A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Ryder, William
RYDER. (Lieut., 1816. f-p., 18; h-p., 21.)
William Ryder entered the Navy, 2 July, 1808, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Narcissus 32, Capts. Chas. Malcolm and Hon. Fred. Wm. Aylmer. In April, 1809, he served on shore at the capture of the Saintes; and in 1810 he was actively employed in co-operation with the patriots on the north coast of Spain; where he landed with a detachment of seamen and marines under Capt. Aylmer and had several skirmishes with the enemy’s troops in the neighbourhood of Santona. He was also for some time engaged on the coast of Labrador and off Greenland in affording protection to the fur-trade and the whale fisheries. In March, 1812, he removed to the Salvador del Mundo, Capt. Jas. Nash, lying at Plymouth; he again, in July of the same year, joined the Narcissus, then commanded by Capt. John Rich. Lumley; and from the following Sept. until the receipt of his commission, bearing date 16 Sept. 1816, he served on the Cork, Lisbon, Baltic, Channel, North American, and Mediterranean stations, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, in the Alfred 74, Capt. Joshua Sydney Horton, Ulysses 44, Capts. Wm. Fothergill and Thos. Browne, Pactolus 38, Capts. Hon. F. W. Aylmer and Wm. Hugh Dobbie, and Severn 40, Capt. Aylmer. In 1813 he was much employed in the Ulysses in escorting convoys through the Belts, and came often in her boats into contact with the Danish gun-vessels. While Master’s Mate, in 1814-15, of the Pactolus, he served in a rocket-boat at the bombardment of Stonington, took part in other operations on the coast of North America, and accompanied a highly successful expedition sent to the Gironde for the support of the French King. For his conduct in the Severn at the battle of Algiers he was promoted, as above, to the rank of Lieutenant. Between 1825 and 1831 he held command of different stations in the Coast Guard; and from the latter date until 1834, when his health obliged him to resign, he was employed as an Agent on board the Hope transport in conveying stores and troops to the North Seas, the coast of Portugal, and the Mediterranean.