27
AUSTEN.
the Endymion, which frigate had been paid off at the peace, and continued to serve as her First Lieutenant until promoted, on the recommendation of his Captain, the Hon. Chas. Paget, for his conduct at the capture of three men-of-war and two privateers, to the command, 10 Oct. 1804, of the Indian sloop.[1] After a successful servitude of more than five years on the North America station, Capt. Austen was posted 10 May, 1810, into the Swiftsure 74, Sir John Borlase Warren’s flag-ship, from which he removed, 25 Sept. following, to the Cleopatra 32. From 20 Nov. 1811, until 30 Sept. 1814, we next find him discharging the arduous duties, in the Namur 74, of Flag-Captain to his patron, Sir Thos. Williams, Commander-in-Chief at the Nore. Being then appointed to the Phoenix 36, he proceeded to the Mediterranean, where, on the renewal of hostilities consequent on Buonaparte’s escape from Elba, he was sent, with the Undaunted 38, and Oakland 22, under his orders, in pursuit of a Neapolitan squadron, supposed to be in the Adriatic. Subsequently to the surrender of Naples, Capt. Austen, who had detached the Undaunted to scour the coast, instituted a close blockade of the harbour of Brindisi, and soon induced both the castle and two of the enemy’s largest frigates, then lying in the port, to hoist the colours of their restored monarch. Having acquired the unqualified approbation of Lord Exmouth throughout the whole of these operations, he was next despatched in search of a French squadron; but a cessation of hostilities intervening, he turned his attention to the suppression of piracy in the Archipelago, which he completely effected by the capture of two pirate vessels in the port of Pavos. On 20 Feb. 1816, the Phosenix was at length unavoidably wrecked during a hurricane near Smyrna, a disaster solely attributable to the ignorance of her pilots. Capt. Austen, who was therefore fully acquitted of all blame on the occasion, afterwards joined, 2 June, 1826, the Aurora 46, in which frigate he proceeded, as second in command, to the Jamaica station, where his exertions in crushing the slave-trade appear to have been most successful. On the paying off of the Aurora, in Dec. 1828, it was found that, during the two years and a half of her servitude under Capt. Austen’s command, she had not lost a single man by sickness or otherwise, and so favourable was the official report of her state of discipline and efficiency, that the subject of this memoir was at once nominated by Sir Edw. Griffith Colpoys to be his Flag-Captain in the Winchester 52, on the North America and West India station, where he continued until obliged to invalid, from the effects of a very severe accident, in Dec. 1830. His next appointment was, on 14 April, 1838, to the Bellerophon 80, in which ship he returned to the Mediterranean, where his exertions at the bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre, 3 Nov. 1840, procured him the Companionship of the Bath. On 2 Dec. following the Bellerophon was attacked by a violent storm, and nothing under Providence but the unparalleled exertions of the officers and crew, guided by Capt. Austen’s able management, preserved her from being cast away on the iron-bound shore of Syria, where, had she been wrecked, not a soul could have been saved. Since the paying off of the Bellerophon, in June, 1841, Capt. Austen (to whom the good-service pension had been awarded 28 Aug. 1840) was advanced to Flag-rank, 9 Nov. 1846.
He married, first, in 1807, Frances, youngest daughter of the late J. G. Palmer, Esq., Attorney-General at Bermuda, by whom he had issue three daughters; and, secondly, in 1820, Harriet, second daughter of the same gentleman, by whom he has two sons, both in the service of their county – the one in the army, the other, Charles John, a Lieutenant in the Navy. The youngest of the Rear-Admiral’s daughters is married to her cousin. Commander F. W. Austen, R.N. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.
AUSTEN. (Lieut., 1844. f-p., 14; h-p., 0.)
Charles John Austen is son of Rear-Admiral C. J. Austen, R.N., C.B.
This officer entered the Navy 15 Feb. 1833; passed his examination 6 June, 1840; served as Mate of the Bellerophon 80, commanded by his father, during the ensuing operations on the coast of Syria, where he beheld the fall of St. Jean d’Acre; and, after a further attachment to the Excellent gunnery-ship at Portsmouth, Capt. Sir Thos. Hastings, and Agincourt 72, bearing the flag in the East Indies of Sir Thos. John Cochrane, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, by commission dated 25 June, 1844. He was then re-appointed to the Agincourt, and continued to serve in that ship until removed, 11 June, 1845, to the Serpent 16, Capt. Wm. Nevill. His name, since 8 May, 1846, has been borne, for surveying service, on the books of the Vindictive 50, bearing the flag of his uncle. Sir Fras. Wm. Austen, on the North America and West India station.
AUSTEN, K.C.B.. (Vice-Admiral of the Red, 1838. f-p., 27; h-p., 34.)
Sir Francis William Austen, born 23 April, 1774, at Steventon, co. Hants, is son of the late Rev. Geo. Austen, Rector of Steventon, by Cassandra, youngest daughter of the Rev. Thos. Leigh, formerly Rector of Harpsden, co. Oxford; and brother of Rear-Admiral C. J. Austen, R.N., C.B.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy 15 April, 1786; and (having attracted the particular notice of the Lords of the Admiralty by the closeness of his application, and been in consequence marked out for early promotion) embarked, 23 Dec. 1788, as a Volunteer, on board the Perseverance frigate, Capt. Isaac Smith, in which he proceeded to the East Indies, and there successively joined, as Midshipman, the Crown 64, and Minerva 38, bearing each the broad pendant of Hon. Wm. Comwallis. Obtaining his first commission, 28 Dec. 1792, he afterwards served, on the Home station, chiefly as Senior Lieutenant, in the Despatch armed brig. Lark sloop, Andromeda 32, Prince George and Glory 98’s, Shannon, Triton, and Seahorse frigates, and London 98, under Capts. John Whitby, Thos. Le Marchant Gosselin, Josias Rowley, Wm. Ogilvy, Thos. Sotheby, Wm. Taylor, Jas. Bowen, Alex. Fraser, John Gore, Edw. Jas. Foote, and John Child Purvis, until promoted to the command, 3 Feb. 1799, of the Peterel sloop, of 24 guns, including 8 carronades, and 120 men. He had, during that period, escorted the Princess Caroline of Brunswick from Cuxhaven to England, assisted at the evacuation of Ostend and Nieuport, and been present in Sir Hugh Christian’s celebrated hurricanes. While in command of the Peterel, Capt. Austen, among numerous other services which exposed him to a constant fire from the enemy’s batteries, effected the capture and destruction of upwards of forty vessels of various descriptions; and, on 19 June, 1799, participated in Lord Keith’s capture of a French squadron under Rear-Admiral Perrée. On 21 March, 1800, he inexpressibly signalised himself in an encounter off Marseilles with three French national vessels, two of which (the one of 14, the other of 6 guns) he drove on the rocks, and succeeded, although close in shore, and within point-blank shot of two batteries, in capturing the third, La Ligurienne, a brig of 16 guns and 104 men, after a running fight of an hour and a half, the whole being accomplished without the loss of a man to the Peterel, 30 of whose crew, with the First Lieutenant and gunner, were at the time absent in prizes.[2] At the blockade of Genoa, in May following, Capt. Austen displayed his wonted energy; and, for the zeal he evinced in resolutely maintaining for a considerable period a position within less than three miles of the Mole head, received the thanks of Lord Keith. The Peterel shortly afterwards joined Sir Sidney Smith’s squadron on the coast of Egypt, and, on 13 Aug. follow-
