A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Cater, Charles Joseph
CATER. (Lieut., 1809. f-p., 17; h-p., 26.)
Charles Joseph Cater was born 14 Dec. 1788, and died 31 July, 1845. He was youngest son of the late Henry Cater, Esq., Attorney-at-law, of Great James Street, London; and brother of the late Mr. Sam. Cater, R.N. , who, after having served in the battles of Camperdown and Copenhagen, was lost, as Master’s Mate, in the Scout 18, Capt. Henry Duncan, 25 March, 1801.
This officer entered the Navy, in June, 1802, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Magicienne 32, Capt. Henry Vansittart, with whom he subsequently sailed for the West Indies, as Midshipman of the Fortunée 36, and there assisted at the capture of a Spanish packet, of which, with another Midshipman and 22 men, he was placed in charge. A few days afterwards, the prize having been rendered totally unserviceable in a gale of wind, Mr. Cater and his party were compelled to abandon her, and, on landing at Vera Cruz, were marched up the country, as prisoners of war, to Pueblos de los Angelos, where they were detained for the space of 15 months. On at length regaining his liberty, the subject of this sketch rejoined the Fortunée, then on the coast of Ireland; after which he was transferred to the Bellerophon 74, flag-ship of Lord Gardner off the Texel, and, on 28 Feb. 1809, appointed Lieutenant of the Ephera brig, Capts. John Strutt Peyton and Thos. Everard, under the latter of whom he was wrecked, near Cadiz, 26 Dec. 1811. His subsequent appointments appear to have been – 29 Feb. 1812, to the Savage sloop, Capt. Wm. Bissell, on the Portsmouth station – 12 March, 1814, to the Terror bomb, Capts. John Sheridan and Constantino Rich. Moorsom, in which he served, until the peace, up the Chesapeake and along the coast to Cumberland Sound – and, 25 Oct. 1815, as First Lieutenant, to the Nimrod 18, Capts. John Macpherson Ferguson and John Windham Dalling, on the Leith station. He was paid off 24 June, 1819, and was not afterwards employed.
Lieut. Cater married, 10 Aug. 1830, Clarissa Dorothy, second daughter of the late Lieut.-Col. Thos. John Stirling, R.M., grand-daughter of the late Lieut.-Col. T. Stirling, R.M., and sister of the present Lieut. Spencer Stirling, R.N., by whom he has left an only daughter.