# Royal Naval Biography/Wise, William Furlong

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WILLIAM FURLONG WISE, Esq. A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath. [Post-Captain of 1806.]
Son of George F. Wise, of Woolston, near Kingsbridge, co. Devon, Esq. by Jane, sister to the late Vice-Admiral James Richard Dacres.
This officer was born at Woolston, Aug. 21, 1784; entered ​the naval service Feb, 7, 1797; obtained the rank of Lieutenant May 1, 1804; was made a Commander, into the Elk sloop of war, Nov. 1, 1805; and posted into the Mediator 44, on the Jamaica station. May 18, 1806. A gallant exploit performed by a detachment of seamen and marines under his directions, at Samana, in Feb. 1807, has already been described at p. 973 of our second volume.
From this period we lose sight of Captain Wise, until his appointment to the Granicus frigate, in 1813. On the 2d Dec. 1814, he captured the Leo, American privateer, of 6 guns and 76 men, near Cape Spartel.
Captain Wise was re-appointed to the Granicus, Oct. 27, 1815; his dashing conduct at the battle of Algiers is thus handsomely noticed by a contemporary writer:–
“The Granicus and Hebrus frigates, and the smaller vessels (except the bombs) being considered in the light of a corps-de-reserve, had not had any particular stations assigned to them, but were to bring up abreast of any openings they could find in the line of battle. Impelled onward by the ardent desire of filling the first of these openings, the Hebrus got becalmed by the heavy cannonade, and was obliged to anchor a little without the line, on the Queen Charlotte’s larboard quarter. The Granicus, finding herself shooting fast ahead, hove to, with the intention of waiting until her companions had taken their stations. As, owing to the dense smoke which prevailed, nothing beyond the distance of a cable’s length could be seen, except the Queen Charlotte’s mast-head flag. Captain Wise allowed 10 minutes to elapse for the ships to anchor. The Granicus then filled, let fall her fore-sail, set top-gallant-sails, and, soon gaining fresh way, steered straight for a beacon that, phoenix-like, seemed to live in the hottest of the fire. With a display of intrepidity and of seamanship alike unsurpassed. Captain Wise anchored his frigate in a space scarcely exceeding her own length between the Queen Charlotte and Superb; a station of which a three decked line-of-battle ship might justly have been proud.”
The Granicus, on this brilliant occasion, sustained a loss of 16 killed and 42 wounded; amongst the latter were Lieutenant Henry Augustus Perkins, and Messrs. Lewis Punbar Mitchell, Lewis Tobias Jones, George R. Glennie, and Dacres Furlong Wise, Midshipmen. On the second day after the battle, the following correspondence took place between her crew and the Superb’s:–
“The ship’s company of the little frigate that had the honour to lay between the Queen Charlotte and Superb, on the glorious 27th of August, 1816, beg leave to express their high admiration of the noble fire kept up by these ships on that glorious day, by which, in a great measure, the enemy’s fire was drawn from his Majesty’s ship Granicus.”
Superb’s Answer.
“The ship’s company of the Superb returns their many thanks to the ship’s company of the little frigate, for the high compliment they have been pleased to pay them, and have only to hope that should they ever again go into action, they may have a Granicus to support them.”
Captain Wise was nominated a C.B. Sept. 21, 1816, and appointed to the Spartan frigate, Jan. 6, 1818.
In the course of the latter year, the Genoese ship Misericordia having been plundered by the Algerines of considerable property, and the Genoese Vice-Consul treated with great indignity, previous to his being dismissed, a complaint was made to the British government of this violation of the treaty which had been concluded by Lord Exmouth. On this representation, the Spartan was despatched from England to demand an explanation, and to remonstrate against these violent proceedings. Captain Wise appears to have been completely successful in the object of his mission. Immediately on his arrival at Algiers, he entered, in conjunction with H.M. Consul, into a negociation with the Dey, the result of which was, the payment of 35,000 dollars as a compensation for the property plundered on board the Misericordia, and an unqualified disavowal, on the part of the reigning Dey, of the act of his predecessor (who died of the plague, Mar. 1, 1818) in sending away the representative of his Sardinian Majesty.
In 1819, the Spartan visited Madeira, Dominica, Vera Cruz, Jamaica, Barbadoes, and Halifax; in July 1820, she conveyed Lord Combermere from Barbadoes to England; and we subsequently find her proceeding to the Havannah, Charlestown, and New York; from whence she returned to England, for the purpose of being paid off, in Jan. 1821.
The subject of this sketch married, June 16, 1810, Fanny, only daughter of W. Grenfell, Esq.
* ↑ James’s Nav. Hist. 2d. edit. Vol. VI, p. 678. et seq.
* ↑ Captain Wise conveyed 2,000,000 dollars from Vera Cruz to Jamaica, and 500,000 from the Havannah to Charlestown, besides bringing smaller sums from Barbadoes and New York to England.