The Minor Family of Somerset

Name Prefix:<NPFX> Captain
in 1796, aged 13, he shopped as an East India Company's midshipm
an in the "Taunton Castle (Captain Edward Studd).....Taunton Cas
tle sailed for India fromPortsmouth on 12th April, in company, f
or mutual protection, with four others of the 1795 season Chin
a Fleet, in a convoy underthe orders of Admiral Pringle.....
Off Bali, on 29th January 1797 the Fleet had a close call when t
hey were surprised by a 6-ship squadron of French frigates. Tau
nton Castle ran out her guns, including some wooden dummies, an
d paraded on deck, in their red coats, the St. Helena regiment t
hat was taKing passage from China, in hope that the french woul
d take them for marines. Commodore Lennox in the Woodford had t
he Indiamen hoist the White Ensign and theFrench sheered off
. Another close shave was in store; on 10th February "Taunton C
astle" grounded in Cajeli Bay, at Buru in the Moluccas - where s
he hadno business to be, and which episode brought disgrace o
n the Captain. ....
On return in Februay 1798 Chalres received his first promotion
, to 5th Mate-skipping an intervening two-year tour as 6th mate
. At 15 he was an Officer,and had charge of men. Still in "Ta
unton Castel" he sailed again to India under Captain Bond with t
he 1798 fleet, taKing departure from Portsmouth on the last da
y of the year and returning to moorings in the Thames at the en
d of June 1800.
He was now promoted 4th Mate and appointed to the 1200-ton "Ocea
n" (Captain Patton), which sailed for Canton on her maiden voyag
e in January1801, returning in June 1802. Her eventual fate ep
itomised the risk of casual shipwreck that was never far awa
y - she was lost with all hands, on her fifth voyage, in the Chi
na Seas in September 1810.
As Third Mate in the 1200 ton "Elphinstone" in 1802, Charles no
w stood his own watch.....
England was at war for most of this period and Charles must hav
e had a stimulating boyHoodunder the Red Ensign, which in 180
1 displaced HEIC's 13 striped red and white ensign (with the Uni
on, which had in 1707 replaced St. George, in the top canton nex
t the hoist) which had been worn by Indiamen since 1660. .....
Atthe age of 26, after "Using the Sea" thirteen years, over 1
0 years' accredited seatime, five round trip voyages to India an
d China and a period in Bengalwaters, and after conveniently ad
ding a year to his age, Charles was appointed to his first comma
n, the 26 -gun Charlton, built in Liverpool by Humble andHard
y in 1798. .....
On 27 apr 1809, supported as witnesses by his two next brothers
, John Cheetham and Thomas, and by the bride's two next sister
s Mary Ann and Eliza, Charles had married Emelia Ann, the twenty
-year-old eldestchild of his father's business partner, Captai
n James Thomas and his wife Ann....
Charles remained Lowther Castle's Commander until 1822, when, af
ter over twenty-six years at sea, two-thrids of them in wartime
, he swallowed the anchor and retired to shore. By this time, b
y seniority, he was commodore ofthe HEIC fleet. His retirmen
t may have been connected with a grumpy complaine he made to th
e Court about being ordered to sail to China out of season, orp
ossibly to growing wary of the rough and tumble of life in comma
nd.