# Royal Naval Biography/Moriarty, William

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WILLIAM MORIARTY, Esq. [Commander.]
Was wounded while serving as midshipman of the Nymphe frigate, Captain Conway Shipley, and employed in one of her boats, commanded by Lieutenant Richard Standish Haly, in an attempt to board a French brig of war lying near Belem castle, in the river Tagus, April 23d, 1808. He passed his examination, at Sheerness, in the summer of 1811; and was made a lieutenant into the Revenge 74, Captain Sir John Gore, on the Mediterranean station, Oct. 23d, 1813. His subsequent appointments were, – Sept. 19th, 1814, to the Tyrian sloop. Commander Augustus Baldwin; and, April 15th, 1818, to the Topaze frigate, Captain John Richard Lumley, fitting out for the East India station.
In 1820, the Topaze was sent to the Persian Gulph, for the purpose of obtaining redress for injuries which the British interests had suffered from the officers of the Imaun of Senna. She arrived off Mocha accompanied by several of the Hon. East India Company’s cruisers, and a bomb vessel, on the 3d Dec, and Captain Lumley, finding that the agent on the part of the British Government had previously used every means in his power without effect, immediately resolved on bombarding the place. On the 4th, the north fort appearing to be abandoned, boats were sent to take possession of and destroy it. This enterprise, however, failed, as it proved to be still occupied, and the detachment was obliged to retreat with considerable loss. On the subsequent morning, a parley took place; and the following day two hostages were sent off to the squadron, with a promise that every demand should be acceded to in the course of a fortnight.
“It would seem,” says the Vice-President in Council of ​Bombay, “that the unsuccessful result of the attack on the north fort, had led the Dolah (Fukee Hassan) and his people to suppose they were impregnable, and procrastinated their submission. The truce of fourteen days had, by one means or other, extended to twenty, which, however, allowed time for the whole of the property belonging to merchants under our protection being embarked. On the 26th, the cruisers and bomb again opened on the north fort, at day-light; it was breached, and the enemy driven out by half-past ten o’clock; and by half-past twelve, the guns were spiked, thrown out of the embrasures, and the fort blown up. From this period till the 30th, repeated messages were sent from the shore, leading to no satisfactory result. On the morning of the 30th, therefore, we commenced bombarding the south fort, which by two p.m. was taken possession of and blown up, the guns spiked, and the barrack burnt. These decisive measures were productive of the desired effect. Amier Falhullah, who had superseded Fukee Hassan, came on board the Topaze, early in the morning of the 2d Jan., produced his powers, and afforded the strongest assurances of a full admission of our demands. The late Dolah was put into close confinement, with a guard over him, and his property seized and confiscated by an express order of the Imaun, for having transmitted false accounts of the state of affairs. Hajee Futteh, another public functionary, was obliged to make a public apology for the manner in which he had treated the British representative at Mocha. Finally, on the 15th, copies of a new treaty, which had been drawn up and sent to Amier Falhullah, were returned, signed and sealed by himself and the members of his council, comprehending the whole of the Hon. Company’s demands, and placing the British Factory on that respectable footing on which it ought alone to be maintained.”
During the operations against Mocha, the Topaze fired upwards of 3,500 shot into the forts. Her loss consisted of Lieutenant Robert G. Atkinson (royal marines), Mr. C. P. Gill (master’s mate), Mr. Francis S. Burnett (midshipman), and five seamen and marines slain; Lieutenants William ​Moriarty and Charles Mayson Moncreiffe Wright, Messrs, Robert Ward and William Stephens (Admiralty midshipmen), and sixteen sailors and marines wounded. The Hon. Company’s cruisers had four killed, eight wounded, and three burnt by the explosion of the mines.
Lieutenant Moriarty’s promotion to the rank of commander took place on the 1st Nov. 1822. He now holds a civil appointment at Port Dalrymple, in Van Diemen’s Land.