# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/West, Christopher

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​WEST. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 13; h-p., 34.)
Christopher West was born in 1788. One of his brothers, a Midshipman of the Dannemark 74, Capt. Henry Edw. Reginald Baker, was drowned with 12 men in a boat belonging to that ship in the Downs in 1813; another, Matthew Thomas, a Lieutenant R.N. (1814), died in 1841.
This officer entered the Navy, 25 March, 1800 (under the auspices of the late Commissioner Geo. Henry Towry), as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Thetis 38, Capt. H. E. R. Baker, with whom, after sharing in the operations connected with the expedition to Egypt, he removed as Midshipman, in Dec. 1801, to the Wassenaer 64, armée en flûte. That ship being paid off in Sept. 1802, he joined next, in April, 1803, the Minotaur 74, Capt. Chas. John Moore Mansfield. On 28 May following he witnessed the capture of the French 44-gun frigate La Franchise; and, after serving for some months at the blockade of Brest and Cadiz, be fought, as Signal Midshipman, at the battle of Trafalgar. In 1807 he sailed, under Rear-Admiral Wm. Essington, with the expedition against Copenhagen. While there, having passed his examination in Dec. 1806, he was received, 23 Aug. 1807, on board the Prince of Wales 98, bearing the flag of Admiral Gambier; and nominated, 13 Sept. ensuing, Sub-Lieutenant of the Desperate gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Price, whom he succeeded in the command, as Acting-Lieutenant, in Dec. of the same year. He was confirmed a Lieutenant, 9 Feb. 1808, into the Fury bomb, Capt. John Sanderson Gibson, stationed on the coast of Jutland. His next appointment was, 24 March, 1809, to the Blake 74, Capt. Edw. Codrington, in a boat belonging to which ship he was the means, while in company with the Sealark schooner, of saving one of the crew of the latter vessel, which, with the rest of her people, foundered. During the ensuing operations in the Scheldt, the Blake, bearing the flag at the time of Lord Gardner, grounded under the batteries of Flushing, and suffered, in the course of an engagement with the enemy of two hours and three quarters, a loss of 2 men killed and 9 wounded, besides being twice set on fire. While at Cadiz, in 1810, she was charged with the removal to Minorca of four Spanish line-of-battle ships, the whole of which, although old and leaky, destitute of men to navigate them, only half-provisioned, and crowded with refugee passengers, were ultimately anchored in safety at Fort Mahon, after a distressing passage of 38 days. On returning to the coast of Spain, Mr. West, who had been placed on board one of the Spanish ships, assisted at the defence of Tarragona and in other operations connected with the patriot cause. He had been previously, when at Cadiz, employed in a gun-boat. An attack of pleurisy obliging him to leave the Blake in July, 1811, he was not again employed until appointed, in Nov. 1812, Flag-Lieutenant, in the Ceres 32, to Rear-Admiral Thos. Surridge, Commander-in-Chief at the Nore. He had the honour subsequently of steering and attending on the Duke of Clarence during a visit made by H.R.H. to the Russian fleet sent over to England for safety. A few days after Rear-Admiral Surridge had struck his flag, Mr. West, through the strong recommendation made in his favour by that officer to the First Lord of the Admiralty, was promoted to the rank of Commander 4 June, 1814. He has since been on half-pay.
He married, in 1815, Miss Sarah Ware, of Camden Town, London, and has issue four sons and two daughters. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney,