# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Sabben, James

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​SABBEN. (Lieutenant, 1810.)
James Sabben was born 1 Aug. 1787, at Portsea.
This officer (who had been in the merchant service and had witnessed the destruction of the Queen Charlotte 100, in Leghorn Roads, 17 March, 1800) entered the Navy, 16 March, 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Dreadnought 98, Capts. John Bowen, Edw. Brace, John Child Purvis, Robt. Carthew Reynolds, Geo. Reynolds, Edw. Rotheram, and John Conn, flag-ship for some time of the late Lord Collingvvood. Shortly after he had joined he was severely injured by a blow from a storm-staysail sheet. In Aug. 1805 he was present off Cadiz when the Dreadnought, with two other ships of the line, was pursued by the combined squadrons of France and Spain on their return from the West Indies, whence they had been driven by Lord Nelson. On 21 Oct. following he fought, as Signal- Midshipman, and was wounded, at the battle of Trafalgar. He was afterwards nearly wrecked, off Europa Point; and, in June, 1806, he removed to the Captain 74, Capt. Wm. Grenville Lobb. He next, in July of the same year, joined the Wolverene 18, Capt. Fras. Augustus Collier; and he was in that vessel when she was hove down at English Harbour, Antigua, and lost many of her officers and crew from yellow fever. On 17 Dec. 1806, being at the time a Supernumerary in the Netley schooner, he was taken captive by the French frigate Thétis and brig Sylphe, and carried into Guadeloupe. He was soon, however, restored to liberty, and on again joining the Wolverene was awarded the rating of Master’s Mate. When subsequently in pursuit of an enemy he was a second time accidentally hurt. He continued employed with Capt. Collier in the Star sloop until Nov. 1808, when, at the strong recommendation of that officer, he was received by Sir Alex. Cochrane on promotion on board his flag-ship the Neptune 98, part of the force engaged, in Feb. 1809, at the reduction of Martinique. As soon as he had passed his examination, Mr. Sabben was nominated, in March, 1809, Acting-Lieutenant of the Julia 16, Capt. Wm. Dowers; whom, in the ensuing Aug., he followed, in a similar capacity, into the Ringdove 18. While he was officiating as First of the Julia, that vessel, although at anchor in Trinity Bay, Martinique, with her lower rigging and stays cast off, in the act of securing the bowsprit, and preparing to stay the lower-masts, &c., put to sea, at a moment’s notice, in pursuit of a large French letter-of-marque brig, whom she succeeded in capturing. When in the same sloop, at the blockade of Guadeloupe, Mr. Sabben was almost daily in action, either in cutting-out vessels, in storming batteries, or in intercepting the coasting trade. He also participated in three attempts to capture or destroy the French frigates Furieuse and Félicité in the roadstead of Basseterre – the first being made at night by means of boats – the second by running the Cherub and Julia in broad day alongside the enemy’s ships (an attack which failed from the want of wind) – and the third by converting the Unité brig into a fire-vessel and sending her in by night under cover of the Julia. While attached to the latter vessel, Mr. Sabben was again very strongly recommended to the Commander-in-Chief. As Acting-First-Lieutenant, afterwards, of the Ringdove, he passed through scenes of great mortality – was wounded, 18 Dec. 1809, at the destruction, in L’Ance la Barque, of the 40-gun frigates Loire and Seine, laden with stores and protected by numerous batteries – and contributed to the reduction of the island of Guadeloupe, where, during the absence of his Captain on shore, he held command of the ship. In 1811, having been confirmed to the Ringdove 10 Sept. 1810, he had charge of her when, to the surprise of every one, she was hoved down, keel out on both sides, at the half-desolate island of Bequia, one of the Geraldines, and entirely new coppered and refitted by her own crew alone, in as short a time and as completely as could have been accomplished in any naval port, without, too, one case of sickness, or one instance of desertion – a feat pronounced, before, impracticable. In the course of the same year, while the Ringdove was lying within pistol-shot of the formidable batteries of La Guira, on the Spanish Main, Capt. Dowers incurred the displeasure of the authorities by refusing to surrender the person of the Archbishop of Santa Fé, who, in ignorance of the recent declaration of South American independence, had put into that harbour on his return from Spain, and had in consequence claimed the protection of the British flag. Regardless, notwithstanding that his ship was perfectly becalmed, of their threatened intention of sinking her, he ordered the anchor to be weighed, the sweeps to be got out, and the boats to be sent ahead for the purpose of towing her, and thus contrived with the prelate to get clear of the port. Mr. Sabben invalided from the Ringdove in the summer of 1811, and was afterwards appointed – 13 April, 1812, and 3 Oct. 1813, to the Vengeur 74, and Hope 10, Capts. Thos. Dundas and Edw. Saurin, both in the Channel – 26 March, 1814 (after five months of half-pay) to the Electra 14, Capts. Wm. Gregory, Thos. W. Cecil, Chas. Sam. White, Chas. H. Mercer, and Rich. John Lewin, in which vessel, prior to her being paid off in Sept. 1815, he returned to the West Indies, again witnessed the ravages of the yellow fever, and was very nearly lost in a hurricane while in escort, with the Warrior 74, of a homeward-bound convoy – and 4 Sept. 1821, to the Perseus receiving-ship off the Tower, Capt. Jas. Couch. Since he left the latter vessel he has been on half-pay.
Possessed of a scientific turn of mind, Lieut. Sabben made an attempt, in 1826, at a geometrical rectification of the circle by means of Archimedes’ demonstration of the relative value of the sphere to the cylinder and cone, and by reference to other sections of those three solids. He has also suggested the possibility of determining the polarity of the magnet by subjecting the needle to electromagnetic experiments in high northern and high southern latitudes; and he has published several papers tending to prove it to be an element in the art of ship-building that the extreme breadth of a vessel should be as nearly as possible equal to one-third of its length from forward.