Charles Knowles, 2nd Baronet

Sir Charles Henry Knowles, 2nd Baronet

Sir Charles Henry Knowles, 2nd Baronet , GCB (born August 24, 1754 in Kingston , † November 28, 1831 ) was a British admiral .

Career in the Royal Navy

After completing school in Eton , Glasgow and Edinburgh , he joined the Royal Navy in 1768 as a midshipman on board the 36-gun frigate HMS Venus . Knowles was in 1773 to lieutenant , on May 28, 1776 to Lieutenant and in the same year Commander promoted. In 1780 he was appointed post-captain. In 1782 he was promoted to senior naval officer. Knowles served during the American War of Independence , the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars . He resigned from active duty after the Battle of Cape St. Vincent .

He spent the rest of his life studying, writing seven textbooks, and creating a new signal code in 1798 based on his 1777 book and additional corrections made in 1780, 1787 and 1794. On February 14, 1799, the second anniversary of the Battle of St. Vincent, he was promoted to Rear Admiral, on April 24, 1804 to Vice Admiral and on July 31, 1810 to Admiral. In 1803 he recommended the use of balloons to observe the French invasion forces near Brest . In 1830 he published his autobiographical work Observations on Naval Tactics .

Admiral Charles Henry Knowles died on November 28, 1831 at the age of 77.

Naval Battle of Grenada

In May 1779 he received his first command on the supply ship HMS Supply , which he had to surrender on July 6 of the same year because of a wound in the naval battle of Grenada . While on leave from active duty, he wrote his book A Set of Signals for a Fleet on a Plan Entirely New , published in 1777.

Sea battle at Cape St. Vincent (1780)

In December 1779 he hired as a volunteer for the liberation of Gibraltar on the 90-gun ship of the line HMS Sandwich , which was under the command of Admiral Sir George Rodney and served as its flagship . On January 26, 1780 Rodney gave him the command of the 18-gun ship HMS Minorca , shortly afterwards the appointment as post-captain followed. Due to his strong activities in the Mediterranean during the Anglo-Spanish trade war , he was charged with piracy and murder in April 1782. However, he was able to successfully defend himself against this charge, was promoted to Senior Naval Officer and returned to Great Britain as the commander of the 74-gun ship HMS San Miguel captured by Spain . After the war, Knowles continued his studies and made a trip through France in 1788 .

Glorious First of June

With the outbreak of the First Coalition War in 1793, Knowles was given command of the 32-gun frigate HMS Daedalus . He was ordered to Halifax but was given permission to sail to Chesapeake , from where a French convoy planned to sail with large quantities of grain on board. Knowles sailed from Portsmouth with a mostly inexperienced crew, but had them fully trained by the time he arrived at Hampton Roads . Shortly after his arrival, the French escort arrived and the convoy set sail with Knowles under observation. Knowles recently reported to Admiral Lord Howe , who relocated his canal fleet to intercept the convoy, leading to the Battle of the Glorious June 1st . After completing his task, he sailed to Halifax, came back to Great Britain, was commanded on the 74-gun ship HMS Edgar and performed his service in the North Sea .

Sea battle at Cape St. Vincent (1797)

At the end of 1795, Knowles moved to the 74-gun ship HMS Goliath and served under Admiral Sir John Jervis in Lisbon . During his service there he came into conflict with Jervis, who in 1796 had him tried before a military tribunal for disobeying an oral order. During the trial, Jervis' s personal aide, Robert Calder , swore that no order was given, and the lieutenant who was supposed to be transmitting the order swore he had not received one. The charges were then dismissed, but this resulted in the beginning of a personal enmity between Jervis and Knowles. During the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on February 14, 1797, Knowles was still in command of the Goliath in the Jervis fleet. As the battle progressed, Jervis ordered his ships to turn one after another while they were in enemy contact. Knowles did as he was told, came under heavy fire and was temporarily withdrawn from the action because the Goliath's sails were knotted. On his return to battle, he noticed a way to run past the windward side of the Spanish four-decker Santissima Trinidad to take the wind out of her sails. However, Jervis signaled the Goliath and ordered Knowles to end this maneuver. The following morning, Knowles on the Goliath and James Hawkins Whitshed on the HMS Namur observed the vulnerable situation in which the Santíssima Trinidad found itself and tried to signal this to Jervis. You got no answer.

The following day the fleet anchored in the bay of Lagos . Knowles placed the Goliath so that it could provide flank protection. When he boarded the HMS Victory , the flagship of Jervis, he was told by Jervis that the Goliath was vulnerable where it was lying. Knowles replied that the Spaniards would hardly be able to attack if one went by their condition. While Knowles was dining with Vice Admiral William Waldegrave that evening, Jervis sent the Victory's navigator to relocate the Goliath , which was a massive affront to Knowles. Furthermore Jervis ordered him to change the ship with Thomas Foley and to take over the HMS Britannia . Knowles returned to Great Britain shortly afterwards.

Awards

On December 19, 1797, Knowles was awarded the Naval Gold Medal at the Thanksgiving Service for the Victories of St. Vincent and Camperdown in St Paul's Cathedral . On the occasion of King George IV's accession to the throne on May 16, 1820, it was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB).

Family and offspring

Knowles was born as the son of the then Governor of Jamaica , Admiral Sir Charles Knowles, 1st Baronet , and his wife Maria Magdalena Theresa de Bouget from the Bouget family in Aachen. When his father died in 1777, he inherited the title of Baronet , of Lovell Hill in the County of Berks, which had been awarded to him in 1765 in the Baronetage of Great Britain.

On September 10, 1800 he married Charlotte Johnstone (1782-1867), a daughter of Sir Charles Johnstone of Ludlow and Lady Mary Beddoe. From this marriage there are seven children, of whom his firstborn son Francis Charles Knowles (1802-1892) continued the tradition as Admiral of the Royal Navy as 3rd Baronet.

literature

• Nicholas Tracy, “Who's who in Nelson's Navy: 200 Naval Heroes”, 2006, Chatham Publishing, London, ISBN 1-86176-244-5
• Leslie Stephen, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 1892, vol. 31

Web links

• Admiral Sir Henry Charles Knowles, 2nd Bt. On thepeerage.com
• Bluepete
• Bouget family

predecessor	Office	successor
Charles Knowles	Knowles Baronet, of Lovell Hill 1777-1831	Francis Knowles