James Hosken

Vice-Admiral James Hosken (6 December 1798 – 2 January 1885) was a British naval officer and a pioneer of ocean steam navigation. He joined the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and after more than 20 years of service left to join the merchant navy and serve as captain of the steamships and the . He returned to the Royal Navy to see service during the Crimean War.

Biography

Early naval career Hosken was born in Plymouth, the son James Hosken (1756-1848), a navy warrant officer, and Elizabeth Veale (1767-?). (two months after his 9th birthday). In 1810 he was appointed midshipman aboard , and later served in the Baltic, the Mediterranean, and the North Sea, until the end of the war in 1815. but with experience Hosken brought his average down to 13 days in the sixty-six voyages he made between England and America. In 1844 he was appointed to command of Great Western's , the first iron-hulled screw steamship and at that time the largest ship afloat. She sailed from Liverpool for New York on her maiden voyage in August 1845. However, on the night of 22 September 1846, during her fifth voyage, she ran aground in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. Weather conditions were poor, and an error on the chart led Hosken to believe that the lighthouse on St. John's Point, at the entrance of the bay, was the Calf of Man, which they had passed four hours before. After several months the ship was refloated, but Hosken had no further employment in the merchant service. recently ceded to England. He then returned to the navy and in 1851 he was appointed to command of the despatch vessel in the Mediterranean, and later in the Channel. and during the Baltic campaigns of 1854–55 commanded the hospital ship . At the end of the Crimean War he was employed in bringing back troops from the Black Sea. In June 1857 he was promoted to captain, and in 1868 was placed on the retired list. and vice-admiral in August 1879, and died at Ilfracombe, Devon, on 2 January 1885.

In 1878, his son James Hosken, a marine consulting engineer aged 45, together with his wife and three of their six children, were drowned in the Sinking of SS Princess Alice disaster on the river Thames at Woolwich. Rear-Admiral Hosken assumed guardianship of his three surviving orphaned grandchildren, aged 12, 8, and 2. Perhaps due to his advancing years, by 1881 both the two younger children were in separate orphanages, while the eldest remained with him in Ilfracombe.

In 1889 Elizabeth Ann, his second wife, published an Autobiographical Sketch of the Public Career of Admiral James Hosken.

Publications