# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Michell, Frederick Thomas

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​MICHELL. (Captain, 1830. f-p., 23; h-p., 24.)
Frederick Thomas Michell, born 8 April, 1788, is son of Sampson Michell, Esq., Lieutenant R.N., who by permission entered the Naval service of the late Queen of Portugal, and died an Admiral at Rio de Janeiro in Jan. 1809. He is the only brother of Lieut.-Colonel C. C. Michell, Surveyor-General at the Cape of Good Hope.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy 27 April, 1800, and embarked, 17 Sept. 1803, as Midshipman, on board the Eurydice 24, Capts. John Nicholas and Wm. Hoste, employed at first in the Channel and off the coast of Africa, and then in the Mediterranean, where, on 6 Oct. 1805, we find him serving with the boats under Lieut. Andrew Pellet Green at the capture of the Mestuo la Solidad Spanish privateer of 6 guns, and a convoy of which the latter had charge. In the ensuing Nov., having followed Capt. Hoste into the Amphion 32, he assisted at the defeat, although simultaneously opposed by the fire of an immense battery, of a division of about 30 Spanish gun-boats, which had come out of Algesiras in the hope of capturing a British convoy. He was afterwards present in the operations against the French on the coast of Calabria; and in the course of 1806 he became in succession attached to the Termagant 18, Capt. Robt. Pettet, Morgiana sloop, Capt. Wm. Landless, and Ocean 98, flag-ship of Lord Collingwood – all, too, in the Mediterranean, on which station he continued until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, 29 May, 1807. Obtaining an appointment, in the following Oct., to the Active 38, Capts. Rich. Hussey Moubray and Jas. Alex. Gordon, he aided in that ship at the capture, 26 March, 1808, of the Friedland brig-of-war, of 16 guns, having on board the Commander-in-Chief of the Italian marine; and was wounded in two successful boat expeditions on the coast of Albania. On the first of those occasions he was in sole charge of the boats, and evinced so much zeal, professional ability, and gallantry, that his name was brought under the special notice of the Commander-in-Chief. We may add that, out of seven casualties that occurred, his own boat sustained the loss of 1 killed and 5 wounded. The injuries he himself received were rewarded by a gratuity from the Patriotic Fund. During a subsequent servitude of five years and nine months, from June, 1809, to March, 1815, in the Rhin 38, Capt. Chas, Malcolm, Mr. Michell, as may be seen by a reference to our memoir of the latter officer was most actively employed on the Home, West India, and Brazilian stations, assisting during the period at the capture of nine privateers (of one of which he took possession in a heavy gale), carrying altogether 103 guns and 735 men, and co-operating extensively, in 1812-13, with the patriots on the north coast of Spain. When the Laurel frigate, in Jan. of the former year, was cast away in the Teigneuse passage, he made one trip more than any other officer to the wreck, although under fire of the enemy, and brought off the Captain and the last of the crew. On leaving the Rhin as above he joined, first the Boyne 98, and then the Queen Charlotte 100, bearing each the flag of Lord Exmouth, who, on the day preceding the battle of Algiers, placed him in charge, with the rank of Commander, of the whole of the battering flotilla attached to his squadron. During the ever-memorable bombardment Capt. Michell, in execution of the duty with which he had been intrusted, went on board the Dutch Admiral and every British ship engaged in the line of battle. In the midst of the conflict, when, as it was supposed, the Captain of the Queen Charlotte had been mortally wounded, he was sent for by the Commander-in-Chief, and directed to act in his stead. He was removed from the command of the flotilla to that of the Beelzebub bomb, 1 Sept. 1816; and on 16 of the same month he was officially promoted. Quitting the Beelzebub on 21 of the ensuing Oct., Capt. Michel! did not again go afloat until Dec. 1826, On 27 of that month he obtained an appointment to the Rifleman 18, fitting for the Mediterranean, where, it appears, he was attached to the commissariat of the French army in the Morea, and was recommended to the consideration of the Admiralty by Sir Edw. Codrington and Sir Pulteney Malcolm, the successive Commanders-in-Chief, and by H.M. Ambassador at the Porte, in a manner that procured him a Post-commission, dated 22 Feb. 1830. His last appointments were, 23 April, 1840, and 4 Aug. 1841, to the Magicienne 24, and Inconstant 36, in the former of which ships he united in the operations on the coast of Syria; and in the latter saved, by his zeal and promptitude, the Scout sloop-of-war from being lost, after she had been a week on shore on the ​island of Cyprus. The Inconstant was paid off 30 March, 1843.
Capt. Michell, whose person bears the marks of not less than eight wounds, married the youngest daughter of the late Mr. Prideaux, of Wadebridge House, near Truro, co. Cornwall. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.