Thomas Harvey (Royal Navy Officer) - Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

Following promotion, Harvey was given command of the frigates HMS Lapwing and HMS Unité for brief spells and in 1800 was recalled to England to serve with the force being prepared in the Thames under Horatio Nelson, who had been a shipmate of his father in the 1780s. Following the dispersal and then regrowth of the Navy surrounding the Peace of Amiens in 1801, Harvey was favoured with command of ship of the line HMS Standard, which was attached to Cuthbert Collingwood's Mediterranean fleet. It was whilst serving with this force in 1807 that Harvey was present at the attempt by Admiral John Thomas Duckworth to force the Dardanelles and drive the Turkish Empire out of the war.

The operation was a failure, after Turkish shore batteries opened a murderous fire on the British squadron attempting to force passage on the 19 February 1807. Harvey had been instrumental in burning a Turkish squadron moored at the entrance to the Dardanelles, but during the return from Constantinople a round shot more than two feet in diameter crashed through Standard's lower deck, detonating a ready magazine of gun charges and killing several men before the resulting fire could be brought under control. Across the squadron as a whole, over a hundred men were killed and the operation made no effect on the diplomatic situation. In 1808 Harvey returned to England and commanded the ships of the line HMS Majestic in the Baltic Sea and HMS Sceptre in the North Sea. He did not participate in any significant actions during the remainder of the war and at the reformation of the Order of the Bath in 1815, Harvey was made a Companion.