# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Oliver, James

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​OLIVER. (Commander, 1813.)
James Oliver entered the Navy, in 1782, as Sec.-cl. Vol., on board the Otter sloop, Capt. Elias Harvey, stationed in the Baltic. From 1783 until 1785, and from 1788 until 1790, he served at Newfoundland and Gibraltar in the Merlin, Capt. Geo. Lumsdaine, and Mercury, Capt. Montgomery; and on 8 June, 1797, he was promoted to a Lieutenancy in the Alcmène 32, Capts. Wm. Brown, Geo. Hope, Henry Digby, and John Tremayne Rodd. Continuing in that ship for a period of nearly four years, he contributed to the capture, 26 June, 1799, after a long chase and running fight, of the French privateer Courageux, of 28 guns and 253 men. He also, 18 July following, assisted, in partial command of the Alcmène’s boats, at the capture (although protected by two forts and a detached gun in Vivero harbour, on the north coast of Spain) of La Felicidad, a ship of about 800 tons, pierced for 22 guns, with a cargo of hemp, lower masts, and ship timber; and of El Bisarro brig, laden with timber and iron. His appointments, after he left the Alcmène, were – for a few months in 1801, to the Vlieter 44, Capt. Wm. Birchall, off Harwich – 2 Dec. 1803 and 27 Feb. 1807, to the Bacchante 20 (which ship he left in April, 1806) and Franchise 36, both commanded by Capt. Chas. Dashwood – 24 Sept. 1809, to the Polyphemus 64, flag-ship at Jamaica of Vice-Admiral Bartholomew Sam. Rowley – 26 Jan. 1810, to the command of the Découverte schooner, on the same station, whence he invalided in Dec. 1810 – in Oct. 1811, to the Hibernia 120, flag-ship of Sir Edw. Pellew in the Mediterranean – in the following month, to the command of the Carlotta brig – and, 29 Oct. 1813, as Senior, to the Sultan 74, Capt. John West, attached to the force in the Channel. On 3 April, 1805, being at the time First-Lieutenant of the Bacchante, Mr. Oliver assisted at the capture of the Spanish war-schooner Elizabeth, of 10 guns and 47 men. Two days afterwards he was sent with two boats, containing about 35 seamen and marines, to cut out three notorious French privateers reported to be in the harbour of Mariel, near the Havana, the entrance to which was defended by a round tower nearly 40 feet high, armed at the top with 3 long 24-pounders, surrounded with numerous loop-holes for musketry, and garrisoned by a Spanish Captain and 30 soldiers. Being discovered during his approach, Lieut. Oliver, who was in the foremost boat, immediately landed, and, with a degree of gallantry as irresistible as it was heroic, rushed, through a tremendous fire that badly wounded 1 of the only 13 men with him, to the foot of the tower, which, without further loss, he scaled and carried. Having performed this noble exploit, left a Sergeant of Marines and 6 men as a guard at the fort, and been joined by his other boat, under the orders of Lieut. John Campbell, he proceeded in search of the privateers, but to his mortification found that they had sailed the day before on a cruize. Although thus disappointed, he contrived nevertheless to obtain possession of, and bring off, two schooners laden with sugar, notwithstanding that they were lying alongside a wharf, under repeated discharges of musketry from the troops and militia, who were pouring down in numbers from the adjacent country. In spite, however, of the glowing terms in which his conduct on this occasion was reported by Capt. Dashwood, Lieut. Oliver was suffered to remain unpromoted for upwards of eight years. During that period he was present, in the Franchise, at the bombardment of Copenhagen in Sept. 1807, and at the capture, in Dec. 1808, of the town of Samana, St. Domingo, almost the last port of refuge on the station for the enemy’s privateers. In the Découverte he sustained so serious an injury in the left eye, from arduous and active service, as to be obliged, as above stated, to invalid; and, in April, 1812, he had the misfortune to lose the Carlotta on the coast of Sicily, on which occasion, through exertion and fatigue in saving a quantity of specie, he again lost the use of his eye. His advancement to the rank of Commander at length took place 4 Dec. 1813, since which period, however, he has not been able to procure employment.
His son, Wm. Browne Oliver, is a Commander R.N.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1799, p. 984. The part taken in the above affair by the subject of the present narrative has been erroneously attributed by Mr. James, in his ‘Naval History,’ to the late Retired-Commander Wm. Sandford Oliver.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1805, pp. 772-3. The conduct of this achievement, too, is by Mr. James ascribed, in error, to the late Commander Thos. Oliver.