# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Worth, Henry John

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​WORTH. (Captain, 1840.)
Henry John Worth, born in 1803, is son of Capt. Jas. Andrew Worth, R.N., C.B. (1810), who died in Aug. 1841; and grandson of the late Rear-Admiral Jas. Worth. He had a brother, a Captain in the 84th Regt., who died at Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1827.
This officer entered the Navy, 22 Jan. 1813, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Bulwark 74, commanded by his father, as Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral Philip Chas. Durham, off Rochefort. Towards the close of the same year he sailed with those officers for the West Indies, as Midshipman, in the Venerable 74. During the passage he was afforded an opportunity of assisting at the capture, 16 and 20 Jan. 1814, with but trifling loss to the British, of the French 40-gun frigates Iphigénie and Alcmène. He returned to England with Capt. Worth, in 1815, in the Palma 38; and was employed next, in the Channel, on the coast of Ireland, and in the East Indies, in the Impregnable 104, Capt. Jas. Nash, Spencer 74, Capt. Wm. Broughton, Erne 20, Capt. Timothy Scriven, Windsor Castle 74, Capts. Thos. Gordon Caulfeild and Sir Chas. Dashwood, Liffey 50, Commodore Chas. Grant, and Asia 84, Capt. Mark John Currie. On the paying off of the Asia, in which ship and the Liffey he had been acting as Lieutenant, he was presented with a commission bearing date 20 Aug. 1824. His succeeding appointments were – 18 Jan. 1825, to the Genoa 74, Capts. Wm. Cumberland and Walter Bathurst, employed in the Channel and on the coast of Portugal – 20 Dec. 1827 (a few weeks after he had left the Genoa), again to the Windsor Castle, Capt. Edw. Durnford King, lying at Plymouth – 1 Nov. 1828, to the Warspite 76, Capt. Wm. Parker, also at Plymouth – 22 Jan. 1829, to the Kent 78, Capts. John Ferris Devonshire and Sam. Pym, in which ship he returned to the Mediterranean – 29 July, 1831, as Senior, to the Rapid 10, Capt. Chas. Henry Swinburne, on the latter station, whence he came home and was paid off in July, 1833 – 11 Dec. 1833, in a similar capacity, to the Endymion 50, Capt. Sir Sam. Roberts, under whom he was afresh, for nearly three years, employed in the Mediterranean and off Lisbon – and, 26 Nov. 1836, again as First, to the Stag 46, Capt. Thos. Ball Sulivan, fitting for South America. He was promoted to the rank of Commander 10 Jan. 1837; and on 1 Feb. 1838 he was appointed, in that capacity, to the Hastings 72, Capts. Fras. Erskine Loch and John Lawrence. Under Capt. Loch he escorted the Earl of Durham ​to Quebec, and the Queen Dowager to and from the island of Malta; and under Capt. Lawrence he took an active part in the operations of ISIO on the coast of Syria. In command of the boats of his own ship and of the Edinburgh 72, he led a gallant and hazardous attack upon the castle and magazine at Beyrout, and succeeded in destroying a train which had been laid to the latter for the purpose of exploding it on the landing of the British. He afterwards, having handsomely volunteered his services, united in a second attack made by the boats of the same ships, under the orders of Commander Fras. Decimus Hastings of the Edinburgh; and on this occasion he received a severe contusion. As a reward for his conduct he was promoted to the rank he now holds 5 Nov. 1840. He left the Hastings in the following Jan.; and has been in command, since 12 Dec. 1845, of the Calypso 18, in the Pacific.
Capt. Worth married, 2 Oct. 1838, Charlotte Augusta, daughter of the late Rear-Admiral Thos. Searle, C.B. He was left a widower 31 Dec. 1841. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1840, p. 2609, where he is mentioned in high terms for his admirable conduct.
* ↑ Vide Gaz. 1840, p. 2609.