# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Caiger, Herbert

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​CAIGER. (Commander, 1827. f-p.,17; h-p., 30.)
Herbert Caiger was born 15 Sept. 1786.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Aug. 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Hind 28, Capt. Joseph Larcom, from which ship, after serving for some time in the West Indies and North America, and attending the expedition to Egypt in 1801, he was paid off, 23 Sept. 1802. He then, with Rear-Admiral Collingwood, joined in succession, as Midshipman, the Venerable, Colossus, and Culloden 74’s, and Prince 98, employed at the blockade of Brest; and, on returning to the Venerable, Capt. John Hunter, suffered shipwreck, in Torbay, on the night of 24 Nov. 1804. After that event Mr. Caiger became attached, as Master’s Mate, to the Isis 50, flagship, at Newfoundland, of his friend Sir Erasmus Gower, by whom he was promoted, immediately after passing his examination, to the rank of Lieutenant, as a reward for general good conduct, 13 Dec. 1806. We soon afterwards find him appointed, 4 Feb. 1807, to the Crocodile 22, Capt. Geo. Edm. Byron Bettesworth, stationed at Quebec, and 2 Feb. 1808, under the same officer, to the Tartar 32. On the death of Capt. Bettesworth, who was killed, 15 May following, at the commencement of a severe action, which lasted for an hour and a half, between the Tartar, who lay becalmed in the midst of a narrow rocky strait, off Bergen, on the coast of Norway, and a Danish flotilla, consisting of an armed schooner and five Danish gun-boats, the command devolved upon Lieut. Caiger, who ultimately succeeded in rescuing the ship from her critical position, and conducting her, although much cut up, into the open sea, after sinking one of the enemy’s vessels and routing the remainder. While subsequently serving with Capt. Joseph Baker, he was very actively engaged in affording protection to the convoys passing through the Belt, and, independently of the capture of several merchantmen, assisted in taking, 3 Nov. 1808, the Danish privateer Naargske Gutten, of 7 guns and 36 men. On 25 Aug. 1809, Mr. Caiger was appointed First-Lieutenant of the Unicorn 32, Capts. Alex. Robt. Kerr, Geo. Burgoyne Salt, and Sam. Geo. Pechell, with whom, severally, he continued, until paid off, 6 Oct. 1814. During that period he was much employed In preventing supplies for the French fleet in Brest being sent alongshore from Bordeaux. He contributed also, in Feb. and April, 1810, and March and April, 1813, to the capture of Le Gascon privateer, of 16 guns and 113 men, L’Esperance (formerly H.M. 22-gun ship Laurel), La Miquelonnaise privateer, of 18 guns and 130 men, and the Hebe, American letter-of-marque (formerly H.M. schooner Laura), of 2 guns and 15 men; took, on one occasion, in command of the boats, with the loss of 2 men killed, a large brig, which had taken shelter under the batteries of Belleisle; was likewise employed on the north coast of Spain in aid of the patriots, as well as in the blockade of the Texel and along the shores of Norway; and was lastly engaged in conveying different branches of the Royal Family to and from the Continent. Lieut. Caiger’s next appointment was, 21 Aug. 1824, as Senior, to the Atholl 28, Capt. Jas. Arthur Murray, under whom he appears to have released, on the western coast of Africa, many hundreds of the natives from bondage, and, after serving at Rangoon during the close of the Burmese War, to have aided in the suppression of piracy on the eastern coast of Africa. On his return to Portsmouth in Oct. 1827, he found that he had been at length promoted to the rank of Commander, by commission dated 11 May, 1827, and appointed to the Java 52, flag-ship in the East Indies, which, however, in consequence of the Atholl’s early departure from that station, he never joined. He has since been on half-pay.