Napier

Napier, SIR CHARLES, English admiral, was cousin to the hero of Sind and the historian of the Peninsular war, and was born 6th March 1786, at Merchiston Hall, near Falkirk. At thirteen he went to sea as a naval volunteer. In 1808 he received the command of the Recruit, 18 guns, and had his thigh broken by a bullet. He kept up a running fight in the West Indies with a French line-of-battle ship, and assisted in her capture. This obtained him a post-captaincy; but being thrown out of active service, he served ashore as a volunteer in the Peninsular army, and was wounded at Busaco. Commanding the Thames in 1811, he inflicted an incredible amount of damage upon the enemy in the Mediterranean. In 1814 he led the way in the hazardous ascent and descent of the Potomac; and he took an active part in the operations against Baltimore. In 1829 he received the command of the Galatea, a 42-gun frigate, and was employed 'on particular service' on the coast of Portugal. Becoming acquainted with the leaders of the Constitutional party, he accepted the command of the fleet of the young queen; and by defeating the Miguelite fleet he concluded the war, and placed Donna Maria on the throne. He was made admiral-in-chief of the Portuguese navy, and attempted to remodel it; but official and corrupt influence was too strong for him, and he returned to England. In the war between the Porte and Mehemet Ali he organised a land force, with which he stormed Sidon and defeated Ibrahim Pasha among the heights of Mount Lebanon. He took part in the naval attack on Acre, blockaded Alexandria, and concluded a convention with Mehemet Ali. In 1847, now a K.C.B., he received the command of the Channel fleet. When the Russian war broke out he was sent out to command the Baltic fleet; but the capture of Bomarsund failed to realise the high expectations formed, and he was deprived of his command. He twice sat in parliament, for Marylebone and Southwark, and, until his death at his Hampshire seat, Merchiston Hall, November 6, 1860, he laboured to reform the naval administration. See his Life and Correspondence (1862).