Robert Barrie

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Sir Robert Barrie (5 May 1774 – 7 June 1841) was a British naval officer noted for his service in the War of 1812.

Contents

[edit] Career

From 1784-1788, he was carried on the books of HMS Europa as a servant to the captain (his uncle, Alan Gardner) but most likely his first shipboard service was as a junior midshipman on HMS Goliath.[1]

From 1791-1795, Barrie served as a midshipman during the Vancouver Expedition of diplomacy and exploration along the Pacific coast of North America. Many of his letters home survive, painting a lively picture of adventure, punctuated by periods of boredom when he exhausted the store books on the ships.[2] Barrie gained an acting promotion to Lieutenant on the expedition, and was formally promoted to Lieutenant upon the return to England.

  • 1800 served in the West Indies under Thomas Manby (also of the Vancouver expedition)
  • Oct. 1801 promoted commander
  • 1802 promoted to captain. Commanded sloop HMS Calypso
  • 1806 commanded frigate HMS Pomone, at first off the French coast and then in the Mediterranean. On May 1, 1811 with two other ships, he entered the Golfe de Sagone, Corsica, sank three ships and destroyed its fortifications. Returning to Portsmouth, Pomone was sunk; Barrie was acquitted of misconduct.
  • 1812 commanded HMS Dragon. Blockaded Chesapeake Bay; as squadron commodore, captured over 85 vessels.
  • 1814 part of the attack on the Penobscot River region under Sir John Coape Sherbrooke
  • 1819 he became the Commissioner of the dockyard at Kingston, Upper Canada, thereby becoming the senior naval officer in the Canadas. He promoted a hydrographic survey of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. international boundary commission, the hydrographic survey of the Great Lakes and St Lawrence River system [see Henry Wolsey Bayfield*], the building of the Rideau and Welland canals [see John By; William Hamilton Merritt*], and relations with the United States

In 1837 Barrie was promoted to Rear Admiral. In 1840 he became KCB.

[edit] Personal life

Barrie was born to Dolly Gardner, (sister of Sir Alan Gardner), and a Scottish surgeon. He was married on 24 October 1816 to Julia Wharton Ingilby.

[edit] Legacy

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Naish, John (1996). The Interwoven Lives of George Vancouver, Archibald Menzies, Joseph Whidbey and Peter Puget: The Vancouver Voyage of 1791-1795. The Edward Mellen Press, Ltd.. ISBN 0-7734-8857-X. 
  2. ^ Letters of Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Barrie. William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. Retrieved on February 24, 2007.


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