James Lucas Yeo

A scene on Lake Ontario – United States sloop of war Gen. Pike, Commodore Chauncey, and the British sloop of war Wolfe, Sir James Lucas Yeo, preparing for action, 28 September 1813

Sir James Lucas Yeo, KCB (7 October 1782 – 21 August 1818) was a Royal Navy officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Born in Southampton, Hampshire, he joined the British navy at the age of 10 and saw his first action in the Adriatic Sea. Yeo distinguished himself in combat multiple times, most notably during the Portuguese conquest of French Guiana, earning knighthoods in the Portuguese Order of Aviz and the British Order of the Bath. He was subsequently given command of the frigate in 1812, but she was later wrecked in the Bahamas, although he was acquitted of blame for its loss. Yeo was then given command of the British squadron on Lake Ontario and commanded it in several engagements on Lake Ontario with American forces. He died off the African coast in 1818.

Service history

Early life and career Yeo was born in Southampton, England on 7 October 1782 to a naval victualling agent. Yeo was sent to an academy near Winchester for his formal education. Yeo joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman aboard at the age of 10, thanks to his patron, Admiral Phillips Crosby. In 1796, he was made acting-lieutenant and placed in command of the 16-gun sloop . He was made lieutenant permanently on 20 February 1797. The vessel was deployed to the West Indies, where Yeo contracted Yellow fever and was ordered home to England to convalesce in 1798. By 1802, Yeo was first lieutenant aboard in the Adriatic Sea. He distinguished himself during the siege of Cesenatico in 1800, when thirteen merchant vessels were burned or sunk. Following the Peace of Amiens in 1802, Yeo was demoted to half-pay.

Napoleonic Wars Once war began again between Britain and France in 1805, Yeo became first lieutenant of the frigate . The frigate was patrolling off the northwest coast of Spain when Loires commanding officer, Captain F.L. Maitland, chose to attack shipping in Muros Bay, Spain. Lieutenant Yeo led fifty men ashore to attack a shore battery that was firing on the frigate. Once there, they found a second, more powerful emplacement and captured that one too. During the battle, Yeo was stabbed with a bayonet. The Spanish suffered over forty casualties in the engagement, the British six. Loire captured three vessels at Muros Bay including the 22-gun corvette . As a reward, he was promoted to commander on 21 June and given the command of the captured Confiance, which had been taken into Royal Navy service.