A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Roberts, William
ROBERTS. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 12;[1] h-p., 32.)
William Roberts was born in Aug. 1782.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 April, 1803, as A.B., on board the Netley schooner, Lieut.-Commanders Lawrence, Rich. Harward, Wm. Autridge, Askew, and Wm. Carr. In the course of the same year the Netley assisted at the capture of Ste. Lucie, Demerara, Essequibo, and Berhice; in June, 1805, she was in escort of a convoy of 15 sail which fell into the hands of Admiral Villeneuve;[2] in 1806 she communicated to Capt. Kenneth M‘Kenzie of the Carysfort 28, at anchor off St. Christopher’s, information which prevented a fleet of between one and two hundred homeward-bound merchantmen from being taken or destroyed by an enemy’s squadron then almost in sight; and on 17 Dec. 1806 she was captured and taken into Guadeloupe by the French frigate Thétis and brig Sylphe. In Jan. 1807, having regained his liberty, Mr. Roberts, who had attained the rating of Midshipman, was again placed under the orders of Lieut. Carr on board the Netley brig, in which vessel he remained in the West Indies until reduced to the necessity of invaliding in June, 1808. In the two Netleys he saw much boat-service; as he subsequently did, while employed as Master’s Mate, between Dec. 1808 and Sept. 1814, on the Baltic and Mediterranean stations, in the Phoebe 36, Capts. Hassard Stackpoole and Jas. Hillyar, Vanguard 74, Capt. Henry Rich. Glynn, and Malta 80, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Benj. Hallowell. In the latter ship he was engaged in many operations on the coast of Catalonia; where he witnessed Sir John Moore’s investment of Tarragona and the evacuation of the Fort of St. Philippe in the Col de Balaguer. On leaving the Malta he became Acting-Lieutenant of the Alcmène 38, Capt. Jeremiah Coghlan; in which frigate, also stationed in the Mediterranean, he continued until 10 months after his official promotion 2 Feb. 1815. In May of that year he was present at the surrender of Naples. He has since had temporary command (he served from 13 Feb. to 6 Aug. 1838 in the Dasher) of various packets on the Falmouth station, and appears, in the whole, to have made as many as 15 voyages.