Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/583

Rh  of the 42, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye.

Lieut. Irvine has taken out a patent for certain improvements in packing-cases, boxes, trunks, portmanteaus, and other articles for containing goods, which improvements may be made applicable to the preservation of life at sea. He is married, and has issue. – Coplands and Burnett.

 IRVING. 

entered the Navy 25 June, 1828; passed his examination 24 June, 1834; and, at the period of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, which took place 23 March, 1843, had been serving for some time in the East Indies, on board the surveying-vessel, Capt. Fras. Price Blackwood, and 18, Capt. Thos. Ross Sulivan. His appointments have since been – 10 Aug. 1843, to the 26, Capt. Sir Wm. Dickson, employed on Particular Service – 14 Dec. 1844, to the gunnery-ship at Portsmouth, Capt. Sir Thos. Hastings – and, 13 March, 1845, to the discovery-ship, Capt. Fras. Rawdon Moira Crozier, under whom he is at present engaged in a renewed attempt to explore the North-West passage through Lancaster Sound and Bering Strait.

 IRWIN. 

is son of Commander Jas. Irwin, R.N. (1802), who was a Midshipman of the when that ship went down at Spithead in 1782, was afterwards Flag-Lieutenant to Hon. Wm. Cornwallis, distinguished himself in 1807, as Agent for Transports before Buenos Ayres, and died in 1825. He is nephew of Capt. John Irwin who commanded the 98, as Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral Wm. Parker, in the action off Cape St. Vincent 14 Feb. 1797; and cousin of Capt. Geo. Wickens Willes, R.N., now commanding the 80, and of Capt. Jas. Irwin Willes, R.M.

This officer entered the Navy, 13 Aug. 1812, as a Volunteer, on board the 74, Capt. Aiskew Paffard Hollis; became Midshipman, in April, 1813, of the  74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Thos. Fras. Fremantle; and from May, 1814, until March, 1818, served with Capt. Fras. Stanfell in the, , and frigates. While attached to the Milford (he had been employed in the at the blockade of Venice) he commanded a 10-oared cutter at the reduction of the towns of Fiumé, Bocca Rea, &c., assisted at the capture of the fort of Ragosniza, took part in a successful engagement with a battery in the neighbourhood of Capo d’Istria, and served in the batteries at the siege of Trieste. When on the American station, in the, we find him present at the blockade of the American frigates Constitution and Congress, the capture of the towns of Castine and Belfast in Penobscot Bay, and the taking of Machias. In Aug. 1818, Mr. Irwin, who had passed his examination in the previous March, and had been since borne on the books of the 100, flag-ship at Portsmouth of Sir Geo. Campbell, obtained a Mateship in the 80, bearing the successive flags of Sir T. F. Fremantle and Sir Graham Moore, on the Mediterranean station; where he commanded from March, 1823, to Aug. 1825, the  tender; and where, until the summer of 1829, he further served (with but two slight interruptions in 1826 and again in 1827) on board the  76, flag-ship of Sir Harry Burrard Neale,  50, Capt. Sir Thos. Staines, and, as Lieutenant (commission dated 31 Dec. 1827) in the 10, Capts. Hon. Wm. Keith and Edw. Hawes. During his servitude in the Rochfort he had the misfortune to receive a compound fracture of the right leg; and while in command of the he endured a brush with several Algerine gun-boats. His last appointment was, 11 Oct. 1834, to the Coast Guard, in which service he remained until the autumn of 1836.

 IRWIN. 

, born 27 Feb. 1792, is third son of the late Thos. Irwin, Esq., of Justustown, near Carlisle, by Jane, second daughter of John Senhouse, Esq., of Calder Abbey. He is brother of the present Thos. Irwin, Esq., of Justustown and Calder Abbey, a Captain on half-pay of the Enniskillen Dragoons, and a Magistrate for Cumberland, for which county he served as High Sheriff in 1836; and of Lieut. John Irwin, of the Hon.E.I.Co.’s service, who died 21 Sept. 1824.

This officer entered the Navy, 27 April, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol. (under the auspices of Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge), on board the 38, Capts. Wm. Hall Gage and John Miller, under whom he was actively employed, part of the time as Midshipman, on the coasts of Spain and France, and on various parts of the Mediterranean until Feb. 1808. He then became attached to the, Capt. Hon. Courtenay Boyle; and in the following April he joined the 38, Capts. Thos. Jas. Maling and Geo. Chas. Mackenzie. After he had cruized for nearly three years in that ship off the Western Islands, in the West Indies, and again on the Mediterranean station, he was received, in March, 1811, on board the 74, Capt. Walter Bathurst, and sent to co-operate with the patriots on the Spanish coast, where, having attained the rating of Master’s Mate, he assumed command of a division of small-arm men, and frequently came into contact with the enemy, particularly at Xavia and Denia. On the issue of the unsuccessful attack made by General Donkin on the latter fortress, Mr. Irwin, who had been employed on shore throughout the operations, took charge of a boat and brought off the last half company of the 81st Regt., under a destructive fire from the French garrison, who had advanced to the very beach. So gallant was his conduct in this instance, that on reaching the he was publicly thanked by Capt. Bathurst on the quarter-deck, as likewise by the General in public orders. He afterwards commanded a gun-boat with a Midshipman and 16 men under his orders at the siege of Tarragona; and it was his fortune likewise to co-operate in the reduction of the strong fort of St. Philippe in the Col de Balaquer. The representations that were in consequence made in his favour to Lord Exmouth induced the latter, in May, 1814, to afford him a berth on board his flag-ship the 120. On 1 of following Sept. he had the gratification of being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant; and in the course of the next Nov. he received an appointment to the 10, Capts. Sir John Chas. Richardson and Lord John Hay; in which vessel, prior to her being paid off in Sept. 1815, we find him engaged in affording assistance to the French Royalists in La Vendée. Since Dec. 1821 Lieut. Irwin has been uninterruptedly employed as an Inspecting Commander in the Coast Guard – a service from the heads of which he has had the satisfaction of eliciting strong testimonials.

He married, 1 Sept. 1826, Emily, second daughter of John Dixon, Esq., of Dublin, by whom he has issue six sons and four daughters. His second son is a Midshipmnn in the R.N. – Messrs. Halford and Co.

 ISAACSON. 

died in Sept. 1845, on board the steamer sloop, a victim, with nearly all the officers and crew, to African fever of the most inveterate description.

This officer passed his examination 6 July, 1836; served for about three years in the Mediterranean as Mate of the 72, and  84 Capts. Sir Geo. Rose Sartorius, Sir Chas. Sullivan, and Geo. Fred. Rich, latterly under the flag of Sir Edw. W. C. R. Owen; obtained his commission 10 July, 1844; became, 3 Sept. following, Additional-Lieutenant of the 120, flag-ship of Sir David Milne on the Home station; and, on 21 Oct. in the same year, received his ill-fated appointment