# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Dent, Charles Calmady

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​DENT. (Commander, 1828. f-p., 21; h-p., 16.)
Charles Calmady Dent, born 26 Sept. 1793, is younger brother of Commander Digby Dent, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 9 Aug. 1810, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Achille 74, Capt. Sir Rich. King, then at the siege of Cadiz; after which he served, from Feb. 1811 to Aug. 1815, with the Hon. Henry Duncan in the Impérieuse 38, and Glasgow 50. During that period, while in the Impérieuse, he assisted in the boats under Lieut. Eaton Travers at the capture and destruction, in face of a heavy fire and of trebly superior numbers, of a fort and three gun-boats, near the town of Possitano, in the Gulf of Salerno, 11 Nov. 1811; was similarly present, 2 Nov. following, at the annihilation and seizure, near Palinuro, of a tower, two batteries, 10 gun-vessels, and 22 richly-laden feluccas, defended by a force of 700 troops and armed peasantry; further witnessed, 27 June, 1812, a gallant assault on the enemy’s batteries at Languelia and Alassio, where 18 valuable vessels were destroyed; took part also, on 17 Aug. in the same year, in a spirited skirmish with a powerful Neapolitan squadron in the Bay of Naples; and, in 1813-14, was present at the capture of Port d’Anzo, and in the operations against Leghorn and Genoa. The collective loss of the British in the boat affairs above detailed amounted to 34 men killed and wounded. On leaving the Impérieuse, Mr. Dent cruized for some months off the coast of Ireland in the Cyrus 20, Capt. Wm. Fairbrother Carroll. He then joined the Minden 74, Capt. Wm. Paterson; for his services as Master’s Mate of which ship at the bombardment of Algiers, where he was slightly wounded, we find him promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, 16 Sept. 1816. He next proceeded to the East Indies in the same ship under the flag of Sir Rich. King; and, on his arrival on that station, joined in succession – 10 March, 1817, the Iphigenia 36, Capt. John Tancock – 25 July following, as First-Lieutenant, the Challenger 18, Capt. Philip Henry Bridges – and, 12 Oct. 1818, the Eden 26, Capt. Fras. Erskine Loch. In the boats of the latter ship, Mr. Dent was on one occasion half killed by a thrust in the head from a boarding pike, while attempting to gain the poop of a vessel belonging to the pirates of the Persian Gulf; where, in Dec. 1819, he served on shore in the batteries and otherwise during a series of operations under Major-General Sir Wm. Grant Keir and Capt. Fras. Augustus Collier, R.N., which terminated in the complete destruction of Ras-al-Khyma, the great stronghold of those marauders. From 6 Feb. 1821 until Jan. 1824, Mr. Dent further served at Plymouth in the Impregnable and Britannia, flagships of Hon. Sir Alex. Cochrane. He was afterwards appointed First-Lieutenant, 6 Nov. 1825 and 19 Jan. 1806, of the Procris 10, and Espiègle 18, Capts. Hon. Wm. Waldegrave and Rich. Augustus Yates, at Home and in the West Indies; on which latter station, prior to assuming the command, in May, 1827, of the Union schooner, he took, with but two small boats, a piratical vessel greatly his superior in force. He attained his present rank 5 Jan. 1828; and, with the exception of a command in the Coast Guard, which he held from 13 July, 1838, until the same month in 1843, has since been on half-pay.
Commander Dent married, first, in Sept. 1829, Eliza, third daughter of the late Thos. Shepherd, Esq., of Butcombe Court, co. Somerset; and, secondly, in 1839, the Hon. Selina Arabella Lucy Hastings, second daughter of the late Earl of Huntingdon, Capt., R.N., sister of Captain the Hon. Geo. Fowler Hastings, R.N., and sister-in-law of Commander Henry Parker, R.N. He has issue five children. Agent – J. Chippendale.