Henry Hart

Naval career Early career

Hart left the East India Company for the Royal Navy in March 1796, becoming a midshipman on the frigate HMS Indefatigable under Captain Sir Edward Pellew in the English Channel. |group=Note On 31 May the crew of Impetueux (who already had a reputation for insubordination) mutinied unsuccessfully against Pellew in Bantry Bay. Hart was midshipman of the watch at the time the mutiny started and identified a number of the mutineers at the court martial in June. His new rank was confirmed on 12 June. Upon the attack of Medusa the feluccas split up and attempted to flee but as Medusa passed the first of them closely Hart was ordered to board her and he did so successfully while Medusa destroyed the other ship with her guns.

The following November Medusa captured the Spanish frigate Matilda which had on board a cargo of quicksilver worth £200,000. His old captain Edward Pellew, described as his "sincere and valuable friend", was now a rear-admiral and Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and with Hart in Madras he took him from Medusa to serve as his flag lieutenant on board the ship of the line HMS Culloden.

Acting commands Hart's first acting command came when he was given command of the frigate HMS Terpsichore as one of a series of lieutenants serving as her acting-captain after the death of her commanding officer in July. After having moved on from Terpsichore, Hart's next command came in 1807 when he was transferred to the acting-command of the frigate HMS Duncan before again being replaced in a rotation of acting-captains. Towards the end of 1807 Hart was again placed in an acting command role, this time of the frigate HMS Caroline. On 11 December Hart sailed Caroline with the rest of the squadron back to Griessie to attack it and destroy the Dutch force present. This came to be known as the Raid on Griessie. Hart was praised for his good seamanship is avoiding the incident. On 23 March Hart sent Foxs boats in to a creek where they captured the French 8-gun privateer La Carravanne which had been attempting to make the journey to Surabaya.

Having served as an acting-captain for four years Hart expected that he had by this time been promoted fully to post-captain but found upon his return to England that the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Mulgrave, had only signed off on his promotion to commander, dated 12 October 1807, for which he was "bitterly disappointed". This meant that despite extensive experience in command of frigates Hart was not of the correct rank to truly command one, and as such in November 1810 his next command was the sloop-of-war HMS Thracian, which he was given only after Mulgrave was replaced as First Lord by Charles Philip Yorke. In Thracian Hart served off the coast of Cherbourg for almost a year before being promoted to post-captain on 1 August 1811. As such he took part in the blockade of Venice from 22 March which ended when Italy was surrendered by France, at which point the squadron Hart was a part of sailed for Corfu to oversee the handover of that island from the French to Britain on 8 June. Hart paid off Revenge at Chatham Dockyard in the same month and again found himself unemployed. (It is likely that this unemployment was not planned by the Admiralty for Hart had not been expected to bring Revenge home; Gore had been sent an order to continue in command of his squadron in Revenge despite the new peace with France, but returned to England before he received it.)

After four years on land he was given command of the frigate HMS Sapphire on 27 August 1818. Hart and Sapphire sailed for Latin America to watch over British interests in Porto Bello to secure them against the Spanish American wars of independence igniting in the continent. In 1833 the vice-admiral gave Hart temporary command of the frigate HMS Imogene to sail to Zanzibar to speak with the Imaum of Muscat, Said bin Sultan, about the United States' monopoly on trade with that country and the possibility of British trade links being created. As well as this Hart was personally gifted an arabian horse which was put on board Liverpool. He escorted the ship to Bombay from where she was sailed home to become HMS Imaum.

Hart returned to England in Melville in July 1835, transporting the previous Governor of Bombay Lord Clare, when Gore's tenure as commander-in-chief ended. Melville was Hart's last active command in the Royal Navy; he received a Captain's Good-Service Pension on 12 April 1842 to further honour his service. Hart was against being placed on the retired list, a position "foreign to his feelings", but felt that that was the only option available to him. Hart returned from the mission in October so that he could attend the wedding of Admiral (now Lord Exmouth) Pellew's granddaughter Harriet in London. He also served on the committee of The Marine Society and was a senior member of the United Service Club. Possibly influenced by his judicial work on the behalf of slaves in Jamaica, Hart supported a number of charitable endeavours in later life including the Merchant Seamans' Orphan Asylum. He also supported, in tandem with his wife, a number of organisations set up to assist destitute women through either funding or emigration. He is remembered on a memorial, dedicated to the senior officers of the Greenwich Hospital, in the Old Burial Ground of the Naval Hospital.

Family While on station in the East Indies Hart married Maria, the daughter of Andrew Williams of Southampton, in Fort St. George on 4 October 1808. As such he became a relation of Sir Edward Page-Turner who was married to the bride's sister. The couple had no children and upon Hart's death he bequeathed his estate to his wife and nephew, also named Henry Hart.

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