Sir Josias Rowley 1765-1842

After a slow start Josias Rowley (scion of an influential naval family) enjoyed a notably successful career. His 1809-10 campaign in the Indian Ocean was so spectacular that Patrick O’Brian used it as the basis for events in his Jack Aubrey novel ‘The Mauritius Command’.

Josias was the second son of Sir Clotworthy Rowley Bt, a barrister and M.P. for Downpatrick in the Irish Parliament. The elder Rowley had moved to Ireland in 1763 after marrying an heiress, Letitia Campbell of Mountcampbell, Drumsna, County Leitrim. The Rowleys contributed half a dozen officers to the upper ranks of the Navy, including Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Rowley (Josias’ grandfather), Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley (his uncle), Rear-Admiral Samuel Campbell Rowley (his brother), and Admirals Sir Charles Rowley and Bartholomew Rowley (cousins).

These naval connections helped ease his early career in the navy. After having been entered in the books of his uncle Joshua’s ship, Josias joined the Suffolk 74, (Captain Hugh Christian), on which his uncle was now flying his pennant as commodore. In December 1778 the ship was sent out to the West Indies with reinforcements for Vice-Admiral Hon. John Byron, since France had now entered the American War of Independence. From January 1780 Rowley served as a midshipman aboard the Alexander 74, Captain Lord Longford, in the Channel, and from July 1781 he was employed on the Agamemnon 64, Captain Benjamin Caldwell. In December he transferred to the Prothee 64, Captain Charles Buckner, going out again to the West Indies, where in March 1782 he rejoined his uncle (now a rear-admiral) on his flagship Resource 28 at Jamaica. When Rear-Admiral Rowley and his flag captain (Bartholomew Rowley) transferred in October to the Diamond 32, Midshipman Rowley accompanied them.

In January 1783, with the American War of Independence drawing to a close, young Rowley joined the Resistance 44, Captain James King, who was soon succeeded by Captain Edward O’Bryen. He was promoted lieutenant on Christmas Eve 1783 at the age of eighteen, but during the next few years of peace lieutenant’s billets were hard to come by. Thus, after leaving the Resistance in April 1784, he remained unemployed until an appointment in April 1786 to the Otter 14, Commander John Oakes Hardy, with which vessel he served until November 1788. A further period on the beach followed, but during the Spanish Armament of 1790 he was employed aboard the Winchelsea 32, Captain Hon. Charles Carpenter, who was succeeded by Captain Richard Fisher. He continued to serve as a lieutenant aboard this frigate until February 1791.

Admiral Sir Josias Rowley (1765-1842); National Maritime Museum; by Andrew Morton

A month after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War in February 1793, Rowley was appointed to the Magicienne 32, Captain George Martin, serving in the Channel. When in August the frigate was ordered out to the West Indies, he transferred to the Alexander 74, Captain Thomas West.

On 14 March 1794, in his twenty-ninth year, he was promoted commander of the newly launched Lark 16, which he commissioned for service in the North Sea and the Downs. He was commanding this sloop in March 1795 when it was part of the squadron which escorted Princess Caroline of Brunswick from Cuxhaven to England in preparation for her marriage to the Prince of Wales. Apparently as a reward for performing this undemanding duty Josias Rowley was posted captain on 6 April. His naval connections do not seem to have accelerated his promotion, since other well-connected officers were ‘made post’ in their middle or even early twenties. Now too senior to command a sloop, he had to leave the Lark, and remained on the beach for the next two years.

In the autumn of 1797 Rowley was sent to the Cape of Good Hope, where he was appointed to command the Dutch prize Braave 32, and so was present on that station during the mutiny in October. In the late summer of 1798, he took a convoy from the Cape to Madras, and he then proceeded to cruise with a small squadron off the Ile de France (modern Mauritius).

In January 1799, still at the Cape, he was transferred to the frigate Imperieuse 38 in place of Captain Lord Augustus Fitzroy. One of the Imperieuse’s first tasks was to ferry troops from the Cape to India, and later that year she rescued the distressed survivors of a shipwreck off Acheen on Sumatra. In October, while escorting a convoy of East Indiamen to China, the ship encountered a violent gale, losing her fore and mizzen masts, and her rudder. By January 1800 she was at Malacca awaiting completion of the homeward-bound China convoy, which she escorted to the Cape. A cruise off the Isle de France in the summer of 1801 added to the haul of prizes taken by the Imperieuse. The ship and her captain’s service in the East Indies ended in early 1802 when the Imperieuse came home to Portsmouth and then to the Thames to be paid off.

Rowley appears to have remained on the beach for the next three years until May 1805 when he was appointed to the ship of the line Raisonnable 64, fitting out for foreign service at Plymouth. He sailed in that month with a small squadron under the command of Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, from which he was detached to reinforce Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Calder off Ferrol. Under Calder his ship fought in the Battle of Cape Finisterre on 22 July, suffering one man killed and one wounded in that disappointing action. Rowley was then sent to reinforce Rear-Admiral Charles Stirling off Rochefort. On 16 August Rowley fell in with the French frigate Topaze 40, which had recently captured the Blanche 36, Captain Zachary Mudge. The Raisonnable, a much larger ship, was unable to catch the skilfully handled French frigate due to light winds and the coming of night, despite the expectations of ill-informed writers in the British newspapers .

During the autumn of 1805 the Raisonnable was fitted for foreign service and sailed south for the Cape. At Madeira Rowley and the Raisonnables rescued the crew and cargo of a New York merchant vessel that had caught fire, resulting in a glowing letter of appreciation from the American consul on the island. By the end of the year the Raisonnable was part of the naval forces commanded by Commodore Sir Home Riggs Popham that landed troops who took the Cape from the Dutch on 10 January 1806. For some weeks thereafter she cruised with other vessels between St. Helena, Ascension Island, and the Cape to attempt to intercept captured British merchant ships. These were prizes taken in the Indian Ocean by Rear-Admiral Charles Linois that were being sent back to France. When Commodore Popham decided to invade Buenos Aires (without benefit of any official authorization) the Raisonnable was part of the naval force escorting the troopships. September saw the ship dispatched to Rio de Janeiro to collect supplies for the British forces, arriving back in the River Plate in October . Following Popham’s recall to England, Rowley saw action under his replacement, Rear-Admiral Charles Stirling, leading a detachment of seamen ashore in hauling artillery up to Buenos Aires, and serving at the capture of Montevideo on 3 February 1807. After the British surrender of Montevideo, the Raisonnable sailed for the Cape as part of Stirling’s squadron, reaching the new colony on 1 September.

The Indian Ocean Campaign
When Admiral Stirling decided to return home in January 1808, Rowley temporarily assumed the command of the Cape station, having one 50-gun ship, a corvette and three sloops under his orders. At the end of February, he shifted his broad pennant into the Néréide 36, which had been taken into dock for repairs. Her captain, Robert Corbet, took temporary charge of the Raisonnable for a cruise from which he returned at the end of March, allowing Rowley to resume command of the Raisonnable. With Vice-Admiral Albemarle Bertie arriving to assume control of the station in August, Rowley was put in charge of the small squadron cruising off the Ile de France, (modern-day Mauritius), returning to the Cape in December. After a long refit, the Raisonnable was ready for sea by June 1809, and she sailed to cruise off the Ile de France and the island of Bourbon, modern Réunion.

On 21 September 1809 Rowley led a force consisting of the Raisonnable, three frigates and a sloop that captured the French port of St. Paul on Bourbon and destroyed government property before withdrawing. His squadron remained off the Isle de France for the next eight months before returning to the Cape to reprovision and repair. During this voyage Rowley broke his arm when the ropes lashing down his dining table gave way in a storm. The Raisonnable was then ordered to Britain with a convoy in March 1810, but rather than taking her home, Rowley exchanged ships with Captain John Hatley of the frigate Boadicea 38, suggesting he wanted to stay in the Indian Ocean for the finale of the Mauritius campaign.

The capture of St. Paul in 1809

On 3 July 1810 Rowley (now in the Boadicea) set sail from the British base on the Indian Ocean island of Rodriguez with troops commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Keating intended for an assault on the island of Bourbon, to be followed by an attack on the Ile de France. At the time these islands were being blockaded by a squadron of four frigates under the command of Captain Samuel Pym. Bourbon capitulated without a fight on 8 July, but the campaign to take the Isle de France began to unravel in the last few days of August and Pym’s squadron of four frigates was destroyed by the French at the Battle of Grand Port . Having sailed in the hope of restoring the situation, Rowley realised nothing could be done until reinforcements arrived, and returned to Bourbon. To make matters worse, the British frigate Africaine 38, commanded by Captain Corbet (notorious for his harsh treatment of his crew), was captured by the French. On arriving off Bourbon, Corbet had launched a reckless attack on two French frigates, without waiting to be joined by the nearby Boadicea. However. the Boadicea was able to re-take the Africaine on the same day – Rowley then returned to the port of St. Pierre on Bourbon with the French frigates following at a watchful distance. On 18 September the Boadicea put to sea again and captured the French warship Venus 40, together with her prize, the British Ceylon 32, Captain Charles Gordon, which had struck to the Venus the day before.

Now the momentum of the campaign shifted back to the British. Planning had been underway for some time to assemble the military force needed to capture the Ile de France, and thus troops from the Cape, Madras and Calcutta gathered at Rodriguez for the final push. Meanwhile Rowley had been reinforced by the arrival of several frigates, allowing him to keep a close blockade of the French ships anchored in Port Louis. As the time for the British invasion approached, Rowley undertook a careful survey of potential landing sites. The invasion fleet under Vice-Admiral Bertie arrived from Rodriguez on 29 November, and several thousand troops were landed at a location previously identified by Rowley, taking the French by surprise. The defenders, outnumbered and without any prospect of reinforcements, mounted little resistance and surrendered four days later. As the overall naval commander, Bertie received credit for the victory, but it was Rowley who had been the architect of the naval campaign, commanding the frigate squadron blockading Ile de France and recovering from setbacks to make the invasion possible. The admiral recognised Rowley’s key role by sending him home with dispatches and recommending him for a baronetcy Rowley arrived at Plymouth in February 1811 after a nine-week voyage on the Menelaus 38, Captain Peter Parker. For the moment a baronetcy was not forthcoming, but his pocket did benefit from his endeavours in the Indian Ocean. The newspapers speculated that he would have earned a fortune in prize money — perhaps £210,000 , which would be equivalent to over £13m in today’s money.

After some leave, Rowley was appointed to the new ship of the line America 74 in April 1811. The vessel was fitting to join the Mediterranean Fleet, and eventually sailed for that station with a convoy at the beginning of September. On 9 May 1812 while commanding a squadron off Italy, his ships drove a French convoy of eighteen vessels to shelter under the batteries of the town of Laigueglia on the Ligurian Sea. Rowley sent 250 marines from his squadron ashore to capture the batteries, allowing his seamen to capture and bring out almost all the enemy merchant vessels. Shortly afterwards, the America returned to Malta after a successful three-month cruise in the Gulf of Genoa.

In 1813 he undertook a mission to Tunis where he was able to settle some ‘differences’ with the local ruler, and in the summer his force blockaded an enemy squadron and flotilla of gunboats in Naples. In December he embarked a force of one thousand men described as ‘troops of the Italian Levy’ which soon routed a detachment of the Leghorn (Livorno) garrison in a skirmish. The Italian commander then prevailed upon Rowley to allow his troops to make an attack on the town, on the assumption that the inhabitants would rise in support. In the event the attack was called off as the defences proved too strong, tempestuous weather greatly hindered the operation, and the mayor and the populace proved unwilling to assist. Even so, the newspapers reported the affair as a gallant enterprise that had been ‘zealously executed’.

Departing Palermo at the end of February 1814, Rowley commanded a convoy of forty-five transports which disembarked eight thousand troops back at Leghorn on 9 March, and two weeks later his squadron co-operated with British troops and Sicilian gunboats in capturing the port of Spezzia (La Spezia). During April the city of Genoa also surrendered to this force, allowing a newly built 74-gun vessel to fall into British hands. Coincidentally, on 4 June 1814 Josias Rowley was promoted to rear-admiral by seniority. Departing Genoa at the beginning of August, the new admiral returned home aboard the America, which was paid off in October, since the war with France had ended some months earlier.

In 1812, Rowley had succeeded to the family estates on death of his elder brother, in November 1813 he received the overdue award of a baronetcy, and a month later he was further honoured by being nominated a colonel of marines, a lucrative sinecure. Rear-Admiral Rowley was one of seventy-seven naval officers nominated a Knight Commander of the Bath on 2 January 1815, although he was already entitled to the honorific ‘Sir’ by virtue of his baronetcy. He was also one of the officers received at the Prince Regent’s levee in the following month. During the Hundred Days when Napoleon briefly resumed the throne of France, he went out to the Mediterranean aboard the Impregnable 98, commanded by his brother, Captain Samuel Campbell Rowley. Departing Gibraltar in April 1815, he served once more off the Italian coast and islands, being present with Admiral Sir Edward Pellew and other officers when King Ferdinand IV of Naples entered his capital in procession on 18 June. Thereafter, he took possession of the island of Elba (which had recently been the exiled Napoleon’s miniature kingdom) for the Grand Duke of Tuscany before sailing for Genoa. By the end of November, Napoleon was exiled to St Helena and Rowley was back in England, where he was again presented to the Prince Regent.

During the peace, Ireland called. In November 1817 he was elected a sheriff for County Leitrim, and from May 1818 until December 1821 served as commander-in-chief at Cork, his rear-admiral’s flag flying aboard the Spencer 74, again commanded by his brother. He became the M.P. for Kinsale in the House of Commons during the summer of 1821, holding the seat until 1826. As a parliamentarian, Rowley voted with Lord Liverpool’s Tory government and in defence of Protestantism but is not recorded as having spoken in the House. Apparently, he frequently travelled from London back to his residence in Ireland.

Rowley was promoted a vice-admiral on 27 May 1825, and in December 1833 he was appointed the commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. In January 1834 after a final briefing in London, he embarked at Portsmouth aboard the Endymion 44, Captain Sir Samuel Roberts, and sailed for his station early in February. Joining the squadron at Malta and hoisting his flag aboard the Caledonia 120, Captain Thomas Brown, he was at Naples with six sail of the line at the end of May, and towards the end of July was at Vourla Bay near Smyrna in Turkey, having sailed there from Lesbos. The squadron would thereafter sail on to Nauplia in Greece and to Corfu in the Adriatic before heading for Malta in October to winter. The next two years saw Rowley’s squadron follow a similar pattern: cruises in the Aegean among the Greek islands to support the new Greek government and king (born Prince Otto of Bavaria); trips to Vourla and the Ionian islands (under British rule); and cruises close to the base at Malta during the winter season.

Rowley’s tenure ended in August 1837, when he was succeeded by Admiral Sir Robert Stopford. The Caledonia brought Rowley home to Portsmouth, and after brief stays in London and Cheltenham he returned to his seat in Leitrim. He did not see any further service, but he remained active in the last few years of his life, undertaking civic and judicial duties in County Leitrim with occasional visits to London, as in March 1838 when he was presented to the new monarch, Queen Victoria. He was advanced to the rank of admiral on 10 January 1837, and on 4 July 1840 was created a G.C.B, (Grand Cross of the Bath), having been nominated a G.C.M.G. (Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George) on taking command in the Mediterranean.

Since he never married, his baronetcy became extinct when he died at his home at Mount Campbell, Drumsna, County Leitrim on 10 January 1842 in his seventy-seventh year. He was buried at Annaduff Church in that county.

Regarded as a popular and easy-tempered officer, he nevertheless could be most demanding of his senior officers. A contemporary wrote that ‘he had acquired …the professional confidence and personal esteem of the people who served under him. At the same time he was, in the true sense of the word, a very strict officer…’.