William Gordon Rutherfurd

William Gordon Rutherford
William Gordon Rutherford
	Captain William Gordon Rutherford (also Rutherfurd)
Born	1764; Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	1818; Greenwich Hospital
Buried	St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, London, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1778–1818
Rank	Captain
Unit	HMS Boyne; HM Sloop Nautilus; HMS Adventure; HMS Dictator; HMS Brunswick; HMS Decade; HMS Swiftsure
Other work	Captain of Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich

Captain William Gordon Rutherfurd

French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars whose career was almost entirely conducted in the West Indies except for a brief stay in European waters during which he commanded the ship of the line HMS Swiftsure at the battle of Trafalgar

.

Early life

Rutherfurd was born in

French revolutionary wars and in 1793 he was promoted to acting lieutenant with his position being confirmed on 9 January 1794.^[1]

Rutherfurd was in the thick of the action during the 1794 West Indies campaign, serving with distinction as a junior officer in command of a landing party; storming forts on

St Lucia and Guadeloupe.^[1]

He received several accolades for his actions including, on 4 July, promotion to commander of the 16 gun sloop, Nautilus.[2]

Remaining in the Caribbean, Rutherfurd then made the next leap to

Cadiz and so was present at the battle on 21 October.^[2]

Trafalgar

Situated far to the rear of

Admiral Collingwood's division, Rutherfurd made strenuous efforts to reach the battle, but although she was quite a new ship Swiftsure had been at sea for sometime and so had damage to her hull which prevented her from making great speed. It thus took several hours for Swiftsure to reach the fight, but when she did she proved decisive in several of the southern combats, engaging at various times with the 80 gun Spanish ship, Argonauta and the 74 gun French ship, Achille.^[2] HMS Belleisle had been dismasted and was being pounded by three enemy ships when from the gunsmoke emerged the Swiftsure, her crew cheering and her guns firing double shotted rounds into the enemy, principally the Achille which was dismasted and caught fire, flames racing through the wooden ship. As thousands of panicking French sailors jumped into the sea, Rutherfurd ordered his ship's boats to rescue as many survivors as could be found, pulling hundreds aboard his ship but losing several men when the Achille's magazines suddenly detonated, swamping one of his boats. Swiftsure then tried to engage the 74 gun Aigle and the 80 gun Neptune. Aigle moved away however when her captain spotted the arrival of HMS Polyphemus.^[2]

Following the battle, the barely damaged Swiftsure took the sinking Redoutable in tow but was forced to cut the line when the French ship suddenly sank. Amongst the hundreds who drowned were five Swiftsure men.^[2] Rutherfurd returned to Gibraltar and from there travelled to Britain, where he was rewarded for his part in the action, but was then relegated to shore service and long periods of unemployment, unfortunately not possessing the seniority to make the jump to Admiral that so many of his contemporaries did.