# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Slade, James

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​SLADE. (Captain, 1810.)
James Slade was born in 1768 at Childhay, Burstock, co. Dorset, and died 25 Oct. 1846. He was uncle of Commander Henry, and Lieut. Edgar, Slade, R.N., and cousin of Commander Adolphus Slade, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1781, as a Boy, on board the Amphion frigate, Capt. John Bazely, stationed on the coast of North America; where and in the West Indies he served, from 1783 until 1786, as Midshipman, in the Cyrus, Lieut.-Commanders Turner, Davidson, Brown, and Johnson. He then returned to England in the Unicorn 20, Capt. Chas. Stirling, and during the remainder of the peace was employed in the Edgar 74, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Leveson Gower, Endymion, Lieut-Commander Dan. Woodriff, Dictator 64, Capt. West, London 98, Royal Sovereign 100, and Victory 100, each bearing the flag of the late Lord Hood, and Romney 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Sam. Cranston Goodall. In the Endymion he made a voyage to Quebec and back; and in the Romney (the other ships were on the Home station) he proceeded to the Mediterranean; where he was nominated, 8 April, 1792, Acting-Lieutenant of the Fury 14, Capts. Frank Sotheron and Henry Lidgbird Ball. In that vessel, to which he was confirmed 8 April, 1793, we find him affording protection to the trade between England and Portugal, accompanying an expedition under Earl Moira and Rear-Admiral M‘Bride to the coasts of Normandy and Brittany, and assisting, while attached to a squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren, at the capture, 23 Jan. 1794, of La Vipère national corvette. From May, 1795, until promoted, 2 Sept. 1799, to the command of L’Espiègle sloop, he again served with Capt. Sotheron at Newfoundland and in the North Sea, in the Romney 50, bearing the flag of Sir Jas. Wallace, and, as First-Lieutenant, in the Latona 38. During his servitude in the latter ship he was placed in charge of the Crash gun-brig, and sent, 12 Aug. 1799, with the Undaunted armed schuyt and the boats of a small squadron under his orders, to attack the Vengeance schooner, of 6 guns and 70 men, and a row-boat, both moored under a battery of 4 long 12-pounders and 2 brass 4-pounders, on the island of Schiermonikoog. Although the Crash grounded too far from the shore to be of much ​service, the enterprise was in every way successful. The Vengeance was set on fire and destroyed by her own crew; the row-boat, with 12 schuyts lying near her, was captured; and the brass guns in the battery (the others were spiked) brought off. Two days prior to this, Mr. Slade had been, in command of the boats of the same squadron, in company with the Courier cutter, commanded by the present Rear-Admiral Searle (to whose memoir refer) when that vessel made prize of the above-named Crash; on which occasion he drove on shore a large armed schooner. His conduct was such as to obtain for him very honourable mention, and afforded his Captain an opportunity of describing him as being at all times a truly deserving and gallant officer. He was shortly afterwards present at the capture of the Helder and the surrender of the Dutch squadron under Rear-Admiral Storey. As a tribute to the professional character of Lieut. Slade, we must here state that in six weeks he brought the crew of the Latona from a state of insubordination bordering on mutiny into the very highest discipline, without the ordeal of a single court-martial and with the exercise of very trifling punishment. He continued in command of L’Espiègle (already alluded to) in the North Sea until 1802; and was subsequently employed – from 5 Oct. 1805 until he invalided in June, 1806, in the Duchess of Bedford of 12 guns, on the Mediterranean station – in 1809-10, in the Sea Fencibles in Ireland – from 31 Jan. 1810 until 1814, in the Experiment receiving-ship at Falmouth – and, for a few weeks in March and April, 1816, in the Ordinary at Plymouth. His promotion to Post-rank took place 21 Oct. 1810.
Capt. Slade married, 3 Dec. 1796, Cheney, youngest daughter of Henry Roe, Esq., by whom he had seven children. One of his sons, an officer in the Navy, was drowned.
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