# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Luckraft, John

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​LUCKRAFT. (Lieut., 1802. f-p., 18; h-p., 42.)
John Luckraft was born 23 April, 1775, at Milbrook, in Cornwall, and died in 1846. He was half-brother of the present Capts. Alfred and Wm. Luckraft, R.N. One of his own brothers, Adrian, died Purser of H.M.S. Wolverene in the West Indies in 1806; another, Frederick, also in the R.N., was drowned at sea; and a third, Robert, at one time in the Navy, died in civil service in the West Indies in 1823.
This officer entered the Navy, in Oct. 1786, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Leander 50, Capt. Sir Jas. Barkley, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore (afterwards Rear-Admiral) Herbert Sawyer, on the Halifax station, where, in the following year, that ship was nearly lost by striking on a sunken reef near Cape Despair. During the heaving-down process which was in consequence rendered necessary on her reaching port, Mr. Luckraft had the misfortune to lose the total use of the index finger of his left hand. The Leander being afterwards ordered to the Mediterranean, he continued in her on that station until April, 1791. He next, in July and Dec. 1793, joined the Fury 16, and Oiseau 36, Capts. Frank Sotheron and Robt. Murray, under whom he was for two years and seven months employed on the Home and Halifax stations. Becoming attached, in July, 1796, to La Nymphe 36, Capts. John Cooke and Percy Fraser, he assisted, as Midshipman of that vessel, at the capture, when in company with the San Fiorenzo 36, of the French frigates La Résistance of 48, and La Constance of 24 guns, 9 March, 1797. Being immediately appointed second in command of the former ship, he had the fortune to be the chief instrument of her preservation under circumstances of a very trying nature, in which he displayed so much ability that he was greeted with the high encomiums both of Capt. Cooke and the late Sir Harry Neale. In the following month Mr. Luckraft was present in the mutiny at Spithead. He was afterwards, in April, ​1798, in company with the Mars 74, at the famous capture of L’Hercule, a ship of similar force, on which occasion he was sent on board the prize in order to assist in clearing her decks of the dead, the dying, and the general wreck. On leaving La Nymphe in April, 1799, he was placed by his friend, Admiral Sir Thos. Pasley, in command, with the rating of Master’s Mate, of the Caroline gun-vessel; and in the course of the same and the two following years was successively appointed by him, with the rank of Acting-Lieutenant, to the Terpsichore 32 and Seagull 18, Capts. Wm. Hall Gage and Thos. Lavie, to the command of the Swan hired-cutter (in which vessel he captured the lugger-privateer Vengeance), and to the San Fiorenzo 36, Capt. Wm. Chas. Paterson. While the latter ship was on one occasion becalmed and engaged with 12 or 14 Spanish gun-vessels off Cabritta Point, Mr. Luckraft was despatched in a boat to Gibraltar for assistance, and in executing this mission he was exposed, in going and returning, to the whole fire of the enemy. In July, 1801, although he had been performing First-Lieutenant’s duty, and was strongly recommended, as he had frequently been before, for promotion, he was superseded from the San Fiorenzo, and again ordered to serve as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, at first in command of the Experiment fire-vessel, and then on board the Royal Sovereign 100, flag-ship of Sir Henry Harvey. On 29 March, 1802, however, at the joint instance of the last-mentioned officer and of Sir Thos. Pasley, he was at length officially promoted to a Lieutenancy in the Ranger sloop, Capts. Rich. Goddard and Chas. Coote. In that vessel he served in the North Sea and off Boulogne until Sept. 1803; and in June, 1804, after having been for a few months employed in the Meteor bomb, Capt. Jas. Master, and Tigre 80, Capt. Dacres, he obtained command of the Phoebe hired cutter, of 12 guns. In the following Nov. his intrepidity in giving chase to the notorious privateer Le Contre Amiral de Magon, of 17 guns and 84 men, was the fortunate means of the latter being captured by the Cruizer 18, Capt. John Hancock. When next, in the early part of 1805, in the Harpy 18, Capt. Edm. Heywood, Mr. Luckraft was in almost daily collision with the enemy’s flotilla in the neighbourhood of Boulogne, where, in an action with seven of their schuyts, he boarded and carried one of them at the head of a few men from the main chains of the Harpy, who then proceeded in pursuit of the remainder. On 30 May in the same year, a few weeks previously to which he had joined the Flora 36, Capt. Loftus Otway Bland, we find him assuming command of the Pigeon schooner. He shortly afterwards received from on board H.M.S. Tribune the Earl of Harrowby, at the time on an embassy to Berlin, and conveyed his Lordship and suite up the Elbe to Hamburgh. Towards the close of Nov. 1805, the Pigeon, through the ignorance of her pilot, was unfortunately lost off the Texel, while on her passage with despatches for General Don at Bremerlehe, and her Commander and crew in consequence became prisoners to the Dutch. Being set at liberty in 1806, Mr. Luckraft soon proceeded for the benefit of his health to the Mediterranean, where, although on half-pay, he cruized for some time as a Supernumerary in various ships. In Nov. 1808, while on his passage home for the purpose of taking up an appointment awarded to him, he fell into the hands of the Turks, among whom he remained a captive until enabled, at the end of 1809, to effect his escape. With the exception of a few months passed in 1815 in the Impress service at Deal, the Lieutenant was not again employed until 1825, in April of which year he was appointed to the office of Agent on board the Virilia transport, and ordered to Janeiro. During the voyage, and when off the Cape de Verde Islands, the latter vessel was fallen in with and chased by a powerful pirate, who, however, notwithstanding her overwhelming force, was foiled in every attempt to board, and ultimately compelled to strike her colours, although she contrived to effect her escape. Not long after this gallant affair Mr. Luckraft was thrown by a roll of the ship down the after-hatchway, and fractured his right leg. There being no surgeon on board, the wound was so badly treated as to be the cause of eventual paralysis of the leg and thigh. He was discharged on the return home of the transport in Dec. 1825, and did not again go afloat.
Lieut. Luckraft married, 30 April, 1800, Miss Martha Wilson, of Torpoint, Cornwall, by whom he has left issue (with one daughter married to Lieut. Wm. Geo. Pearne, R.N.) two sons, the elder, John Pasley, a Master R.N., and the other, Chas. Maxwell, a Lieutenant.