Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/1176

1162  sights, combining the elevation and line of sight in one focus, and enabling him to throw shells with such precision that, at the defence of Castro for instance, two out of every three burst in the French batteries. On the night of 10 June, 1613, the, in company with the gun-brig, brought off from Lequeytio 1270 officers and men, commanded by Don Miguel Aitola, who at the time was closely pursued by a superior force. In the course of the same month Captain Tayler, being off Castro on the occasion of its evacuation by the French, took possession of the castle; and on again visiting the coast of Spain, after having conveyed to England Capt. Fremantle, the bearer of Lord Wellington’s despatches relative to the battle of Vittoria, he united in the operations against St. Sebastian. His first performance was the erection of a battery on the lighthouse hill, an enterprise, from the physical obstacles that opposed him, of surprising difficulty. On 24 July, for the purpose of favouring a disastrous attempt about to be made by the British to take the city by storm, he was directed, with the small vessels of the squadron, to conduct a false attack on the north side of Mount Orgullo, commonly called the hill of St. Sebastian. While afterwards in the act of levelling a gun at the sailor’s breaching battery Capt. Tayler, by the bursting of a shell, was severely contused and lacerated in the forehead, was dangerously wounded in the groin, and, among other dreadful injuries, had the bones of his left leg so fractured that they protruded through the boot. In this deplorable condition he was conveyed to England and placed, 9 Aug. 1813, in the hospital at Plymouth, where he was for 28 weeks confined to his bed without having it once made up. More than two years, indeed, elapsed before his wounds closed. As some reward, however, for his sufferings and his services he was promoted to Post-rank 16 Aug. 1813; allowed, 12 Nov. 1814, a pension of 200l., increased, 2 Dec. 1815, to 250l, per annum; and nominated a C.B. 8 Dec. 1815. He was also voted by the Patriotic Society the sum of 100l.; and presented by the Corporation of Devizes with the freedom of that borough. His last appointment was to the 110; in which ship he served at Plymouth, in charge of the Ordinary, from 4 July, 1838, until 10 Aug. 1841. During that period he established on board the a school for naval gunnery, based upon principles so sound and scientific, that at the end of six months the boys and others who received instruction were considered perfect in the art. He accepted his present rank 1 Oct. 1846.

For his conduct while serving as a Midshipman in the Rear-Admiral Tayler was presented with a sword by Capt. Durham. His exertions in the off Boulogne procured him the acknowledgments of Lord Keith; and the heroism he displayed on the occasion of the wreck of the Lady Burgess gained him, it is scarcely necessary to mention, the thanks of his Captain, Raggett. He won the approbation of Capt. Linzee for the manner in which, when First-Lieutenant of the, he dismantled and cleared the Danish ships; and for his wonderful zeal and activity in the on the north coast of Spain he again received the praises of Lord Keith. In 1811, during his passage home from the West Indies, he framed a code of signals, to be made by means of telegraphic shades instead of flags. He invented also a transporting carriage for ships’ guns, when landed for field service. He took out, in 1838, a patent for having discovered a certain method of abating or lessening the shock or force of the waves of the ocean, lakes, or rivers, and of reducing them to the comparatively harmless state known by the term ‘broken water,’ thereby preventing the injury done to, and increasing the durability of, places exposed to the violent action of the waves; in 1840 he took out a second patent for improvements in steamboats and vessels, making applicable the power of the steam-engine to new and useful purposes of navigation; and in 1843 he took out a further one, in connection with Mr. Wm. Henry Smith, a civil engineer, for improvements in breakwaters, beacons, and sound-alarms, and in landing or transmitting persons over or through strata or obstructions of any nature. The Rear-Admiral, who is the inventor of the floating breakwater proposed to be constructed at Brighton, is at present engaged in preparing for publication a work “On Naval Tactics and Gunnery.” His improvements in gunnery have, as may be inferred from what we have already stated, elicited the repeated thanks of the Board of Admiralty. – Hallett and Robinson.

 TAYLOR. 

(b) entered the Navy, 19 March, 1807, as L.M., on board the 50, Capt. Henry Edw. Reginald Baker, under whom he sailed with convoy for the East Indies, and was wrecked as Midshipman during his passage home, on a reef of rocks off Vigo, 10 Dec. 1808. He was then received as a Supernumerary on board the 98, flag-ship of Sir Sam. Hood; and he was next, from May, 1809, until transferred in June, 1812, to the 36, Capt. Edw. Chatham, employed in the Mediterranean and on the coasts of Spain, Portugal, and France, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, in the 74, Capt. Sam. Hood Linzee, and 44, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral D’Auvergne. In the he served for two years and eight months with great activity on the Baltic and Newfoundland stations, and assisted at the capture, 12 Dec. 1813, of the Abigail, a Danish national cutter laden with naval stores. In Aug. 1815, at which period he had been for nearly six months employed at Chatham and Portsmouth in the 100, Capt. Chas. Inglis, he was presented with a commission bearing date 28 Feb. in that year. He has since been on half-pay.

 TAYLOR. 

entered the Navy, 7 April, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the 80, Capt. Wm. Lukin; and on removing with that officer to the 74, was present as Midshipman, 25 Sept. in the same year, at the capture off Rochefort, by a squadron under Sir Sam. Hood, of four heavy French frigates, two of which, the Gloire 46 and Infatigable 44, struck to the. In the latter ship, part of the force employed in the expedition of 1807 against Copenhagen, Mr. Taylor continued employed as Master’s Mate, on the Baltic station, under Capts. Jas. Katon, John Surman Carden, and Henry Raper, until sent, in Feb. 1813, to the hospital at Haslar. In the following June he was received on board the 38, Capt. Fred. Langford, in which frigate he served for a year and nine months, the latter part of the time as Acting-Lieutenant, in the Bay of Biscay and West Indies, and took part in the operations connected with the attack upon New Orleans. On his arrival home from the Gulf of Mexico in July, 1815, in the, Capt. Wm. Rawlins, a vessel of which he had been for five months Second Master, he took up a commission bearing date 18 of the preceding Feb. He has not been since afloat.

 TAYLOR. 

entered the Navy in 1831; passed his examination 16 July, 1838; served as Mate in the gunnery-ship at Portsmouth, Capt. Sir Thos. Hastings, and for about four years in the same capacity in the steam-sloop, Capt. Wm. Russell, on the South American and African stations; obtained his commission 9 Dec. 1845; and since 13 of the same month has been employed at home and in North America and the West Indies in the steamer of 420 horse-power, Capts. Jas. Crawford Caffin and Henry Edw. Wingrove.

