# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Case, William

Layout 4
​CASE. (Retired Capt., 1846. f-p., 23; h-p., 34.)
William Case entered the Navy, 15 Jan. 1790, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Hebe 38, Capt. Alex. Hood, and, in March, 1792, was transferred to the Juno 32, Capt. Sam. Hood, both stationed in the Channel. From May, 1793, to April, 1796, he again served in the Hebe, as Midshipman, under Capts. A. Hood, Paul Minchin, and Mat. Henry Scott, in the West Indies, where we find him, after a short attachment to the Majestic 74, flag-ship of Sir John Laforey, promoted, 3 Oct. 1797, to a Lieutenancy in La Victorieuse 14, Capts. Edw. Stirling Dickson and Richardson. While in the latter vessel he cut out a Spanish schooner from under the fire of a privateer and two batteries at Port Espana, Trinidad – took part, 7 May, 1798, in a very creditable action with two French privateers, the smaller of whom, a sloop of 6 guns and 50 men, was captured, and the other, a schooner of 12 guns and 80 men, put to flight – and, in Dec. following, witnessed the surrender of two forts near the river Caribe, besides valiantly contributing, in joint command of a party of 70 seamen, to the capture and destruction, at Gurupano, of two others, defended by at least 300 men, and of the Couleuvre, of 6 guns and 80 men. Lieut. Case’s next appointments were, 27 Aug. 1801, 20 April, 1804, and 21 Dec. 1805, to the Beaver sloop, Capt. Christopher Basset Jones, Magdalene, Capt. Joseph Lamb Popham, and Agincourt 64, Capts. Thos. Briggs and Henry Hill, on the Home station; after which he served, from Jan. 1806 to June, 1812, under Sir Sam. Hood, on board the Centaur 74, Hibernia 110, Tigre 74, Owen Glendower 36, and Illustrious 74, off the Western Islands, and in the Mediterranean, Baltic, and East Indies. During the period of his attachment to the Centaur, Mr. Case, as First Lieutenant, was meritoriously present, 25 Sept. 1806, at the capture, in company with the Mars and Monarch 74’s, of four heavy French frigates from Rochefort, on which occasion Sir S. Hood lost his arm. He also attended, in Aug. and Sept. 1807, the expedition to Copenhagen – beheld, in Dec. of the same year, the surrender of Madeira – ably assisted, in conjunction with the Implacable 74, at the taking, 26 Aug. 1808, in sight of the whole Russian fleet, near Rogerswick, of the 74-gun ship Sewolod, after a close and furious conflict, in which the Centaur lost 3 killed and 27 wounded, and the enemy 180 killed and wounded – and, in Aug. 1809, was engaged, under Capt. Wm. Henry Webley, in the attack upon Walcheren. After holding for two months the appointment of Lieutenant-Governor of Madras Hospital, he was promoted, 7 Aug. 1812, to the command of the Hecate sloop; and, on 15 of the same month, he joined the Samarang, of 16 guns, of which he appears to have retained command, in New South Wales, until 24 March, 1814. He has since been on half-pay. His acceptance of the rank he now holds took place 14 May, 1846.
Capt. Case, in the early part of his career, also assisted at the reduction of Ste. Lucie and Trinidad. He married, 15 Sept. 1829, a daughter of Henry Hallett, Esq., of Chidcook, Devon.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1799, p. 210.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1806, p. 1306.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1808, p. 1282.