# Royal Naval Biography/Bluett, Buckland Stirling

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BUCKLAND STIRLING BLUETT, Esq. [Post-Captain of 1812.]
Son of the late Lieutenant John Bluett, R.N. and descended from a very ancient family seated at Halcombe Court, in the north of Devonshire.
Mr. B. S. Bluett entered the navy at an early age; obtained the rank of Lieutenant, Nov. 24, 1800; and was made a Commander, for his gallant conduct at the cutting out of the Dutch national brig Atalante, Captain Carp, by the boats of the Scorpion and Beaver, Mar. 31, 1804. The following account of that brilliant enterprise is contained in a private letter written by the heroic officer under whom he was then serving:–
“H.M. sloop Scorpion, April, 1804.
“I was ordered on the 28th ultimo to reconnoitre the Vlie passage, and perceived a couple of the enemy’s brigs at anchor in the roads: despairing to reach them with my sloop, on account of the shoals that surrounded the entrance, I determined upon a dash at the outermost one in the boats, if a good opportunity could be found or made. It came, unsolicited, March 31. Preparing to set out, we accidentally were joined by the Beaver sloop. Captain Charles Polly, who offered us her boats, to act in concert with ours: we accepted the reinforcement, under an impression that it would spare lives on both sides, and shorten the contest. At 9-30 P.M. we began the enterprise. Captain Pelly, an intelligent and spirited officer, did me the honor to serve under my command, as a volunteer, in one of the boats. We had near 60 men, including officers, headed by myself, in the foremost boat. As we rowed with the flood tide, we arrived alongside the enemy at half-past eleven. I had the good fortune, or (as by some it has been considered) the honor, to be the first man who boarded her. She was prepared for us, with boarding-nettings up, and with all the other customary means of defence; but the noise and alarm, &c. &c. so intimidated her crew, that many of them run below in a panic, leaving to us the painful task of combating those whom we respected the most.
​“The decks were slippery, in consequence of rain; so that grappling with my first opponent, a mate of the watch, I fell, but recovered my position, fought him upon equal terms, and killed him. I then engaged the captain, as brave a man as any service ever boasted, who had almost killed one of my seamen. To my shame be it spoken, he disarmed me, and was on the point of killing me, when a sailor of mine came up, rescued me at the peril of his own life, and enabled me to recover my sword.
“At this time all the men were come from the boats, and were in possession of the deck. Two were going to fall upon the captain at once. I ran up, held them back, and adjured him to accept quarter. With inflexible heroism, he disdained the gift, kept us at bay, and compelled us to kill him. He fell, covered with honorable wounds. The vessel was ours, and we secured the hatches, which, headed by a lieutenant, who has received a desperate wound, the enemy attempted repeatedly to force.
“Thus far we had been fortunate; but we had another enemy to fight:– it was the element. A sudden gale, blowing against us, impeded all the efforts we could make; but as we had made the capture, we determined, at all events, to sustain it, or to perish. We compelled the Dutch below to surrender, put 40 of them into their own irons, stationed our men to their guns, brought the powder up, and made all the necessary arrangements to attack the other brig; but as the day broke, and without abatement of the wind, she was off, at such a distance, and in such a position, that we had no chance of reaching her.
“In this extremity of peril we remained 48 hours. Two of the boats had broken adrift from us, and two had swamped alongside: the wind shifted again, and we made a push to extricate ourselves, but found the navigation so difficult that it required the intense labour of three days to accomplish it.
“The Atalante’s captain and four other Dutchmen are killed, eleven are wounded, and so dreadfully that our surgeon thinks every one of them will die. To the end of my existence I shall regret the captain; he was a perfect hero; and if his crew had been like him, critical indeed would have been our situation. In two days after his death he was buried, with all the naval honors in my power to bestow upon him. During the ceremony of his interment, the English colours disappeared, and the Dutch were hoisted in their place; all the prisoners were liberated; one of them delivered an éloge upon the hero they had lost, and we fired three vollies over him as he descended into the deep.
“The Atalante is much larger than my vessel, and she mounts 16 long 12-pounders: we have not a single brig that is equal to that calibre. Her intended complement was 200 men, but she had only, as it happened, 76 on board.
(Signed)“G. N. Hardinge.”
“The attack has not been attended with the loss of one man on our part, and only 5 wounded. I beg leave to say how much I am indebted to the zeal and gallantry of Captain Pelly, Lieutenants Bluett, White, and Shields, with Messrs. Williams and Fair, masters, and the petty officers and men, for their cool, steady, and determined conduct throughout.”
One of the wounded was Lieutenant Bluett, whose promotion to the rank of Commander took place April 10, 1804, the day on which Captain Hardinge’s letter arrived at the Admiralty. He was soon afterwards presented by the Patriotic Society, at Lloyd’s, with a sword value Fifty Pounds.
In 1805, Captain Bluett commanded the Wasp sloop, stationed at the Leeward Islands. On the 24th May, 1806, he captured le Napoleon French privateer, formerly H.M. armed cutter Dominica, which vessel had been run away with by her crew, and carried to Guadaloupe, from whence she was sent, with 73 sailors and soldiers on board, to attempt cutting out some British merchantmen lying in Rosseau bay. In the course of the same day. Captain Bluett witnessed the surrender of his prize’s consort, a national schooner of 3 guns and 65 men, to the Duke of Montrose packet and Cygnet sloop of war.
On the 12th Oct. 1810, Captain Bluett, then in the Saracen brig, on the Jamaica station, captured la Caroline French privateer, of 1 gun and 42 men. His next appointment was to the Childers, in which vessel he continued until posted, Aug. 12, 1812. From Jan. till Nov. 1815, we find him commanding the Leven a 20-gun ship, and in her he appears to have been very actively employed on the coast of la Vendee, during the last usurpation of Napoleon Buonaparte.
Captain Bluett married. Mar. 11, 1813, Emily, daughter of T. Powell, of Hammersmith, co. Middlesex, Esq. by whom he has had a large family: six of his children, we believe, are still living.
Agents.– Messrs. Stilwell.