A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Simpson, Samuel Ash
SIMPSON. (Retired Commander, 1837. f-p., 11; h-p., 43.)
Samuel Ash Simpson died 22 Nov. 1845.
This officer entered the Navy, in Dec. 1793, as Midshipman, on board the Albacore sloop, Capt. Geo. Parker, with whom he continued employed during the remainder of the war, chiefly on the North Sea, Irish, and West India stations, in the same vessel, and in the Squirrel 20 and Santa Margarita 36. In the latter ship he contributed to the capture, among other vessels, of L’Adour of 16 guns (pierced for 20) and 147 men. La Victorine of 16 guns and 82 men, the San Francisco of 14 guns and 53 men, and Le Quatorze Juillet of 14 guns and 65 men. In the course of 1802-3 he joined, in succession, the Juno 32 and Renown 74, Capts. Richardson and White, both in the Mediterranean; where, on his passage in the Arrow sloop, Capt. Rich. Budd Vincent, to join the Sagesse frigate (of which he had been created a Lieutenant 4 May, 1804) he was captured, 4 Feb. 1805, as detailed in our memoir of Capt. John Simpson (b), by the French frigates Hortense and Incorruptible. On being exchanged, in June, 1805, he joined the Glory 98, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Chas. Stirling; under whom he fought, 22 July following, in Sir Robt. Calder’s action with the combined fleets of France and Spain off Cape Finisterre. After serving off the port of Cadiz he removed, in Jan. 1808, to the Barfleur 98, bearing the flag at Lisbon of Rear-Admiral Wm. Albany Otway. He was subsequently employed – from Oct. 1808 until April, 1813, in the Niobe 40, Capts. John Wentworth Loring and Wm. Augustus Montagu, in the Channel, North Sea, and West Indies – and, from 1 July in the latter year until wrecked on a reef of rocks in Anatto Bay, Jamaica, 19 May, 1814, in the Halcyon 18, Capt. John Houlton Marshall. In Nov. 1810, Mr. Simpson, then in the Niobe, took part, and was mentioned in the highest terms by his Captain for his conduct, in a gallant attack made in company with the Diana 38, on the French 40-gun frigates Amazone and Eliza under the batteries of La Hogue;[1] and, in March, 1811, he aided in causing the self-destruction of the Amazone then on shore near Cape Barfleur.
He accepted the rank of Commander on the Retired List 25 Jan. 1837. Agents – Burnett and Holmes.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1840.