93
BLUETT.
teries of Bermeo, Plencia, Algorta, Begona, El Campillo las Queras, and Xebiles, mounting in the whole twenty-eight 18 and 24-pounders;[1] witnessed the taking of Castro, 8 July following; and, on the morning of 10 of the same month, landed with a body of marines at Puerta Galletta, knocked the trunnions off the guns in the Begona battery, and destroyed one mounted on a height.[2] Early in May, 1813, he assisted, as Senior Naval officer, with the Royalist and Sparrow brigs under his orders, at the spirited defence of Castro; and on its evacuation by the Spanish garrison, 1150 in number, he effectually rescued the latter by embarking them on board his squadron.[3] On 31 Aug., during the siege of St. Sebastian, Capt. Bloye acted a very conspicuous part by commanding one of the two divisions of boats, which, being sent to make a diversion on the back of the rook, so drew off the attention of the garrison from the defence of the breach which had been made in the walls, that the assailants were enabled to enter and obtain possession of the town.[4] As a reward for his able and indefatigable exertions in the accomplishment of these services, he was advanced to Post-rank on 23 Dec. in the same year. He afterwards acquired the command, 18 June, 1814, of the Eurotas 38, and, in April, 1815, of the Tay 24. Capt. Bloye, the whole of whose career afloat was passed upon what is termed the Home station, and who had been on half-pay since Feb. 1816, accepted his present rank 1 Oct. 1846.
He was nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815.
BLUETT, K.H. (Captain, 1812. f-p., 14; h-p., 42.)
Buckland Sterling Bluett died in Nov. 1845. He was of the family of Bluett, of Halcombe Court, co. Devon, and was son of the late Lieut. John Bluett, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 23 Dec. 1789, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Salisbury 50, Capt. Wm. Domett; served next, with Sir Andrew Snape Hamond, in the Vanguard and Bedford 74’s; and, after an unemployed interval of three years and a half, became Midshipman, in Sept. 1797, of the Marlborough 74, Capts. Joseph Ellison and Thos. Sotheby, in which ship he continued to be employed, on the Mediterranean station, until Aug. 1800. He then joined, for very brief periods, the Royal George and Ville de Paris, flag-ships, off Brest, of Earl St. Vincent, by whom, for his previous conduct in a night-encounter in the boats with some Spanish gun-vessels off Cadiz, he was promoted, 14 Nov. following, to a Lieutenancy in the St. George 98, Capt. Sampson Edwards. He was confirmed, on 24 of the same month, into the Seagull sloop, Capts. Thos. Lane and John Wainwright, and while in that vessel was frequently engaged in landing emissaries on the coast of France, where on one occasion he was wounded. He subsequently joined, on 3 Sept. 1802, the Resistance frigate, commanded in the Mediterranean by Capt. Hon. Philip Wodehouse, and, on 22 Nov. 1803, the Scorpion 18, Capt. Geo. Nicholas Hardinge. In the boats of the latter vessel, and of the Beaver 14, led in person by Capt. Hardinge, Lieut. Bluett assisted, on 31 March, 1804, in capturing, in the Vlie Passage, after a most spirited and determined conflict, the Dutch brig Atalante of 16 long 12-pounders and 76 men, which, however, owing to the tempestuous state of the weather and the intricacy of the navigation, it took three days of intense labour to bring out. The enemy in the affair lost their captain and 3 seamen killed, and 11 others severely wounded; the British only 5 wounded, including Lieut. Bluett, whom the Patriotic Society in consequence presented with a sword valued at 50l., and the Admiralty rewarded with a Commander’s commission, dated 10 April, the day the intelligence reached England. His subsequent appointments were – 28 Sept. 1805, to the Wasp 18, on the Leeward Islands station, whither he proceeded in charge of convoy, from Cork, and where he captured, 24 May, 1806, Le Napoléon French privateer of 14 guns, which, together with her consort, L’Imperiale, had been sent from Guadeloupe the night before to cut out some merchantmen lying in Rosseau Bay, Dominica – 25 Oct. 1806, to the command pro tem, of the Martin [errata 1] sloop – 13 March, 1809, to the Saracen brig, in which he took, 12 Oct. 1810, on the Jamaica station, La Caroline, another French privateer, of 1 gun and 42 men – 14 July, 1812, to the Childers sloop, lying at Portsmouth, where he was superseded on advancement to Post-rank, 12 Aug. following – and, 4 Jan. 1815, to the Leven of 24 guns, in which ship we find him for some time very actively engaged in assisting the Royalists of La Vendée, and supplying them with arms and ammunition. He went on half-pay in Nov. 1815, and was not afterwards employed.
Capt. Bluett was nominated a K.H. 25 Jan. 1836. He married, 11 March, 1813, Emily, daughter of T. Powell, Esq., of Hammersmith, co. Middlesex, and by that lady has left issue.
BLUETT. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 9; h-p., 31.)
John Courtney Bluett was born 10 Aug. 1792.
This officer entered the Navy, 2 April, 1807, as Sec.-cl. Boy, on board the Agamemnon 64, Capt. Jonas Rose, and, after assisting as Midshipman at the siege of Copenhagen, was wrecked in the Rio de la Plata, 20 June, 1809. He subsequently served in the Foudroyant 80, bearing the flag in South America of Hon. Michael De Couroy; Mutine 18, Capt. Nevinson De Courcy, with whom he returned to England in April, 1812; Bellerophon and Scarborough 74’s, flag-ships off the Texel of Rear-Admiral John Ferrier; and Tonnant 80, flag-ship of Hon. Sir Alex. Cochrane, under whom he served in the Chesapeake, and attended the expedition to New Orleans in 1814-15. On 3 Feb. in the latter year Mr. Bluett, who had passed his examination on 7 April, 1813, was appointed Acting-Lieutenant of the Calliope 10, Capt. Alex. M‘Konochie, to which vessel he was confirmed by the Admiralty on 28 of the same month. He returned to England and was paid off in the following September, and has since been on half-pay. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
BLUETT. (Commander, 1816. f-p., 17; h-p., 37.)
Richard Bluett entered the Navy, in April, 1793, as A.B., on board the Druid 32, Capt. Joseph Ellison; on accompanying whom, as Midshipman, into the Standard 64, he attended the ill-fated expedition sent in 1795 to co-operate with the French Royalists in Quiberon Bay. We afterwards find him successively joining the Artois 38, Capt. Sir Edmund Nagle, in which he was wrecked, 31 July, 1797, on the coast of France; the Unicorn 32, and Ethalion 38, both commanded by Capt. Jas. Young, under whom, on 17 Oct. 1799, he assisted at the capture of the Spanish 36-gun frigate El Thetis, laden with specie to an enormous amount, his own share of which [errata 2] alone amounted to nearly 800l.; and the Royal George 100, bearing the flag in the Channel of Rear-Admiral Chas. Morice Pole. In April, 1800, Mr. Bluett was promoted to an Acting-Lieutenancy in the Magnificent 74, Capt. Edw. Bowater, from which ship he was confirmed into the Babet 20, Capt. Jas. Mainwaring, 7 May following. On 24 Dec. in the same year he joined the Atlas 98, Capt. Theophilus Jones, but invalided in Sept. 1802; and, after an interval of half-pay, was appointed, in April, 1804, to the Kinsale district of Sea Fencibles. From that service he was removed, 9 Jan. 1805, to the Raisonnable 64, Capt. Josias Rowley, with whom he continued to serve, a great portion of the time as First-Lieutenant, until the summer of 1810. He was present during that period in Sir Robt. Calder’s action with the combined squadrons of France and Spain 22 July, 1805; assisted at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope in Jan. 1806, and the ensuing capture
