James Stevenson (1762-1818)
Though he had few opportunities for distinction at sea, when appointed to command a troopship Stevenson proved successful in supporting the Army in combined operations ashore, garnering praise from some of the most prominent generals of the French Revolutionary War.
Stevenson was born in Argyll, Scotland on 20 December 1762 to William Stevenson and his wife Barbara Campbell. He had several sisters but was the apparently the only son.
Stevenson was one of many officers who were commissioned lieutenant at the conclusion of the Spanish Armament in 1790, his commission being dated 6 November, with his appointment for purposes of rank only to the Romney 50. On 2 February 1791 he was appointed the first lieutenant of the Ulysses 20, Commander William Carthew, sailing for Gibraltar to embark HRH Prince Edward and his regiment for Canada. A year later he was appointed the third lieutenant of the frigate Triton 28, Captain George Murray, which went out to Jamaica, and on which he served through the first few months of the French Revolutionary War. In September 1793 he became the first lieutenant of yet another frigate, the Resource 28, Captain Francis Pender, operating first in home waters and then in the Leeward Islands during 1794.
On 7 September 1795 the 32-year-old Stevenson was promoted commander, and that month he took command of the unfortunately named hospital ship Charon 8, which joined Rear-Admiral Henry Harvey off the French coast in early October, returning to Portsmouth from Quiberon Bay in mid-November. Entering the harbour for a refit, she came out on 1 December with orders to embark troops for the West Indies. Departing for the Leeward Islands with Rear-Admiral Hugh Cloberry Christian’s fleet on 9 December, she became separated in the bitter winter gales that drove that force back to Portsmouth. After reaching the Caribbean before the bulk of her consorts, she captured the French privateer brig Lacédémonien 12 off Barbados on 9 March 1796. She was then employed in that spring’s Leeward Islands campaign, with Stevenson earning praise from Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby for his efforts in support of the Army. In late summer the Charon escorted a homeward-bound West Indies convoy, arriving at Portsmouth in early October with the bulk of the fleet, several ships having parted company about three weeks previously.
On 15 February 1797 Stevenson was posted captain, and in February 1798, after a year on the beach, he took command of the 20-year-old Europa 50 (but armed en-flute as a troopship), fitting out at Portsmouth. She joined several other vessels in transporting troops from Southampton to Waterford, Ireland, in early September to counter the landing of a French army in County Mayo. Returning to Portsmouth towards the end of the month, on 6 October she went aground at Newton on the Isle of Wight whilst sailing to assume the duties of guard ship off Hurst Castle – fortunately other vessels came to her assistance, and she was refloated with some difficulty but without too much damage. However she needed to be re-coppered, which took place at Portsmouth Dockyard, and she was not ready for service until December. Another trooping run to Ireland followed in late December, and at the end of January 1799 the Europa sailed from Cork with troops for Lisbon. After a brief interlude with the Mediterranean Fleet, she returned from Minorca to Lisbon with Admiral the Earl of St. Vincent’s dispatches and a convoy. There she picked up more troops destined for Cork, arriving back at Portsmouth in July.
During October and November 1799, the Europa made two trips to the Texel, carrying Dutch troops from the failed campaign in north Holland back to Yarmouth, work that continued when the ship carried 300 Prussian soldiers to Portsmouth in mid-November. In January 1800 she embarked a regiment at Portsmouth for Ireland, returning in March with part if the 13th Regiment. Refitted in Portsmouth during April, on 20 May she embarked troops at Plymouth for abortive operations in Quiberon Bay in June. The Europa and her troops were among the forces soon directed to the Mediterranean, where she arrived (with 12 other transports) in late July.
For the next seven months the Europa was part of the amphibious force that gathered at Malta and then trained in Marmorice Bay on the coast of Asia Minor. In March 1801 the ship (along with many other transports and warships) landed an army in Egypt under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby. Stevenson served directly under Captain Alexander Cochrane in the initial landing, commanding one of the four divisions landing craft, involving a total of 59 boats. During the ensuing campaign to drive out the French, his boats ferried fresh water and provisions to the troops (earning praise from Major-General John Hely Hutchinson), and he later commanded the improvised gunboats supporting the troops on their march down the Nile. Succeeding Captain Sir William Sidney Smith in command of the seamen ashore, he was also commended by Major-General Eyre Coote for his command of the gunboats on Aboukir Lake.
In September, the Egyptian campaign now having ended, Stevenson was briefly appointed to command the 24-pounder frigate Egyptienne, captured at the fall of Alexandria. Within a couple of months, he was transferred to the frigate Africaine 38 (also captured some months earlier) and he brought her home from the Mediterranean to Portsmouth, arriving in late January 1802. After a period in quarantine, she sailed around to the Thames to be paid off in February. Stevenson was unlucky in that his coveted command of a frigate was abruptly terminated by the outbreak of peace.
When the war with France resumed in May 1803, he received another, though this time shore-going command. For seven years Stevenson was the senior captain in charge of Sea Fencibles for the north coast of Somerset and Devon with his base in Minehead. When the Sea Fencibles were disbanded in 1810, he retired to his home in Scotland.
He died aged 55 on the 10 May 1818 aboard ship on his way between Leith and Aberdeen. Apparently, he never married and left most of his estate to his sisters and their children.