# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Glascock, William Nugent

​GLASCOCK, WILLIAM NUGENT (1787?–1847), captain in the navy, entered the navy in January 1800 on board the Glenmore frigate with Captain George Duff, whom he followed in 1801 to the Vengeance, in which he served in the Baltic, on the coast of Ireland, and in the West Indies. In 1803 he was appointed to the Colossus and afterwards to the Barfleur, in which he was present in the action off Cape Finisterre on 22 July 1805, and later on at the blockade of Brest under Admiral Cornwallis. In November 1808 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Dannemark, and served in her at the reduction of Flushing in August 1809; in 1812 he was a lieutenant of the Clarence in the Bay of Biscay. He afterwards served in the Tiber, Madagascar, and Meander frigates on the home station, and in the Sir Francis Drake, flagship of Sir Charles Hamilton [q. v.] on the Newfoundland station, and was promoted from her to the command of the Carnation sloop in November 1818. In 1819 he commanded the Drake brig, from which he was obliged to invalid. In 1830 Glascock was appointed to the Orestes sloop, which he commanded on the home station during 1831; but in 1832 he was sent out to the coast of Portugal, and during the latter months of the year was stationed in the Douro, for the protection of British interests in the then disturbed state of the country [see Sartorius, Sir George Rose; Napier, Sir Charles (1786–1860)]. He continued in the Douro, as senior officer, for nearly a year, during which time his conduct under troublesome and often difficult circumstances won for him the approval of the admiralty and his promotion to post-rank, 3 June 1833, accompanied by a special and complimentary letter from Sir James Graham, the first lord. He did not, however, leave the Douro till the following September, and on 1 Oct. he paid off the Orestes. From April 1843 to January 1847 he commanded the Tyne frigate on the Mediterranean station, and during the following months was employed in Ireland as an inspector under the Poor Relief Act. He died suddenly on 8 Oct. 1847 at Baltinglass. He was married ​and left issue. Glascock devoted the long intervals of half-pay, both as commander and captain, to literary labours, and produced several volumes of naval novels, anecdotes, reminiscences, and reflections, which, as novels, are stupid enough, and in their historical parts have little value, but are occasionally interesting as social sketches of naval life in the early part of the century. The titles of these are: 1. ‘The Naval Sketch Book, or The Service Afloat and Ashore,’ 2 vols. 12mo, 1826. 2. ‘Sailors and Saints, or Matrimonial Manœuvres,’ 3 vols. 12mo, 1829. 3. ‘Tales of a Tar, with characteristic Anecdotes,’ 12mo, 1836. 4. ‘Land Sharks and Sea Gulls,’ 3 vols. 12mo, 1838. His ‘Naval Service, or Officers' Manual,’ 2 vols. post 8vo, 1836, comes under a different category, and proved, as it was meant to be, a useful manual for young officers; it passed through four editions in England; the last, published in 1859, has a short advertisement by Glascock's daughter, in which she says that ‘the work has been translated into French, Russian, Swedish, and Turkish, and adopted by the navies of those powers, as well as by that of the United States.’ It is now, of course, quite obsolete, though still interesting to the student of naval history and customs.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. xii. (vol. iv. pt. ii.) 490 (a very detailed memoir, evidently supplied by Glascock himself); United Service Magazine, 1847, pt. iii. p. 465.]
J. K. L.