# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hayes, John (1775-1838)

​HAYES, JOHN (1775–1838), rear-admiral, grand-nephew of Adam Hayes, master-shipwright of Deptford dockyard, nominally ​entered the navy at the age of seven, but really not till 1787, when he was embarked on board the Orion of 74 guns, under the command of Sir Hyde Parker. In 1790 he was serving in the Pearl frigate under Captain G. W. A. Courtenay, whom in the spring of 1793 he followed to the Boston, and on 31 July took part in the action with the French frigate Ambuscade. Courtenay was killed, and the Boston overpowered and compelled to haul off, the Ambuscade not being able to pursue her (James, Naval History, 1860, i. 110). On returning to England he was made lieutenant (7 Oct. 1793), and appointed to the Dido with Sir Charles Hamilton [q. v.], whom he followed to the San Fiorenzo, in the Mediterranean. After serving in the Channel and West Indies he was promoted, 1 March 1799, by Sir Hyde Parker, then commander-in-chief at Jamaica, to be commander, and, continuing on the Jamaica station, was advanced to post rank 29 April 1802. In January 1809 he commanded the Alfred on the coast of Spain, and in charge of the embarkation of the troops after the battle of Corunna; afterwards was moved into the Achille for the Walcheren expedition, and at the close of the year was appointed to the Freya frigate, in which he served under the command of Sir Alexander Cochrane at the reduction of Guadeloupe in January 1810. He returned to England in the following autumn, and in September 1812 was appointed to the temporary command of the Magnificent of 74 guns, employed in the Bay of Biscay. On the evening of 16 Dec. she anchored in the entrance to Basque Roads, and during the night was driven from her anchors by a violent gale towards a dangerous reef. She was saved from what appeared certain destruction by the excellent discipline of the crew and the seamanship of the captain, which, even in that age of brilliant seamanship, was considered remarkable, and won for him the title of ‘Magnificent Hayes.’ Very full technical details of the affair were published at the time (Naval Chronicle, xxix. 21), and have been copied by James (Naval History, 1860, v. 332) and Marshall (Roy. Nav. Biog. iv. 677). The facts are totally different from those of the club-hauling of H.M.S. Diomede in ‘Peter Simple,’ often said to be founded on the escape of the Magnificent. In January 1813 Hayes was appointed to the Majestic, a 74-gun ship, which had been cut down, on a plan suggested by him, into the semblance of a frigate, to meet the novel exigencies of the war with the United States. She carried an armament of twenty-eight 32-pounders and twenty-eight 42-pounder carronades, and was sent over to look out for the heavy American frigates. She did not fall in with one, but on 15 Jan. 1815 was, with the frigates Tenedos and Pomona, in company with the Endymion when the United States frigate President was captured [see Hope, Sir Henry]. On the remodelling of the order of the Bath in 1815 Hayes was made a C.B., and in 1819 superintendent of the ordinary at Devonport. In 1829–30 he commanded the Ganges at Portsmouth; and from 1830 to 1832 was commodore on the west coast of Africa, with a broad pennant on board the Dryad of 42 guns. By the very large promotion which took place on 10 Jan. 1837 he became rear-admiral of the white. He died the following year, 7 April 1838, at Southsea. Through his whole service he had paid unusual attention to the details of naval construction, a subject to which his mind appears to have had an hereditary bent, and on which he published one or two pamphlets, which were favourably received at the time, though now forgotten. Hayes was married and left issue, among others the present Admiral Courtenay Osborn Hayes, and Vice-admiral John Montagu Hayes, C.B., who died in 1882.
[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. iv. (vol. ii. pt. ii.) 673; O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict. s.n. ‘Courtenay Osborn Hayes;’ Gent. Mag. 1838, vol. cxii. pt. ii. p. 324.]
J. K. L.