# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Travers, James

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​TRAVERS. (Lieut., 1826. f-p., 14; h-p., 22.)
James Travers was born 10 Oct. 1796.
This officer entered the Navy, 23 Dec. 1811, as a Volunteer, on board the Endymion 40, Capt. Sir Wm, Bolton, employed on the Irish station, where he removed, in May, 1812, to the Talbot 20, Capt. Spelman Swaine, and became, in the following Sept., Midshipman of the Helena sloop, Capt. Henry Montresor. In May, 1814, he was received as a Supemumerary on board the Salvador del Mundo, Capt. Robt. Hall, lying at Plymouth; and in the following July, he joined the Avon brig of 18 guns, 104 men and 13 boys, Capt. Hon. Jas. Arbuthnot; which vessel, on 1 Sept. in the same year, was compelled to strike her colours to the American ship-sloop Wasp of 22 guns and 173 men, after an action so gallant that within a few hours she went down; barely allowing time for her surviving officers and crew to be saved by the boats of the Castilian 18 who, having arrived at the close of the conflict, had put the Wasp to flight, and had then hastened back to her assistance. The enemy on this occasion had 2 men killed and 1 wounded; the British, their First-Lieutenant and 9 seamen and marines killed and mortally wounded, and their Commander, Second-Lieutenant, and 30 others severely and slightly wounded. Among the latter was Mr. Travers, who was sent in consequence to the Hospital at Plymouth. In the ensuing Dec, although not yet recovered, he again embarked, on board the Martin 18, commanded by his former Captain, Arbuthnot, with whom he served for three years on the coast of Ireland. The Martin was then, 8 Dec. 1817, driven on shore in a violent gale in a bay of the co. Clare. Providentially the upper works, soon after she struck, parted from the bottom, and the officers and crew, with the exception of 5 who were drowned, being carried further in were enabled to land; in a state, however, of great exhaustion, most of them too being much bruised and half naked. Having completed his time on board the Spencer 74, Capt. Wm. Robt. Broughton, lying at Plymouth, Mr. Travers was allowed, 6 March, 1818, to pass his examination. From that period he remained unsuccessful in his efforts to procure employment until appointed, in Oct. 1819, to the Coast Blockade. After spending four years in that service as Admiralty-Midshipman of the Severn 50 and Ramillies 74, both commanded by Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch, he joined, in Nov. 1823, in a similar capacity, the Cambridge 82, Capt. Thos. Jas. Maling, and sailed for South America. On 24 Dec. 1824, being then in the Pacific, he received from Capt. Maling, at the time Senior Officer, an order to act as Lieutenant of the Cambridge; and in Aug. 1826 he was nominated by Sir Geo. Eyre, the Commander-in-Chief, Acting- Lieutenant of his own flag-ship the Wellesley 74, at that period at Rio de Janeiro. Before the intelligence was received in the Pacific he had been compelled, from the effects of his wound and the nature of the climate, to invalid in a state of utter debility. He heard on reaching Rio of his appointment, but found that the Wellesley had returned home; and on his arrival in England in the early part of 1827 he was presented with a commission bearing date 12 of the preceding Oct. Unfit, from the state of his health, to accept of employment afloat, he at length, 2 June, 1846, obtained an appointment, which he still holds, in the Coast Guard.