A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Batt, William

1633084A Naval Biographical Dictionary — Batt, WilliamWilliam Richard O'Byrne

BATT. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 30; h-p., 17.)

William Batt was born 7 Feb. 1793.

This officer entered the Navy, in 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Eurydice 24, Capts. Walter Bathurst and Chas. Malcolm, from which ship, after assisting at the capture, 8 May, 1801, of Le Bougainville privateer, of 14 guns and 67 men, and making a voyage to the East Indies, he was paid off in March, 1803. In Jan. 1805, he joined the Lily 18, Capts. Morrison and Donald Campbell; but, before long, was captured by two privateers while serving on board a tender belonging to that vessel, and detained a prisoner for several months at Cumana, in South America. On his return to the Lily, Mr. Batt aided in taking the Leander, a Columbian ship of 22 guns and 200 men, and was also present in an attack on La Villa de Coro, on the Spanish Main; subsequently to which he joined the Express gun-brig, Lieut.-Commanders Geo. Spearing, Humphrey Fleming Senhouse, Wm. Dowers, Wm. Deane, and Wm. Malone. While in that vessel he was slightly wounded in the back in an action off Martinique with a national brig and two privateers, mounting together 39 guns – took part, when in company with H.M.S. Ethalion, in an encounter with the French 44-gun frigate Amphitrite – and shared in the reduction of Marie-galante, Deseada, the Saintes, and Martinique. From 1812, previously to which year he had assisted, in the Nisus 38, Capt. Philip Beaver, at the reduction of the Isle of France, until Dec. 1815, he further served, on the Cork, Jamaica, and Channel stations, in the Talbot, Ringdove, and Wanderer sloops, Capts. Spelman Swaine, Henry Hanes, and Wm. Dowers. He then went on halfpay, having been awarded a commission on 15 of the previous March, and so remained until 1829, when he joined the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Hyperion 42, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye. He has been employed in the Coast Guard since 24 April, 1831.

He is a widower with three daughters. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.