# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Bazalgette, Joseph William

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​BAZALGETTE. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 17; h-p., 34.)
Joseph William Bazalgette was born about the year 1783.
This officer entered the Navy, in Oct. 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Impétueux 74, Capts. John Willet Payne, Sampson Edwards, and Sir Edw. Pellew, attached to the fleet in the Channel. From 1799 until 1805 he served, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, chiefly in the East Indies, in the Terpsichore 32, Capt. John Mackellar, Eurydice 28, Capt. Chas. Malcolm, Phaeton 38, Capt. Geo. Cockbum, and Trident 64, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Peter Rainier. On 15 Oct. 1805, Mr. Bazalgette became Sub-Lieutenant of the Aggressor 12, Lieut.-Commander Jas. Watson, employed in the Channel; and on 12 June, 1806, was promoted to be full Lieutenant of the Resistance 38, Capt. Chas. Adam, whom he accompanied to the West Indies. While subsequently cruizing off Bilbao, on the north coast of Spain, he was detached, 27 Feb. 1809, in command of a single boat, in pursuit of a French man-of-war schooner, La Mouche, which he gallantly boarded and captured, after an action in which her commander, a Lieutenant-de-Vaisseau, was killed. A night or two afterwards he was again successfully engaged in the boats in cutting out from under the batteries, in a neighbouring port three armed luggers, laden with stores and provisions for the French army in Spain; and while in the act of boarding one of the vessels, was severely wounded by a musket-ball in the left thigh, which placed him for some months under surgical treatment, and eventually rendered him lame for life. On being sufficiently recovered, Lieut. Bazalgette was appointed, 20 Feb. 1810, First of the Leonidas 38, Capt. Anselm John Griffiths, and, until superseded, 21 Sept. following, saw much active service in the Adriatic, where, on different occasions, in command of the boats, he succeeded in capturing and destroying, together with the vessels anchored under their protection, the Towers of Badisco, Trecase, and Emiliano, on the coast of Italy, each mounted with cannon; and for his exertions received the thanks of the senior officer, Capt. Geo. Eyre. He next served for nearly two years on board the Warspite 74, Capt. Hon. Henry Blackwood, also on the Mediterranean station; and in 1813-14, having joined the America 74, Capt. Sir Josias Rowley, participated in the attacks on Leghorn and Spezia, as also on Genoa, where he commanded a division of boats belonging to the squadron, and where for his conduct, both at the capture, and in the after direction of the enemy’s batteries, the guns and mortars of which were effectively employed against the city, he obtained the high commendations of his Captain, and was rewarded, the day after the surrender, in being promoted by Sir Edw. Pellew to the command of the Coureur, a captured sloop-of-war. He was confirmed on his return to England, by commission dated 17 May in the same year; and since the ensuing month of July, when he paid the Coureur off, he has been unemployed.
Commander Bazalgette, in consideration of the wound above alluded to, was presented by the Patriotic Fund with a gratuity of 50l., and awarded by Government a pension of 150l. He has, for upwards of twenty years, gratuitously devoted his time to the moral and spiritual advancement of his brother seamen, especially in the formation and direction of the “Naval and Military Bible Society,” the " Sailor’s Home and Asylum,” the “Seaman’s Floating Church,” and the “Royal Naval Female School.” Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.