captains, Colin White and the 1805 Club, Chatham Publishing, London, 2005, ISBN 1-86176-247-X
- Troude, Onésime-Joachim (1867). Batailles navales de la France (in French). Vol. 3. Challamel ainé.
External links
- "Sir Henry Blackwood." From Admiral Lord Nelson site. Accessed on 18 October 2005.
- Animation of the Battle of Trafalgar