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BELLAIRS —BELLAMY —BELSEY.
Le Barbier de Séville of 16 guns and 60 men, on being brought to close action, was gallantly boarded, and in a few minutes carried, by Lieut. Robt. Tryon, at the head of a party of seamen, one of whom was killed, and the Lieutenant himself dangerously wounded. The enemy lost 6 killed and 11 wounded; and the prize, from the well-directed fire she had sustained, sank soon after the engagement.[1] For this achievement Capt. Bell, as were his officers and crew, was honoured with the approbation of the Admiralty. He removed, 19 June, 1811, to the command of the Mosquito, a first-class sloop, but was superseded on advancement to Post-rank, 7 Feb. 1812, and not afterwards employed. His nomination to the C.B. took place 4 July, 1840, and his elevation to the rank he now holds 1 Oct. 1846.
BELLAIRS. (Lieut., 1813. f-p., 18; h-p., 26.)
John Henry Bellairs is brother of Lieut. W. T. Bellairs, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 29 Oct. 1803, as Midshipman, on board the Goliath 74, Capt. Chas. Brisbane, employed on the Home station, and, in May, 1805, accompanied that gallant officer into the Akethusa 38. Proceeding in the latter ship to the West Indies, he assisted, in company with the Anson, at the capture, 23 Aug. 1806, near the Havana, after a spirited action, in which the Arethusa had 2 men killed and 32 wounded, of the Pomona Spanish frigate, of 38 guns and 347 men, laden with specie and merchandize, and defended by a castle mounting 11 36-pounders, and a flotilla of 10 gun-boats, all of which were destroyed; and, in Jan. 1807, was present at the brilliant reduction of Curaçoa. In Oct. following Mr. Bellairs returned home, as a Supernumerary, in the Chichester store-ship, Capt. Jas. Tait; and after an attachment of a few weeks to the Aetna bomb, lying in the Thames, became Master’s Mate, in April, 1808, of the Bonne Citoyenne 20, Capts. John Thompson and Wm. Mounsey, under whom we find him engaged in active co-operation with the patriots on the coast of Spain. Joining, in June, 1809, the Caledonia 120, bearing the flags successively of Admiral Lord Gambler and of Rear-Admirals Fras. Pickmore and Sir Harry Neale, he commanded the gun-boats Nos. 1 and 4, of the red division, under Capts. Philip Carteret and Rich. Plummer Davies, during the ensuing expedition to the Scheldt; and, from April to Aug. 1810, at which period he passed his examination, was employed, as Master’s Mate, with the flotilla at the defence of Cadiz. He removed with Sir Harry Neale, in April, 1811, to the Boyne 98, from which ship he was transferred, on 12 June, as Acting-Lieutenant, to the Pompée 74, Capt. Sir Jas. Athol Wood, off L’Orient. Being superseded, however, in the following August, he served, as Midshipman, in the Ulysses 44, off Jersey and Lisbon, Impétueux 74, bearing the flags of Admirals Brown and Geo. Martin, and Stately 64, Capt. Chas. Inglis, until at length promoted, 30 Sept. 1813, into the San Juan 74, as Flag-Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Sam. Hood Linzee, then at Gibraltar. He invalided home in March, 1814, and continued unemployed until 25 Sept. 1837, when he accepted an appointment in the Coast Guard, which he resigned in 1845. He has since been unemployed.
Lieut. Bellairs is the original inventor of a plan for distinguishing steam-vessels of all nations by a code of coloured lights. He is married, and has issue.
BELLAIRS. (Lieut., 1819. f-p., 19; h-p., 19.)
Waleford Thomas Bellairs is brother of Lieut. J. H. Bellairs, R.N.
This officer entered the Royal Naval College 23 March, 1809, and embarked, 24 March, 1812, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Asia 74, Capt. Geo. Scott, employed off Cherbourg and in the West Indies. From Jan. 1814, until the receipt of his commission, which bears date 12 May, 1819, he served as Midshipman and Acting-Lieutenant, on the latter, and on the Home, Mediterranean, and North American stations, of the Rota 38, Capt. Philip Somerville, Thais 20, Capt. Henry Weir, Albion 74, Capt. Jas. Walker, Orontes 36, Capt. Nat. Day Cochrane, Leander 50, commanded by Capt. Edw. Chetham, at the battle of Algiers, and afterwards flag-ship of Sir David Milne, and Grasshopper 18, Capt. Henry Forbes. He obtained an appointment in the Coast Guard 18 May, 1838, and since 12 Jan. 1842 – with the exception of a few months in 1844, when he belonged to the Ocean 80, guardship at Sheerness, Capt. Peter Fisher – has been employed as Admiralty Agent in a Contract Mail steam-vessel.
Lieut. Bellairs is married. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
BELLAMY. (Lieutenant, 1827.)
Joseph Hughes Bellamy is eldest son of Geo. Bellamy, Esq., of Plymouth.
This officer entered the Navy 24 April 1815; passed his examination in 1822; obtained his commission 10 March, 1827; served, from 26 Oct. 1830, until superseded, 21 Dec. 1831, in the Revenge 78, Capts. Jas. Hillyar and Donald Hugh Mackay, on the Lisbon station; joined the Coast Guard, 31 May, 1838; and since 10 June, 1845, has been employed at Devonport on board the Caledonia 120, Capt. Manly Hall Dixon.
He married, in 1837, Mary, only daughter of Richard Newton, Esq. Agent – J. Chippendale.
BELSEY. (Lieut., 1812. f-p., 18; h-p., 30.)
Henry Belsey, born 10 May, 1790, at Dover, co. Kent, is nephew, maternally, of Capt. Geo. Sayer, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 25 Feb. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Ulysses 44, armee en flûte, commanded by his uncle Capt. Sayer; removed, in Feb. 1800, to the Regulus 44, Capt. Thos. Pressland; and, on attending the expedition to Egypt, in 1801, assisted at the landing of the troops, was much employed at the signals, and, from constant night-duty in an armed flat-bottomed boat on the river Nile, caught the plague. The Regulus subsequently conveyed the remains of the French army to Marseilles, and was paid off at the peace. In May, 1804, Mr. Belsey joined the Tartarus bomb, Capts. Fras. Temple, Mauritius Adolphus Newton De Starck, and Thos. Withers, and, on that vessel being wrecked on Margate sands in Dec. following, rendered himself particularly useful in conveying away a body of prisoners. On the same occasion he narrowly escaped a watery grave, in consequence of a boat he was in being struck by a heavy sea and dashed to pieces against the side of the ship. He was immediately after the catastrophe voluntarily entered by Capt. Thos. Bayley as a Midshipman on board the Inflexible 64, in which ship he continued to serve until June, 1805, when, owing to her having been run foul of by the St. Albans 64, he was transferred to the Elephant 74, Capt. Geo. Dundas. Proceeding then to the West Indies, Mr. Belsey, on 23 Jan. 1807, had the good fortune to rescue in a boat from off the bowsprit of the Orpheus, when that frigate was wrecked, her Captain, the present Sir Thos. Briggs; and he was on board the Elephant when she subsequently grounded off the Havana, and was only got off after an intense labour of 12 hours, all her water having been previously started, and the shot and 68 of the guns thrown overboard. Between July, 1807, at which period he returned home with convoy, and Aug. 1810, we find him serving, chiefly as Master’s Mate, in the Bulwark 74, Capt. Hon. Chas. Elphinstone Fleeming, Little Belt 18, Capt. John Crispo, and Guerrière 40. Capt. David Lloyd, on the Cadiz, African, and Halifax stations; and during that period acquiring the high praise of Capt. Crispo for the strict attention to his duty when the Little Belt was dismasted and obliged to put into port. He then served for nearly two years as Acting-Lieutenant of the Halifax 18, Capt. Alex. Fraser, and, in the early part of 1811, was detached in command of a detained American tender in a very leaky condition to Halifax, which port, after encountering desperate weather, he only
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1841.
