Sir Charles Douglas
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Admiral Sir Charles Douglas, 1st Baronet of Carr (1727 – January 1789) was a descendant of the Earls of Morton and a distinguished British naval officer.
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[edit] Early career
Douglas was born in Perthshire, Scotland, but little is known of his early life, although it is established that he could speak six languages. He spent some time in the Dutch service before he began his career in the Royal Navy. He was a midshipman at the siege of Loiusbourg in 1745. In 1753, he was promoted to lieutenant, became a commander in 1759, and by the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, was a post-captain.
Following the war, Sir Charles went to St. Petersburg to help re-organize the Russian navy.
[edit] American Revolutionary years
After the war broke out in America in 1775, Douglas was given command of a squadron to relieve Quebec from the seige. When he arrived at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, he decided to ram the ice and successfully made his way up the river, surprising the Americans and putting them on the run, for which he was made a Baronet. He was also in charge of creating a navy from scratch to fight on Lake Champlain.
In 1781, Sir Charles became Captain-of-the-Fleet for George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, and was with Rodney on his flagship, Formidable, at the Battle of the Saintes off Dominica, where on 12 April 1782, they defeated the Comte de Grasse by breaking the French line. Douglas is credited by many, including Sir Charles Dashwood (a midshipman present at the time who later became an admiral himelf), for having the idea for the maneuver, but it is a subject of much debate.
Following the war, he was the commander of the Nova Scotia station, but resigned due to a conflict. In 1787 he became a rear-admiral, and in 1789 was once again made commander of the Nova Scotia station, but died of apoplexy before taking his post.
[edit] Personal Life
Douglas was married three times: first to a Dutch woman, with whom he had two sons and a daughter; second to Sarah Wood of Yorkshire, the mother of Sir Howard Douglas; and third to a Jane Baillie, with whom he did not have any children.
[edit] Legacy
Sir Charles was known as a mechanical genius[citation needed], and many of his suggestions for improvements on naval vessels, including the subsitition of flintlocks for matches, were adopted.
He was succeeded as Baronet of Carr by his sons, one of whom Sir Howard Douglas, became a Major-General and lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick.
Both Douglastown and Douglas, Nova Scotia are named after him.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Fullom, S.W. Life of General Sir Howard Douglas (1865)
[edit] External links
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements | All articles with unsourced statements | Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica | 1727 births | 1789 deaths | British officers in the American Revolution | Royal Navy admirals | Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain
