Charles Hughes (Royal Navy officer)

Last updated

Charles Hughes
Died11 August 1819
AllegianceUnion flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg  Kingdom of Great Britain
Service / branchNaval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg  Royal Navy
Rank Captain
Commands HMS Exeter
HMS Worcester
HMS Seahorse
HMS Bristol
East Indies Station
Battles / wars American Revolutionary War

Captain Charles Hughes (died 11 August 1819) was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station.

In 1782 Hughes commanded HMS Exeter [1] before transferring to command HMS Worcester in November 1782. [2] On 20 June 1783 the Worcester took part in the Battle of Cuddalore, an action with the French fleet off Cuddalore which took place after peace had been signed in Europe but before the news had reached India and which became the final battle of the American Revolutionary War. [3]

He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station in 1785 and remained in post until 1787. [4]

He lived at Friday Hill House in Essex. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood</span> British admiral (1724–1816)

Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood was an English admiral in the Royal Navy. As a junior officer he saw action during the War of the Austrian Succession. While in temporary command of Antelope, he drove a French ship ashore in Audierne Bay, and captured two privateers in 1757 during the Seven Years' War. He held senior command as Commander-in-Chief, North American Station and then as Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands Station, leading the British fleet to victory at Battle of the Mona Passage in April 1782 during the American Revolutionary War. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, then First Naval Lord and, after briefly returning to the Portsmouth command, became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet during the French Revolutionary Wars. His younger brother was Admiral Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport (1726–1814), and his first cousin once-removed was Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, 1st Baronet (1762–1814).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Thomas Troubridge, 1st Baronet</span> Royal Navy officer (1757–1807)

Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Troubridge, 1st Baronet was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Sadras in February 1782 during the American Revolutionary War and the Battle of Trincomalee in September 1782 during the Anglo-French War. He commanded the third-rate Culloden at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars. He went on to be First Naval Lord and then served as Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, during the Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Hughes (Royal Navy officer)</span> 18th-century British admiral

Admiral Sir Edward Hughes was a Royal Navy officer who commanded the East Indies Station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Cornwallis</span> Royal Navy admiral (1744–1819)

Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, was a Royal Navy officer. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British commander at the siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis took part in a number of decisive battles including the siege of Louisbourg in 1758, when he was 14, and the Battle of the Saintes but is best known as a friend of Lord Nelson and as the commander-in-chief of the Channel Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. He is depicted in the Horatio Hornblower novel, Hornblower and the Hotspur.

Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton, 1st Baronet was a British naval officer who finished his career as a rear admiral in the Royal Navy and was ennobled as the first Baronet Bickerton of Upwood. He served in several naval engagements, and died Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in 1792. His son Richard Hussey Bickerton, who likewise rose to flag rank in the Royal Navy, succeeded to the baronetcy following his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Rainier (Royal Navy officer, born 1741)</span> Royal Navy officer (1741–1808)

Admiral Peter Rainier was a Royal Navy officer who served during the Seven Years' War, the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. From 1794 to 1805, Rainier was commander-in-chief of the Navy's East Indies Station, covering all seas between the Cape of Good Hope and the South China Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet</span> Royal Navy admiral

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer, he was deployed with a squadron under Admiral Edward Vernon to the West Indies at the start of the War of Jenkins' Ear. He saw action again at the Battle of Toulon during the War of the Austrian Succession. As captain of the fourth-rate HMS Bristol he took part in the Invasion of Guadeloupe during the Seven Years' War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner</span> Royal Navy admiral (1742–1809)

Admiral Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner, was a British Royal Navy officer and peer of the realm. He was regarded by some as one of the Georgian era's most dashing frigate captains and, ultimately, a respected senior admiral.

HMS <i>Superb</i> (1760) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Superb was a 74-gun Bellona-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir Thomas Slade and built by Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard, launched on 27 October 1760 as a sister ship to HMS Dragon.

HMS <i>Sultan</i> (1775) British Royal Oak-class ship of the line

HMS Sultan was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 December 1775 at Harwich. Built to take part in the American Revolutionary War, her departure was delayed due to a shortage of crew and it was 9 June 1778 before she finally sailed as part of a squadron led by Rear-Admiral John Byron. In September she was with Richard Howe's fleet, blockading the French in Boston and in 1779, transferred to the West Indies, where she took part in the Battle of Grenada that July. Almost a year later, on 20 June 1780, she was involved in a short action off the coast of the Dominican Republic with a superior French force.

HMS <i>Seahorse</i> (1748) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Seahorse was a 24-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1748. She is perhaps most famous as the ship on which a young Horatio Nelson served as a midshipman. She also participated in four battles off the coast of India between 1781 and 1783. The Royal Navy sold her in 1784 and she then became the mercantile Ravensworth. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1786 and 1788. In 1789, she was sold to the French East India Company which had her refitted and renamed her Citoyen. In 1793 the French Navy purchased her and used her as a frigate. She was last listed in 1801.

HMS Burford was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1754, and launched in 1757.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Murray (Royal Navy officer, born 1759)</span> Royal Navy Vice-Admiral (1759–1819)

Vice-Admiral Sir George Murray KCB was an officer in the Royal Navy who saw service in a wide range of theatres and campaigns. His active naval career spanned the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Murray served under many of the most notable commanders of his age and participated in several of their greatest victories. He was with Parker and Howe in the West Indies and North America, Johnstone and Hughes in the East Indies, Jervis at Cape St Vincent, Nelson at Copenhagen, and took part in a host of other actions and engagements. Temporarily a captive of the French he was a keen scholar and spent time learning the French language and their naval customs, as well as being a competent surveyor, experience that was to help him in later life. He had a particularly enduring friendship with Nelson, who personally requested his services as his captain of the fleet. It was only chance that prevented Murray from serving as such at Trafalgar. With Murray absent, Nelson declined to appoint a replacement, one biographer reasoning that "none but Murray would do".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Cloberry Christian</span> Royal Navy officer (1747–1798)

Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian KB was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Edward Buller, 1st Baronet</span>

Sir Edward Buller, 1st Baronet was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre André de Suffren</span> French naval officer and nobleman (1729–1788)

Vice-Admiral Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez, bailli de Suffren was a French naval officer and nobleman. Beginning his career during the War of the Austrian Succession, he briefly served in the Maltese Navy before fighting in the Seven Years' War, where Suffren was taken prisoner by the British at the Battle of Lagos. Promoted to captain in 1772, he served under Charles Henri Hector, Count of Estaing during the naval battles of the American Revolutionary War, taking part in the siege of Savannah in 1779.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Macnamara</span> Royal Navy officer (1768–1826)

Rear-Admiral James Macnamara was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Robert Harland, 1st Baronet</span> Royal Navy officer

Admiral Sir Robert Harland, 1st Baronet was a Royal Navy officer. He commanded HMS Tilbury at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession and commanded HMS Princess Louisa at the Battle of Lagos in August 1759 during the Seven Years' War. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station and then First Naval Lord.

Admiral Robert Montagu was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin William Page</span> Royal Navy officer (1765–1845)

Admiral Benjamin William Page was a Royal Navy officer of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who served extensively on the East Indies Station. He joined the Royal Navy in 1778 on board the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, his patron. He sailed with Hughes to the East Indies and participated in the series of naval battles against the French that culminated in the Battle of Cuddalore in 1783. Page returned to England in 1785 and was promoted to lieutenant. His first appointment as such was in the frigate HMS Astraea commanded by Captain Peter Rainier. Rainier also became a patron of Page, who transferred with him to the ship of the line HMS Monarch in 1790 and then recommended him for further employment elsewhere. After another period of service in the East Indies, Page was again taken up by Rainier as a lieutenant, this time on the ship of the line HMS Suffolk, in 1793. Page served as Rainier's temporary flag captain in Suffolk and fought at the invasion of Ceylon in 1795 before being given command of the sloop HMS Hobart. In Hobart Page used his extensive knowledge of the East Indies to navigate Rainier's fleet to the Moluccas and Amboyna Island, which they captured.

References

Military offices
Preceded by Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station
17851787
Succeeded by