Sir James Lucas Yeo
Link to James Lucas's Memorial
James Lucas Yeo
was the oldest son of James Yeo, sometime agent victualler to the
Royal Navy at Minorca. After a brief schooling at Bishop's Waltham
near Winchester, Hampshire, he joined the Royal Navy in March 1793
as a boy volunteer. He joined under Adm. Cosby, as a midshipman
at the age of 10.
He first saw action as a lieutenant aboard a brig
in the Adriatic Sea. In 1797, he was promoted lieutenant, and assigned
to the HMS La Loire, under Capt. Frederick L. Maitland. While off
the Spanish coast, he was sent to capture the Spanish vessels in
the port of El Muros. Storming the fort, he succeeded in bringing
out of the port every vessel, armed and unarmed. For this achievement,
he was made commander, and given the HMS Confiance, one of the vessels
he had taken. He distinguished himself during the siege of Cesenatico
in 1800. Yeo participated in several sea battles during the Napoleonic
Wars so successfully that he was made a captain on December 19,
1807, by which time he had already been recognized as an intrepid
practitioner of unconventional sea warfare..
In 1809, he captured
Cayenne, in conjunction with the Portuguese, and was in consequence
made post-captain, and received from the prince regent of Portugal
a knight's commandery of St. Benito d'Avis, being the only Protestant
ever so honored. He was placed in command of the British naval forces
on Lake Ontario. In 1810, Yeo was knighted for his services and
3 years later was sent to America to command the British naval forces
in the Great Lakes during the War of 1812. His use of his small
navy was always determined and skillful, but he was hampered by
a lack of cooperation from the British army.
On March 19, 1813,
Yeo was appointed commodore and commander-in-chief on the lakes
of Canada. He would discover that in the Canadas, his instinct for
daring initiatives had to be disciplined in the interests of an
imperious necessity: maintenance of control over Lake Ontario, the
crucial link between the arsenal and dockyard at Kingston, Upper
Canada, and the British force on the Niagara peninsula. On May 27,
1813, appeared off Sackett's Harbor on the HMS Wolf, 24 guns, with
a squadron of 5 war-vessels, and about 40 bateaux, containing 1,200
troops under command of Gen. Sir George Prevost. The timid commander
of these forces, Prevost, failed to follow up key advances made
by Yeo at Sackett's Harbor and elsewhere that might have resulted
in major British victories. On the whole, historians regard the
war on Lake Ontario as having been a draw. In May 1814, Yeo again
sailed out of Kingston harbor with an effective force of cruising-vessels,
and 1,000 troops under Maj. Gen. Sir George Gordon Drummond. The
capture of Oswego was the first fruits of the expedition. Subsequently,
Yeo was blockaded for 6 weeks in Kingston Harbor by Capt. Isaac
Chauncey, of the American navy, who had previously defeated him
and his squadron in York Bay.
On October 15, Yeo once more sailed,
on board the HMS St. Lawrence, pierced for 112 guns, and carrying
over a 1,000 men, accompanied by 4 ships, 2 brigs, and a schooner,
and henceforth was "lord of the lake." He did not deem it prudent,
however, to attack Chauncey, who had retired to Sackett's Harbor,
where a force of 6,000 men had been gathered. The lake being closed
soon afterward by ice, no further hostilities followed, as the treaty
of peace was signed in the following December. After the war, Yeo
returned to England. He held important commands on the West African
and Caribbean stations, but saw no further action. On June 5, 1815
Yeo was appointed commander-in-chief on the west coast of Africa
with special responsibility for the anti-slavery patrol, a congenial
posting since he was a convinced abolitionist. He was to fly his
broad pennant on the HMS Inconstant. It is a measure of his standing
with the Admiralty that he received this position.
By midsummer
of 1815, the British Navy was being rapidly demobilized. He was
not able to leave England for several weeks after his appointment,
since he was required to testify at the court martial in mid August
of those of his officers who had survived the battle of Lake Champlain.
In the event all were honorably acquitted, responsibility for the
disaster having been placed with Prevost. Yeo's health having been
already impaired by arduous service, he was unable to withstand
the climate, and died while on the voyage home in 1818, returning
from Jamaica to England. He died "of general debility" on board
the HMS Semiramis, to which he had transferred in October 1817 while
en route from Jamaica to England. Yeo was survived by his parents,
sisters, and his only brother, Lt. George Cosby Yeo, who was killed
in a shipboard accident in the spring of 1819. Yeo was a brilliant
officer whose selfless devotion to duty contributed in large measure
to his early death.
My thanks to John Yeo for sending the Memorial Link. Back to top |
