# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Lutman, Charles William

Layout 4
​LUTMAN. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 16; h-p., 27.)
Charles William Lutmanwas born 20 Oct. 1790.
This officer entered the Navy, in June, 1804, as Midshipman, on board the Royal George 100, Capt. Joseph Sydney Yorke, and in 1806 removed to the Narcissus 32, Capt. Chas. Malcolm, both ships stationed in the Channel. Joining, next, the Tartarus 18, Capt. Thos. Fras. Chas. Mainwaring, he served in that sloop at the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807; and on 25 April, 1808, he assisted in her boats, with those of the Daphne 20, commanded by Lieut. Wm. Elliott, at the cutting out, with a loss to the British of only 5 persons wounded, of a convoy of 10 deeply-laden vessels, moored close under the fort of a castle mounting 10 guns, in the harbour of Fladstrand, near the Skawe, defended also by a heavy fire from another battery, as well as from the crews of the vessels assembled on the beach, and made fast to the shore by hawsers. While attached as Master’s Mate, between July, 1809, and July, 1811, to the Sheldrake 16, Capts. John Thicknesse and Jas. Pattison Stewart, we find him commanding a boat, in open day, at the capture of a galliot under a fire of field-pieces and musketry from the sand-hills on the Jutland beach; and also contributing in a very eminent manner, when in the boats under Lieut. Watson, to the preservation from capture of a valuable convoy of transports. On one occasion, while endeavouring to cut several vessels out from the coast of Jutland, the boat he was in upset, and 5 men, with their commanding officer, Lieut. Watson, were unfortunately drowned. Mr. Lutman, who had supported the latter until he was himself nearly exhausted, afterwards succeeded, by swimming to the boat, in saving three of his companions. Being all in the end thrown on shore by the surf, they were made prisoners, but were released on surrendering their prizes. During the period which intervened between his discharge from the Sheldrake, as above, and his confirmation in his present rank 18 Feb. 1815, Mr. Lutman was employed at Home and in South America, for some time as Sub and Acting Lieutenant, on board the Argonaut hospital-ship, Lieut.-Commander Jas. James, Montagu 74, flagship of Rear-Admiral Manley Dixon, Nancy 12, Lieut.-Commander Wm. D’Aranda, Nereus 42, Capt. Manley Hall Dixon, Ceres 32, Capt. Wm. Bowles, and Ajax 74, Capt. Rich. Hussey Moubray. His succeeding appointments were – 31 March, 1815, to the Berwick 74, Capt. Edw. Brace, employed at the siege of Gaeta, where for nearly 10 weeks he had charge of a division of Sicilian gun-boats – 4 July, 1816, for four months, to the Impregnable 98, also commanded by Capt. Brace, under whom he was slightly wounded at the battle of Algiers – and, 20 June, 1823, and 23 March, 1827, to the Ganges 74 and Ocean 80, Capts. Brace and Patrick Campbell, principally employed on the Home station. He has been on half-pay since April, 1828.
Independently of the instance above alluded to, this officer has not less than five times displayed the intrepid humanity of his nature by his exertions in rescuing others from a watery grave. The first example of the kind was in 1810, when, chancing to be on board the Hero 74, he dashed into the sea and saved the life of Mr. Self, the Captain’s Clerk; the second and third, in the course of the same year, on which occasions, being Sub-Lieutenant of the Nancy in South America, he similarly preserved from destruction the lives of the Assistant-Surgeon (Mr. Bryson) and the Captain of the fore-top, by jumping overboard after them at night; the fourth, while in the Ganges at Portsmouth, where, in his anxiety to save a drowning seaman, he broke his arm; and the last, during his servitude in the Ocean. He plunged from that ship when at sea, but, although he succeeded in his generous efforts and preserved the life of another man, Jas. Leary, he underwent so much exertion that the result was a severe attack of illness, which reduced him to the necessity of invaliding. He married 12 Nov. 1838.