John Thomas Duckworth

Sir John Thomas Duckworth, around 1810

Sir John Thomas Duckworth, 1st Baronet GCB (born February 9, 1747 or 1748 in Leatherhead, Surrey , †  August 31, 1817 in Plymouth , England ) was a British naval officer during the coalition wars after the French Revolution .

Entry into the Navy

Duckworth was the son of Sarah Johnson and Reverend Henry Duckworth. He joined the British Navy as a midshipman in 1759, and on November 20, 1759 he took part in the naval battle in the Bay of Quiberon (→ Seven Years War ). In 1770 he was promoted to lieutenant on board the Princess Royal in the West Indies , in 1779 to commander and in 1780 to post-captain .

Coalition wars

During the Coalition Wars, Duckworth served in European waters and the Caribbean . On board the Orion , part of the Canal Fleet , he took part in three naval battles in May and June 1794 (→ Glorious First of June ). He was one of 18 commanders to be honored with a gold medal and thanks from both houses of parliament.

Caribbean

In 1796 he was a Commodore in Santo Domingo , in 1798 he returned to the Mediterranean Sea in the capture of Menorca ( returned to Spain in 1802 ). Before being transferred to the Caribbean again, he took part in a foray into Naples with Horatio Nelson .

In 1799 he was Rear Admiral , from 1800 to 1802 Commander-in-Chief for Barbados and the Leeward Islands , from 1801 to 1805 he was Commander-in-Chief of Jamaica . His crews managed to capture or destroy numerous enemy ships. In March and April 1801 he fought victoriously against Swedes and Danes at St. Thomas and St. Bartholemew .

For his services he was inducted into the Order of the Bath in 1801 during a stay in England . He also briefly served as a colonel in the Royal Marines . In April 1804 he was promoted to Vice Admiral. He had to briefly return to the United Kingdom on a court martial charge: he was charged with using a frigate for private trade. The charges were put down.

He experienced the naval battle of Santo Domingo on February 6, 1806 on board his flagship HMS Superb (74 cannons). His fleet defeated the French under Rear Admiral Corentin de Leissegues . For the remainder of the war, the French position in the Caribbean was shaken.

Mediterranean Sea

Back in England he received the Sword of Honor from the City of London and became Deputy Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet . In this capacity, he led the Dardanelles Operation in 1807 , an advance into Constantinople designed to deter the Ottoman Empire from an alliance with France . The Ottoman fortifications were reinforced under the direction of the French envoy Horace-François Sébastiani . Because he had no landing troops at his disposal and in order not to open the way to the conquest of Constantinople for the Russians who had also arrived under Admiral Senjawin , the British refrained from bombarding the city and left the waters on March 13, 1807 and sailed for Egypt . There Duckworth's fleet took part in the landing in Alexandria .

Canada

In 1810 he was promoted to admiral, he took command of the British fleet in Newfoundland and Labrador , at the same time he was governor there. During the British-American War (1812-1814) he successfully organized the defense of his province.

Last years

Duckworth left Newfoundland in October 1812. He represented the constituency of New Romney ( Kent ) in the House of Commons and was made Baronet , of Topsham in the County of Devon on November 2, 1813 . His last post was in command of the naval base at Plymouth . When he died in 1817, his son John Thomas Buller Duckworth (1809-1887) inherited his title of nobility.

Web links

• Government House biography
• John Thomas Duckworth . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
• Naval Battle of Santo Domingo (German)