106
BOWER—BOWERBANK—BOWERS.
mone, of 44 guns and 332 men, occasioned her a loss of 8 killed and 27 wounded. From June to Nov. 1812, Mr. Bowen next served in the Namur 74, Capt. Chas. John Austen, and Seahorse 38, comtnanded by Capt. Gordon. He then joined the Sceptre and Albion 74’s, bearing each the flag of Rear-Admiral Geo. Cockburn, and was for 20 months very actively employed on the coast of North America. After acting for nearly five months as Lieutenant of the Ruby 64, Capt. Andrew Fitzherbert Evans, Mr. Bowen was conflrined to that ship by commission dated 13 April, 1815. He returned home from Bermuda on board the Buffalo in March, 1816, and has not since been afloat.
BOWER. (Captain, 1845.)
James Paterson Bower entered the Navy 6 May, 1820; passed his examination in 1826; Obtained his first commission 10 Jan. 1837; and after serving for some time as Additional-Lieutenant in the Dublin 50, and President 52, flag-ships on the South American station of Rear-Admirals Sir Graham Eden Hamond and Chas. Bayne Hodgson Ross, was appointed, 10 July, 1838, to the Samarang 26, Capts. Wm. Broughton and Jas. Scott. With the latter officer he served, as his First Lieutenant, throughout the Chinese Campaign; and on every occasion of hazard or difficulty on which he was employed his zeal and gallantry drew forth the highest official notice. At the taking of Tycocktow, 7 Jan. 1841, he received a severe sabre-cut across the knee while heading the party which stormed and carried the fort;[1] and not long afterwards (Feb. 22 [errata 1]), in following up the success which led to the capture of a masked battery of 20 guns at the back of Anunghoy, he came upon the rear-guard of the Chinese, and bore away their colours.[2] In March he again signalized himself by the dashing manner in which he took possession of the fort of Feeshukok, mounting 7 guns, whence the enemy had opened a heavy fire of grape.[3] The latter service was performed during the celebrated forced passage, effected between 3 a.m. on the 13th and 4 p.m. on the 15th, by the Nemesis and the Samarang’s boats up the inner Channel from Macao to Whampoa, a navigation never before traversed by European boat or vessel, in the course of which were destroyed five forts, one battery, two military stations, and nine man-of-War junks, in which collectively were 115 guns and 8 ginjalls. Being rewarded for his continued gallantry with a Commander’s commission, dated on 6 May in the same year, Capt. Bower, on 23 Dec. 1843, assumed command of the Hecate steam-sloop, and was for 18 months employed in the discharge of various particular duties. He was advanced (on his return home from Malta with the body of the late Admiral Sir Philip C. C. H. Durham, G.C.B.) to the rank he now holds 23 July, 1845, and has since been on half-pay. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
BOWERBANK. (Lieut., 1812. f-p., 11; h-p., 32.)
John Bowerbank entered the Navy, 21 March, 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Latona 38, Capt. Thos. Le Marchant Gosselin, employed off Brest. On removing, as Midshipman, With the same officer, to the Audacious 74, he accompanied Lieut.-General Sir John Moore to Portugal, and appears to have been very actively engaged in re-embarking the troops after the battle of Corunna. He next, in April, 1809, joined the Melpomene 38, Capts. Fred. Warren and Peter Parker, under the former of whom we find him, during a dark night of the ensuing May, contributing to the repulse, after a destructive conflict of many hours, of 20 Danish gun-boats, whose fire occasioned the British ship a loss of 5 men killed and 29 wounded. From Oct. in the same year until his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, 30 June, 1812, Mr. Bowerbank next served, off Flushing, in the river Thames, and on the Baltic station, in the Isis armée en flûte, Capt. Woodley Losack, Belvidera 38, Capt. Rich. Byron, and Victory 100, flag-ship of Sir Jas. Saumarez. He then joined the Plantagenet 74 Capt Robt. Lloyd, from which ship, after serving on the North American and West India stations, he removed to the Bellerophon 74, Capt. Fred. Lewis Maitland, in time to witness the surrender of Napoleon Buonaparte. He went on half-pay 13 Sept. 1815, and has not since been employed.
BOWERS. (Lieut., 1810. f-p., 15; h-p., 34.)
William Bowers Was born, 5 Nov. 1784, at Liverpool, and died 11 Aug. 1845. He was son of an officer in the Royal Navy, who, after serving in the American war, was washed overboard by a heavy sea on his passage home. At the age of ten he was left an orphan, without friend or relative.
This officer (who had previously been In the merchant-service, and had been twice captured by the French) was impressed into the Navy, out of a cartel at Guadeloupe, in March, 1797, as a Boy, on board the Vanguard 74, Capt. Ralph Willett Miller. Being immediately draughted into the Bellona 74, Capt. Geo. Wilson, he had an opportunity of witnessing the unsuccessful attack made in the following month upon the island of Porto Rico; after which he successively joined – in Jan. 1799, the Expedition 44, Capt. Sir Thos. Livingstone, employed in conveying part of the Russian troops from Revel to England – in Nov. 1799, the Gorgon store-ship, Capt. Ross, with whom he returned, as Midshipman, to the West Indies in 1800 – in March, 1801, the Juno 32, Capts. Geo. Dundas and Thos. Manby, While in whose tender he was captured, after a running fight of five hours, in which his bravery and skill were very conspicuous, by a Spanish privateer, and taken to Trinidad, where he was detained for six months – in July, 1807 (after an interval of five years, two of which were passed in the endurance of considerable hardships as a prisoner-of-War in Peru[4]), the Achille 74, Capt. Sir Rich. King, under whom he was for eight months employed in blockading a Spanish squadron in Ferrol, and had twice the good fortune, with nearly fatal effect to himself, of snatching a fellow-creature from destruction – next, the Pompée and Neptune, bearing each the flag in the West Indies of Sir Alex. Cochrane, in the latter of which ships, after witnessing the surrender of Guadeloupe, he was confirmed a Lieutenant, 5 Oct. 1810 – and, on 5 Dec. in the same year, the Helicon 10, Capts. Harry Hopkins and Andrew Mitchell. During a constant employment of more than four years in the Channel on board that vessel, he assisted at the capture and destruction, independently of a large number of merchantmen, of six privateers, one of which, Le Revenant, mounted 14 guns and carried a crew of 120 men. On one occasion, ere, in his anxiety to hurry his men from a rapidly sinking wreck of which he had been sent to take possession, he had time to abandon her, Mr. Bowers was himself engulfed in the vortex of her descent. Although he was miraculously saved, yet he received so severe a shock that his constitution, already sufficiently injured by long exposures, sudden changes of climate, and other causes, became seriously impaired. On the return of Buonaparte from Elba the Helicon was sent to Nantes with a proclamation from the Prince Regent, containing an assurance of protection to all vessels navigating under the white, or Bourbon, flag; and after the Battle of Waterloo she was again deputed to the same place with intelligence of the result. On being next appointed, as he had latterly been of the Helicon, Senior of the Alert 18, Capt. John
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1841, pp. 1162, 1164.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1841, pp. 1424, 1497.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1841, pp. 1427, 1507-9.
- ↑ The statements laid before the Transport Board by Lieut. Bowers, on his return home, of the cruelties he had experienced in a dungeon at Callao, was the occasion of a strong remonstrance to the Court of Madrid, and of the final enlargement of the remaining prisoners.
