# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Dickinson, Thomas

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​DICKINSON. (Capt., 1832. f.-p., 17; h-p., 34.)
Thomas Dickinson was born in Hampshire. This officer entered the Navy, in Feb. 1796, as Third-cl. Boy, on board the Invincible 74, Capt. Wm. Cayley, on the West India station, whence, after witnessing the reduction of Ste. Lucie and Trinidad, he invalided home, in July, 1799, on board the Favorite, Capt. Westbeach. Under Capt. Jas. Vashon, Admiral Hon. Wm. Cornwallis, and Vice-Admiral Collingwood, he next served, in the Channel and off Cadiz, as Midshipman, from July, 1801, to 10 Oct. 1805, of the Dreadnought 98, in the boats of which ship he appears to have been frequently and very actively employed against the enemy. On accompanying the last-mentioned officer into the Royal Sovereign 100, he so distinguished himself in the battle off Cape Trafalgar, 21 Oct. 1805, where he was wounded, that the Vice-Admiral promoted him, the day following, to the rank of Lieutenant – Mr. Dickinson being the very first officer on whom that mark of approbation was conferred. During the action he had had the command of 8 guns, and, at the head of the sail-trimmers, had gone over the side of the Royal Sovereign, at a time when she lay exposed to the fire of an 80-gun ship, and performed the important office of clearing away the wreck of the main and mizen masts, then covering the after guns. As, however, he had not passed his examination, Mr. Dickinson was not confirmed by the Admiralty until 15 Aug. 1806, at which period he was still with Lord Collingwood, in the Ocean 98. He left that ship in Oct. 1808; and was next appointed – 11 Nov. following, to the Active 38, Capt. Jas. Alex. Gordon, also in the Mediterranean – 25 Aug. 1809, to the Rattler 18, Capts. Henry Higman and Alex. Gordon, off Newfoundland – and, 24 June, 1812, to the Andromache 33, Capt. Geo. Tobin. On 23 Oct. 1813, having previously witnessed the fall of St. Sebastian, he was (severely) wounded, as was another person (slightly), at the capture of La Trave, of 44 guns and 321 men, which ship surrendered, after a short but smart action, and a loss of 1 man killed and 28 wounded. Attaining the rank of Commander 15 June, 1814, he was eventually appointed, 25 June, 1829, to the command of the Lightning 18, on the South American station, where, for six months, he acted as senior officer in the Rio de la Plata; and next superintended, during several months ,of 1831, a series of arduous operations, which terminated in the recovery from the wreck of H.M.S. Thetis of about 600,000 dollars, rather more than two-thirds of a sum which had been engulfed with that ship off Cape Frio. Capt. Dickinson, who paid the Lightning off on 13 Sept. 1832, was thereupon presented by the ship’s company with a sword and pair of epaulettes, in token of gratitude for his unceasing care during the dangerous and laborious exertions at Cape Frio, by which their lives were preserved. Since his Post-promotion, which took place 29 Nov. following, he has been on half-pay.
Capt. Dickinson has been in the receipt, since 2 Dec. 1815, of a pension of 150l. for the wounds he received at the capture of La Trave. He has also obtained a gratuity from the Patriotic Fund; and, in 1825, he was presented by the Society of Arts with the Gold Vulcan Medal, for his mode of applying percussion powder to the discharge of ships’ guns. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.
​DICKINSON. (Captain, 1832.)
Thomas Dickinson, when a Midshipman of the Dreadnought, assisted in the boats of that ship at the capture and destruction of numerous convoys off Cadiz. He first attracted the notice of the late Lord Collingwood by the judgment and conduct he displayed during a heavy gale in bringing alongside of the ship for which they were intended several long spars, which had been taken into tow by the boats of the fleet under an officer whose want of skill had greatly endangered the lives of his men, and whom he had been in consequence sent to supersede. So pleased at his general behaviour was the Admiral that he took him with him as his follower into the Royal Sovereign, and generally selected him for any particular piece of service that was to be performed. The opinion entertained of him, indeed, by Lord Collingwood may be inferred from the annexed extract from an official letter addressed by the latter to the First Lord of the Admiralty, subsequently to the battle of Trafalgar:– “After the action, to supply the vacancies, I gave acting orders to young men who were recommended to me for their activity, and, amongst others, to a Mr. Dickinson, whom I found in the Dreadnought and removed with me to the Royal Sovereign, because he had more knowledge of his profession than is usual, and seemed to be the spirit of the ship when anything was to be done.” After be had been promoted, Mr. Dickinson was appointed by Lord Collingwood First-Lieutenant of the Active. While serving with his Lordship he had been at one time, we may add, for 14 months at the blockade of Cadiz without casting anchor. In the memoir given in the body of this work we have noticed the fact that Mr. Dickinson was present at the capture of La Trave. He was also on that occasion First-Lieutenant. In his despatch to Lord Keith, Capt. Tobin makes the following honourable mention of him:– “The zeal and professional talents of Mr. Dickinson I have long known and endeavoured to appreciate, and on all occasions have sought with avidity his clear and comprehensive counsel; nor is it possible that I can ever cease to cherish a remembrance of it with the warmest gratitude.” During the action Mr. Dickinson had his thigh and knee both broken; he was severely contused, too, on the head, and received several minor wounds in different parts of the body. So severe were his sufferings that he was for seven months confined to the Hospital at Plymouth. At the end of that period he was discharged as incurable; and it was not until two years later that he was enabled to serve again. For his conduct he was promoted to the rank of Commander. While senior officer, in the Lightning, in the Rio de la Plata, he had the good fortune, with the assistance of the British Vice-Consul, to effect a reconciliation between Generals Lavalleja and, Fructuoso Rivera, at a period when those personages were contending for the Presidency of Monte Video, and by their operations had brought about a state of things very inimical to the commercial interests of Great Britain. In Dec. 1830, while refitting at Rio de Janeiro on his return from a voyage to the Pacific, Capt. Dickinson heard for the first time of the wreck of the Thetis; which frigate had struck against the cliffs of the uninhabited island of Cape Frio, on the coast of Brazil, and had gone down in deep water in the open ocean with 810,000 dollars on board. From the thoroughly exposed nature of the spot at which the disaster had occurred, and the utter absence of the ordinary implements of submarine operation, the recovery of any part either ot the stores or of the vast amount of treasure engulfed was deemed altogether hopeless. Possessed, however, of a mind ever fertile jn resources, oad endowed with that spirit of determination and enterprise which brooks no obstacle, and is always necessary to the execution of a bold design, Capt. Dickinson, with no other means at his disposal than such as could be drawn from the slender vessel he commanded, resolved on making the great attempt. Much do we regret that our limits do not permit of our entering into a detail of the contrivances he ​adopted, the dangers he braved, the impediments he encountered. After struggling for 14 months with difficulties unparalleled, surrounded often with sickness, and in the midst always of privation and want, the issue of his persevering exertions, and of the consummate mechanical and nautical skill he has called into action, was seen in the triumphant recovery of all the guns and stores, and of about 600,000 dollars. He was then relieved by Capt. Hon. John Fred. Fitzgerald De Ros of the Algerine 10, who, availing himself of the machinery already constructed, rescued 150,000 dollars more. With a constitution broken by the fatigue he had undergone, Capt. Dickinson returned to England, and years elapsed before he was restored to comparative health. Short, however, of his promotion to Post-rank, he obtained from the Admiralty not the least token of approbation for the almost superhuman undertaking he had accomplished. In 1842, to mark the sense they entertained of the ingenuity he had evinced at Cape Frio in converting water-tanks into diving-bells, the Society of Arts presented him with a gold medal. The regret we feel at being deprived of the pleasure we should have in entering more at large into a history of Capt. Dickinson’s achievement is somewhat mitigated by his having already published ‘A Narrative of the Operations for the Recovery of the Public Stores and Treasure sunk in H.M.S. Thetis,’ &c.; a volume which should unquestionably be read by those who are disposed to take interest in an account of perhaps the most astonishing performance of the kind ever achieved by the Captain of a British man-of-war. Capt. Dickinson was admitted into the Royal Hospital at Greenwich 26 Aug. 1847.