Naval Career
He entered the Royal Navy in August 1806 as midshipman on board the Tigre of 74 guns, and in her in the following year witnessed the surrender of Alexandria, and was employed in boat service up the Nile. After assisting at the Siege of Toulon, he was transferred into the Malta of 80 guns, and co-operated with the troops on the south-east coast of Spain, and served in the batteries at the siege of Tarragona. Becoming a lieutenant 11 January 1814, he joined the Mulgrave of 74 guns, and landing with the seamen and marines near Piombo captured a Martello tower and brought out a convoy which was anchored under its protection.
In the Amelia of 38 guns in 1814 he served at the blockade of Elba. He was on half-pay from 1816 until 2 Feb. 1818, when he was appointed to the Sir Francis Drake, the flagship at Newfoundland, where on 3 Feb. 1820 he obtained the command of the Drake sloop, and for a short time in the same year of the Carnation of 18 guns. From 1824 to 1827 he served in the West Indies. He was promoted to be captain 7 July 1827. His last appointment was to the North Star of 28 guns, in which vessel he surveyed the coast of Central America and California, 1834–6.
Read more about this topic: Octavius Vernon Harcourt
Famous quotes containing the words naval and/or career:
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941Ma date that will live in infamythe United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (18821945)
“John Browns career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)