# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Fisher, William

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​FISHER. (Captain, 1811. f-p., 22; h-p., 30.)
William Fisher, born 18 Nov. 1780, is second son of the late John Fisher, Esq., of Yarmouth, co. Norfolk.
This officer entered the Navy, 18 Aug. 1795, as Midshipman, on board the Squirrel 20, Capt. Geo. Parker, attached to the fleet in the North Sea. He served next, between June, 1796, and June, 1798, in L’Oiseau 36, Capt. Geo. Hopewell Stephens, and Tremendous 74, flag-ship at the Cape of Good Hope of Rear-Admiral Thos. Pringle, with whom he returned home in the Crescent 36; and then joined the Dragon 74, Capt. Geo. Campbell, employed successively in the Channel and Mediterranean. For his singular intrepidity, shortly afterwards, in leading the way aloft, followed by two seamen, when the foremast, during a violent storm, was badly sprung, and the ship in a critical situation, and cutting away the topmast, whereby the lower mast was preserved, Mr. Fisher had the honour of receiving the public thanks of his Captain. He subsequently, in the same ship, and the Foudroyant 80, bearing the flag of Lord Keith, took part in the operations connected with the expedition to Egypt in 1801; after which he removed to the Santa Dorothea 42, Capt. Hugh Downman, and, on 3 Sept. in the same year, was promoted into the Irresistible 74, Capt. Wm. Bligh. His succeeding appointments, as Lieutenant, were – 26 Oct. 1801, to the Iris 32, Capts. Hon. Philip Wodehouse and David Atkins, on the North Sea station – 8 April, 1803, to the Canopus 80, bearing the flag off Toulon of his former Captain, Rear-Admiral Geo. Campbell – 2 April, 1805, to the Superb 74, Capt. Rich. Goodwin Keats, in which ship he accompanied Lord Nelson to the West Indies in pursuit of the combined fleets of France and Spain – and, 9 Oct. 1805, as First, to the Stately 64, Capt. Geo. Parker, in the North Sea. Capt. Fisher, having obtained his second commission 25 Sept. 1806, was next appointed, 25 Feb. and 18 June, 1807, to the Merlin 16, and Racehorse 18. In the latter vessel he captured in the Channel, 2 March, 1808, a French privateer, L’Amiral Ganteaume, of 4 guns and 28 men; was frequently engaged with the batteries off Cherbourg; and, on proceeding to the Cape, was actively employed, during the years 1809 and 10, off the Mauritius, and in exploring the Mozambique. On 10 Dec. 1810 he was nominated Acting-Captain of the Akbar 44, in which ship he convoyed the troops from the former place to Madras; and on 18 April, 1811, being at the time on his passage home in the Barbadoes frigate, Capt. Brian Hodgson, he was officially posted. Capt. Fisher remained thenceforward on half-pay until 14 Sept. 1815, between which period and Oct. 1817, when he invalided in consequence of a desperate attack of fever, we find him commanding the 20-gun ships Bann and Cherub on the coast of Guinea. While in the Bann, independently of other similar vessels, he captured, 5 March, 1816, by laying her alongside and boarding, after a long running fight, the slaver El Temerario, of 16 guns and 80 men; and, in the Cherub, after a desperate resistance, he took a large heavily-armed pirate-schooner. His next and last appointment was, 18 March, 1836, to the Asia 84, in which he served, on the Mediterranean station, until placed out of commission in May, 1841. During that period he was frequently engaged on important detached services, particularly in 1840, when he commanded the squadron, consisting of five line-of-battle ships and other smaller vessels, employed in blockading the powerful fleet assembled at Alexandria. After the British authorities and the British flag had been withdrawn from that place, Capt. Fisher, in pursuance of the peremptory instructions of H.M. Ambassador at Constantinople, performed the hazardous duty of landing alone, and personally conveying to Mehemet Ali the official announcement of his deposition. He also took upon himself the responsibility of keeping open our Indian mail communications through Egypt, and of suspending the mercantile part of the blockade. In the discharge of these and the numerous other very delicate offices which devolved upon him at that eventful epoch, he acquired the unqualified approbation of the Commander-in-Chief; the Turkish gold medal, sword, and diamond decoration were conferred on him; and, on 1 July, 1842, he was awarded the Good-Service Pension.
Capt. Fisher, while in the Cherub, suggested to the Admiralty the excellent plan, now in general adoption by our own and the French and Russian navies, of watering ships, for his subsequent completion of which, while on half-pay, he received from the board its official thanks, and a portion of his expenses. He married, in May, 1810, ​Elizabeth, sister of Sir Jas. Rivett Carnac, Bart., late Governor of Bombay, and of Capt. John Rivett Carnac, R.N. By that lady he has, with one daughter, an only son, who holds an appointment in the Madras Civil Service. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.