# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wake, Baldwin Arden

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​WAKE. (Commander, 1849. f-p., 19; h-p., 1.)
Baldwin Arden Wake, born 4 Jan. 1813, in Blake Street, York, is son of Baldwin Wake, Esq., M.D. (son of Drury Wake, Esq., formerly of the 17th Lancers, and nephew of Sir Wm. Wake, Bart., of Courteen Hall, co. Northampton), by Sarah, sister of the present Jas. Spedding, Esq., of Summergrove, co. Cumberland, late a Captain in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards (and now Major of the Royal Westmoreland Militia, and a Deputy-Lieutenant and Magistrate for co. Cumberland), who was severely wounded in the engagement of 2 Oct. 1799, near Egmont-op-Zee, in North Holland. Another of Lieut. Wake’s uncles, Lieut.-Colonel Carlisle Spedding, served as a Captain in the 4th Regiment of Dragoons under the Duke of Wellington in Spain and Portugal during nearly the whole of the Peninsular War, was present at most of the actions and sieges, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Albuera in 1811.
This officer entered the Navy, 24 July, 1827, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Espoir 10, Capt. Henry Fras. Greville, under whom he was for three years employed at the Cape of Good Hope. In Sept. 1830 he removed as Midshipman to the Falcon 10, Capts. Henry Griffith Colpoys, Thos. Metcalfe Currie, and John Garrett, on the West India station. On a subsequent occasion, when that vessel was going at the rate of 4 knots an hour, he jumped overboard and, with the assistance of a main-top man, named John Hogan, was the means of saving the life of a seaman, who had fallen from the fore-chains and was unable to swim. On a dark night in Dec. 1831, the Falcon being then at Sheerness, he again, with a rope, leaped overboard, to the rescue of a man intoxicated, although the boats were hoisted up and a strong tide was at the time running. As a reward for this act of intrepidity, Mr. Wake was introduced by Capt. Garrett to the Commander-in-Chief, Sir John Poo Beresford, who received him, in Feb. 1832, on board his flag-ship, the Ocean 80, and ever afterwards extended to him his patronage. On the night of 13 Feb. 1833, about three months after he had been transferred to the Forester 3, Lieut.-Commander Wm. Henry Quin, that vessel, during a violent gale off Scilly, parted from her anchors and was driven on the Crow bar. On the cutter being hoisted out Mr. Wake volunteered with a seaman to clear it from the tackles; the boat was, however, swamped, and the seaman drowned; Mr. Wake himself being only saved by grasping a rope at the very moment that the Forester was driven off the bar. The latter having again struck upon the rocks, several efforts were made to send a line to the shore; but this was not accomplished until Mr. Wake, seizing it in his mouth, succeeded in getting through the surf; when a hawser was hauled on shore, and the Forester thereby prevented from being carried round a point and inevitably lost. After serving for nearly a year at Plymouth in the San Josef 110, flag-ship of Sir Wm. Hargood, Mr. Wake was appointed in March, 1834 (he had passed his examination in the preceding Nov.), Mate of the Racehorse 18, Capt. Sir Jas. Everard Home, fitting for the West Indies; where, on the occasion of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, which took place 19 April, 1837, he was nominated Additional of the Melville 74, bearing the flag of Sir Peter Halkett, the Commander-in-Chief on the North America and West India station. While the Racehorse was equipping at Plymouth, a seaman fell from the main-rigging and was fast sinking, when Mr. Wake, perceiving what had occurred, plunged through a port and brought him to the surface. Being off Para in 1835, when that city lay at the mercy of a troop of Indians, our truly gallant officer found means, at the risk of his life, of performing another valuable service. On his own responsibility, accompanied by a Mate of the Racehorse, the present Commander Byron Drury, he approached during the night a building from which, although in the midst of the insurgents, his exertions enabled him to bring away 220 Brazilian troops, who were thus saved from a massacre which took place on the following day. His last appointments were – in 1837-8, to the Cornwallis 72, flag-ship of Hon. Sir Chas. Paget, Serpent 16, Capt. Rich. Laird Warren, and ​Cornwallis again, all on the North America and West India station – 4 Feb. 1840, to the Pearl 20, Capts. Chas. Colville Frankland and Rich. Henry Stopford, with whom he served, until paid off in June, 1844, on the coast of North America, a great part of the time as First-Lieutenant – 25 April, 1845, to the Queen 110, flag-ship of Sir John West at Devonport – and 10 Nov. 1845, to the Albion 90, Capts. Nicholas Lockyer and Chas. Howe Fremantle. In the latter ship, of which he became Senior Lieutenant, he served in the Channel and Mediterranean until paid off in 1848. He attained his present rank 5 March, 1849.
Commander Wake’s heroic conduct in the Falcon obtained for him the honorary medallion of the Royal Humane Society; and his services in saving the Forester were acknowledged by a silver medal from the Royal Shipwreck Institution. While belonging to the Pearl he had the good fortune to preserve the life of Mr. John Hepburn, Master Attendant of Portsmouth Dockyard, which was placed in great danger at the launching of the Bittern sloop. His “gallant exertions” on that occasion elicited the thanks of the Admiralty.