A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Beechey, Frederick William
BEECHEY, F.R.S., &c. (Captain, 1827. f-p., .30; h-p., 11.)
Frederick William Beechey, born 17 Feb. 1796, is son of the late Sir Wm. Beechey, Kt.; brother of Commander Rich. Brydges Beechey, R.N.; and brother-in-law of Lord Grantley.
This officer entered the Navy, 7 July, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Hibernia 110, bearing the flag in the Channel of Earl St. Vincent; attained the rating of Midshipman 8 Jan. 1807; and, until Jan. 1803, continued to serve in the same ship with Capts. Tristram Robt. Ricketts, Wm. Bedford, John Conn, and Chas. Marsh Schomberg; under the latter of whom and the flag of Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, he escorted to a certain distance the Royal Family of Portugal on its flight to the Brazils in Nov. 1807. He next, for a short period, joined, with Capt. Schomberg, the Minotaur 74, stationed off Lisbon; then accompanied the same officer and Sir W. S. Smith to Rio Janeiro in the Foudroyant 80; and, after a further attachment with Capt. Schomberg to the President 50, came home with him in the Elizabeth 74, Capt. Hon. Henry Curzon, early in 1310. Mr. Beechey subsequently eerved for about a fortnight in the Cyane 22, Capt. Edw. Pelham Brenton, on the Home station; whence, having rejoined Capt. Sohomberg in the Astrea, of 42 guns and 271 men, he proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope. On 20 May, 1811, when in company, off Madagascar, with the Phoebe and Galatea frigates, of force similar to the Astrea, and 18-gun brig Racehorse, he assisted, after a long and warmly-contested action with the French 40-gun frigates Rénommée, Clorinde, and Néréide, and a loss to the Astrea of 2 killed and 16 wounded, at the capture of the Rénommée, and, on 25 of the same month, of the Néréide and the settlement of Tamatave. He returned to England in Sept. 1812, on board the Galatea 36, Capt. Woodley Losack; and afterwards, until the receipt of his first commission, 10 March, 1815, served in the Thisbe 28, Capt. Thos. Dick, lying at Northfleet, Madagascar 33, Capt. Lucius Curtis, in the Channel, Vengeur 74, Capt. T. R. Ricketts, and Tonnant 80, flag-ship in North America of Hon. Sir Alex. Inglis Cochrane. While attached to the Vengeur he attended the expedition to New Orleans, and was in the boats, on 8 Jan. 1815, when they swept across the Mississippi with a body of troops, seamen, and marines, to create a diversion in favour of the general attack on the American lines. As Lieutenant, Mr. Beechey’s appointments appear to have been – 13 Sept. 1815, to the Niger 38, Capt. Sam. Jackson, on the North American station – 14 Jan. 1818, to the Trent hired brig, Lieut.-Commander, now Sir John, Franklin, whom he accompanied in a Northern expedition under Capt. David Buchan[1] – 22 Jan. 1819, to the Hecla sloop, Lieut.-Commander Wm. Edw. Parry, in which he penetrated to long. 113° 54’ 43" W. within the Arctic Circle, and received in consequence a Parliamentary reward of 200l. – and, 23 Jan. 1321, to the Adventure sloop, Capt. Wm. Henry Smyth. On 5 Nov. following, having been appointed, in conjunction with his brother, Mr. Henry W. Beechey, to co-operate with the last-named vessel in conducting overland a survey of the North Coast of Africa, he set out from Tripoli for that purpose. The results of his researches, which extended as far eastward as Derna, and lasted until 25 July, 1822, have been fully detailed by Capt. Beechey in his ‘Proceedings of the Expedition to explore the Northern Coast of Africa from Tripoli eastward, in 1321-2; comprehending an Account of the Greater Syrtis and Cyrenaica, and of the ancient Cities composing the Pentapolis.’ He was advanced to the rank of Commander 25 Jan. 1822; and, on 7 Jan. 1825, received an appointment to the Blossom 24, fitting at Woolwich for a voyage of discovery, via Cape Horn, to Bering Strait, there to act in concert with the contemporaneous and differently directed expeditions of Capts. Franklin and Parry in their efforts to ascertain the existence of a northwest passage. During the three years and a half of Cant. Beechey’s absence from England, he took formal possession in the Pacific of the islands called Gambier’s Group; discovered five others, to which he gave the names of Barrow, Cockburn, Byam Martin, Croker, and Melville; passed Bering Strait, and penetrated, in Aug. 1826, to a point northward of Icy Cape, whence the Blossom’s barge, under Mr. Thos. Bison, the Master, reached lat. 71° 23’ 31" N., and long. 156° 21’ 30" W., only 146 miles from the extreme of Franklin’s explorations on his progress westward from the Mackenzie River; afterwards examined the sea eastward of Loo-choo, where he rediscovered the Ylas del Arzobispo; and, on again visiting the frozen regions in the summer of 1827, entered for the first time a spacious and important haven to the south-eastward of Cape Prince of Wales, leading into a secure inner harbour, well adapted for repairing ships, to which he respectively assigned the names of Port Clarence and Grantley Harbour. The Blossom at length, after traversing 73,000 miles and rendering the most essential service to the science of navigation, arrived at Spithead in Sept. 1828, bringing with her the Right Hon. Robt. Gordon, late H.M. Ambassador at the court of Brazils, and remittances from different ports in the Pacific to an amount exceeding 1,600,000 dollars. She was paid off at Woolwich 12 Oct. following. Capt. Beechey, who had been advanced to Post-rank 8 May, 1827, has published a history of the proceedings to which we have here alluded, in his ‘Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Bering Strait, to co-operate with the Polar Expeditions in 1325-3.’ His appointments, since, have been – 25 Sept. 1835, to the Sulphur 8, for the purpose of surveying the coast of South America, whence his health obliged him to return in the autumn of 1836 – and, 18 July, 1837, 7 May, 1840, and 16 March, 1844, to the African, Lucifer, and Firefly, steam-vessels, in which he has been continuously employed in surveying the coast of Ireland.
Capt. Beechey married, in Dec. 1828, Charlotte, youngest daughter of Lieut.-Colonel John Stapleton, of Thorpe Lee, and sister-in-law of the late Bishop of Oxford, by whom he has issue.
- ↑ See ‘A Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, performed in H.M. Ships Dorothea and Trent, under the command of Capt. David Buchan, 1818,’ &c., published by Capt. Beechey in 1843.