Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/84

BELLAIRS —BELLAMY —BELSEY. Le Barbier de Séville of 16 guns and 60 men, on being brought to close action, was gallantly boarded, and in a few minutes carried, by Lieut. Robt. Tryon, at the head of a party of seamen, one of whom was killed, and the Lieutenant himself dangerously wounded. The enemy lost 6 killed and 11 wounded; and the prize, from the well-directed fire she had sustained, sank soon after the engagement. For this achievement Capt. Bell, as were his officers and crew, was honoured with the approbation of the Admiralty. He removed, 19 June, 1811, to the command of the, a first-class sloop, but was superseded on advancement to Post-rank, 7 Feb. 1812, and not afterwards employed. His nomination to the C.B. took place 4 July, 1840, and his elevation to the rank he now holds 1 Oct. 1846.

 BELLAIRS. 

is brother of

This officer entered the Navy, 29 Oct. 1803, as Midshipman, on board the 74, Capt. Chas. Brisbane, employed on the Home station, and, in May, 1805, accompanied that gallant officer into the Akethusa 38. Proceeding in the latter ship to the West Indies, he assisted, in company with the, at the capture, 23 Aug. 1806, near the Havana, after a spirited action, in which the had 2 men killed and 32 wounded, of the Pomona Spanish frigate, of 38 guns and 347 men, laden with specie and merchandize, and defended by a castle mounting 11 36-pounders, and a flotilla of 10 gun-boats, all of which were destroyed; and, in Jan. 1807, was present at the brilliant reduction of Curaçoa. In Oct. following Mr. Bellairs returned home, as a Supernumerary, in the store-ship, Capt. Jas. Tait; and after an attachment of a few weeks to the bomb, lying in the Thames, became Master’s Mate, in April, 1808, of the  20, Capts. John Thompson and Wm. Mounsey, under whom we find him engaged in active co-operation with the patriots on the coast of Spain. Joining, in June, 1809, the 120, bearing the flags successively of Admiral Lord Gambler and of Rear-Admirals Fras. Pickmore and Sir Harry Neale, he commanded the gun-boats Nos. 1 and 4, of the red division, under Capts. Philip Carteret and Rich. Plummer Davies, during the ensuing expedition to the Scheldt; and, from April to Aug. 1810, at which period he passed his examination, was employed, as Master’s Mate, with the flotilla at the defence of Cadiz. He removed with Sir Harry Neale, in April, 1811, to the 98, from which ship he was transferred, on 12 June, as Acting-Lieutenant, to the  74, Capt. Sir Jas. Athol Wood, off L’Orient. Being superseded, however, in the following August, he served, as Midshipman, in the 44, off Jersey and Lisbon,  74, bearing the flags of Admirals Brown and Geo. Martin, and 64, Capt. Chas. Inglis, until at length promoted, 30 Sept. 1813, into the 74, as Flag-Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Sam. Hood Linzee, then at Gibraltar. He invalided home in March, 1814, and continued unemployed until 25 Sept. 1837, when he accepted an appointment in the Coast Guard, which he resigned in 1845. He has since been unemployed.

Lieut. Bellairs is the original inventor of a plan for distinguishing steam-vessels of all nations by a code of coloured lights. He is married, and has issue.

 BELLAIRS. 

is brother of

This officer entered the Royal Naval College 23 March, 1809, and embarked, 24 March, 1812, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the 74, Capt. Geo. Scott, employed off Cherbourg and in the West Indies. From Jan. 1814, until the receipt of his commission, which bears date 12 May, 1819, he served as Midshipman and Acting-Lieutenant, on the latter, and on the Home, Mediterranean, and North American stations, of the 38, Capt. Philip Somerville,  20, Capt. Henry Weir,  74, Capt. Jas. Walker, 36, Capt. Nat. Day Cochrane, 50, commanded by Capt. Edw. Chetham, at the battle of Algiers, and afterwards flag-ship of Sir David Milne, and 18, Capt. Henry Forbes. He obtained an appointment in the Coast Guard 18 May, 1838, and since 12 Jan. 1842 – with the exception of a few months in 1844, when he belonged to the 80, guardship at Sheerness, Capt. Peter Fisher – has been employed as Admiralty  in a Contract Mail steam-vessel.

Lieut. Bellairs is married. – Messrs. Ommanney.

 BELLAMY. 

is eldest son of Geo. Bellamy, Esq., of Plymouth.

This officer entered the Navy 24 April 1815; passed his examination in 1822; obtained his commission 10 March, 1827; served, from 26 Oct. 1830, until superseded, 21 Dec. 1831, in the 78, Capts. Jas. Hillyar and Donald Hugh Mackay, on the Lisbon station; joined the Coast Guard, 31 May, 1838; and since 10 June, 1845, has been employed at Devonport on board the 120, Capt. Manly Hall Dixon.

He married, in 1837, Mary, only daughter of Richard Newton, Esq. – J. Chippendale.

 BELSEY. 

, born 10 May, 1790, at Dover, co. Kent, is nephew, maternally, of Capt. Geo. Sayer, R.N.

This officer entered the Navy, 25 Feb. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the 44, armee en flûte, commanded by his uncle Capt. Sayer; removed, in Feb. 1800, to the  44, Capt. Thos. Pressland; and, on attending the expedition to Egypt, in 1801, assisted at the landing of the troops, was much employed at the signals, and, from constant night-duty in an armed flat-bottomed boat on the river Nile, caught the plague. The subsequently conveyed the remains of the French army to Marseilles, and was paid off at the peace. In May, 1804, Mr. Belsey joined the bomb, Capts. Fras. Temple, Mauritius Adolphus Newton De Starck, and Thos. Withers, and, on that vessel being wrecked on Margate sands in Dec. following, rendered himself particularly useful in conveying away a body of prisoners. On the same occasion he narrowly escaped a watery grave, in consequence of a boat he was in being struck by a heavy sea and dashed to pieces against the side of the ship. He was immediately after the catastrophe voluntarily entered by Capt. Thos. Bayley as a Midshipman on board the 64, in which ship he continued to serve until June, 1805, when, owing to her having been run foul of by the  64, he was transferred to the  74, Capt. Geo. Dundas. Proceeding then to the West Indies, Mr. Belsey, on 23 Jan. 1807, had the good fortune to rescue in a boat from off the bowsprit of the, when that frigate was wrecked, her Captain, the present Sir Thos. Briggs; and he was on board the when she subsequently grounded off the Havana, and was only got off after an intense labour of 12 hours, all her water having been previously started, and the shot and 68 of the guns thrown overboard. Between July, 1807, at which period he returned home with convoy, and Aug. 1810, we find him serving, chiefly as Master’s Mate, in the 74, Capt. Hon. Chas. Elphinstone Fleeming, 18, Capt. John Crispo, and  40. Capt. David Lloyd, on the Cadiz, African, and Halifax stations; and during that period acquiring the high praise of Capt. Crispo for the strict attention to his duty when the was dismasted and obliged to put into port. He then served for nearly two years as Acting-Lieutenant of the 18, Capt. Alex. Fraser, and, in the early part of 1811, was detached in command of a detained American tender in a very leaky condition to Halifax, which port, after encountering desperate weather, he only