excellent direction of the quarter-deck guns by Lieut. John Sykes, First of this ship, an officer of 17 years’ standing.” Capt. Byron being wounded, Mr. Sykes was made the bearer of his despatches to the Commander-in-Chief, the late Admiral Sawyer. He contributed subsequently to the capture of a great variety of armed and other vessels; and on 7 March, 1814, with the boats of the Belvidera, Endymion, and Rattler under his orders, he destroyed, near Sandy Hook, the Mars privateer of 15 guns and 70 men[1] On 2 Nov. in the latter year he was promoted to the rank of Commander, and appointed to the Variable sloop; and in her he served until paid off in Aug. 1816. During that period he captured a piratical vessel and cruized with activity on the coast of Guatemala and along the Mosquito shore, the most dangerous navigation in the West Indies. On one occasion, when the town of Port Royal, Jamaica, was nearly destroyed by fire, he distinguished himself by his exertions in subduing the flames; and succeeded in eliciting the thanks of the Commander-in-Chief, Rear-Admiral John Erskine Douglas. While the conflagration was raging he was directed to effect the explosion of a storehouse outside the dockyard; and he accordingly made the necessary arrangements, but, before he could escape from the building, he was himself blown out of it, and was very nearly involved in the general ruin. Since the Variable was put out of commission he has not been employed. He had hoped, but in vain, that his services in that vessel would have led to his promotion to Post-rank.
In 1809 Commander Sykes received a silver medal from the Royal Humane Society for having jumped overboard in the Bay of Palermo and saved the life of a man. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
SYKES. (Lieut., 1817. f-p., 8; h-p., 30.)
Joseph Sykes was born 14 Sept. 1795.
This officer entered the Navy, 10 Oct. 1809, as Third-cl. Vol., on board the Warspite 74, Capt. Hon. Henry Blackwood; under whom, on proceeding to the Mediterranean, we find him, 20 July, 1810, present in a very gallant skirmish, in which the British with a slender force beat back a powerful division of the French Toulon fleet. On 29 May, 1813, being then in Basque Roads, he assisted, in command of the Warspite’s cutter, at the capture of the American letter-of-marque Flash, of 2 long 9-pounders, 14 swivels, and 20 men. While on his passage, 21 Oct. following, in the Royalist 18, Capt. Jas. John Gordon Bremer, to join the Belle Poule frigate, he was afforded an opportunity of contributing, in company with the Scylla 18, and within sight of the Rippon 74, to the capture of the French frigate Le Weser of 40 guns and 340 men, which did not surrender until after a severely contested action productive to the Royalist of a loss of 2 men killed and 9 wounded. Having reached the Belle Poule, he took part in that ship, under Capt. Geo. Harris, in the operations of 1814 in the Gironde, where he witnessed the destruction of the Regulus 74, of three brigs-of-war and several smaller vessels, and of all the forts and batteries on the north side of the river. On 13 and 28 June in the same year he was received in succession on board the Impregnable 98, flag-ship of H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence at Spithead, and Liffey 50, commanded in the Channel by Capt. John Hancock; in Aug. 1815 he removed to the Bulwark 74, Capt. Geo. M‘Kinley, lying at Sheerness; and in Jan. 1816 (he had passed his examination 1 Nov. preceding) he joined the Alceste 38, Capt. Murray Maxwell. In the latter ship he accompanied Lord Amherst as Master’s Mate in his expedition to China, and was wrecked in the Straits of Gaspar, on his passage home, 18 Feb. 1817. He was advanced to his present rank 1 Sept. following; and has since been on half-pay.
Lieut. Sykes is a Deputy-Lieutenant and Acting- Magistrate for co. York, a Justice of the Peace for the East Riding, and an Elder Brother of the Trinity House at Hull. He married, 20 Oct. 1825, Miss Egginton. One of his sons, Joseph Alfred, is a Lieutenant in the 94th Regiment; and another, Cam, in the 48th.
SYKES. (Commander, 1813. f-p., 21; h-p., 37.)
Thomas Sykes is brother of Commander John Sykes, R.N.; and first-cousin of Vice-Admiral Sykes.
This officer entered the Navy, in Sept. 1789, as A, B., on board the Drake brig, Capts. Geo. Countess, Rowley Bulteel, and Dolling, with whom he served for two years in the Channel, part of the time in the capacity of Midshipman. He was employed next, from Oct. 1794 until 14 March, 1799, chiefly on the Home station, in the Scipio and Arbthusa, both commanded by Capt. Mark Robinson, Active frigate, Capt. Leveson Gower, Royal William, Capt. Fras. Pickmore, Pompée 74, Capt. Jas. Vashon, Netley schooner, Lieut.-Commander Fras. Godolphin Bond, and Puissant 74, Capt. Allen; and he was then made Lieutenant into the Selby, Capt. Thos. Palmer, in the North Sea. Between Dec. 1799 and April, 1802, he served in the Mediterranean and North Sea in the Alkmaar, Capts. Geo. Burlton and Thos. Elphinstone, El Carmen 36, Capt. Wm. Selby, Calpe, Capt. Hon. Geo. Heneage Lawrence Dundas, and Ardent 64, Capt. Wm. Nowell; and he was next in succession appointed, on the Mediterranean, Baltic, Home, Jamaica, and North American stations, to the Minotaur 74, Capt. Chas. John Moore Mansfield, Swiftsure 74, Capts. M. Robinson and Wm. Geo. Rutherford, Tartar 32, Capts. Geo. Edm. Byron Bettesworth and Joseph Baker, Venerable 74, Capt. Sir Home Popham, Shark sloop, Capt. John Gore, Cyane 20, Capt. Thos. Forrest, Shark again, Capt. Gore, San Domingo 74, flag-ship of Sir John Borlase Warren, and Poictiers 74, Capt. Sir John Poo Beresford. While Second-Lieutenant and commanding officer on board the El Carmen, Mr. Sykes succeeded, in the Tagus, in extinguishing a fire which had been designedly communicated to the ship. After assisting in the Calpe at the defeat, near Gibraltar, of 17 Spanish gun-boats, one of which was driven on shore, he took part in that vessel in the action between Sir Jas. Saumarez and Admiral Linois near Algeciras 6 July, 1801; on which occasion, having been sent to afford succour to the Hannibal 74, aground under the enemy’s batteries, he was taken prisoner, on the surrender of the latter ship, together with his boat’s crew. Although on shore en parole, he was allowed to participate in the profits of the victory gained six days afterwards by Sir James over the combined squadrons of France and Spain in the Gut of Gibraltar. In the Swiftsure Mr. Sykes shared, as Second-Lieutenant, in the glories of Trafalgar. During the memorable gale which succeeded the battle, it being observed that the French 74-gun ship Redoutable, which the Swiftsure had taken in tow, was rapidly sinking, Mr. Sykes, after every effort had been apparently made by the boats to rescue the crew, and when the approaching darkness rendered any further attempt hazardous in the extreme, implored his Captain, Rutherford, that he might be allowed to make one more trip. By dint of great persuasion he was at length permitted to take the launch and proceed on his heroic mission. In consequence of the tremendous rolling of the Redoutable in the heavy sea which had set in he found it impossible to get close to her; and all he could do was to watch the lee-roll of the ship and drag into his boat as many of the half-drowned wretches as could be laid hold of. The length of time he was thus occupied creating the greatest alarm in the mind of Capt. Rutherford, the latter sent in quest of him the pinnace, under the orders of the present Commander Thos. Read. On being joined by that officer, Mr. Sykes directed him to follow his example; nor did the two desist in their humane endeavours until their boats were full. They then, after they had both been given up, returned
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 1415.
