George Downie

Downie was born in the village of Tong near Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Outer Hebrides. He was the son of The Reverend John Downie, minister of Stornoway, and Charlotte Mackenzie.{{cite web |title=Family tree of John Downie and Charlotte Mackenzie |url=http://www.downieabz.net/CaptainGeorgeDownie/JD_CM.htm |date=16 February 2008 |work=Ian Downie's Family History Home Page |accessdate=28 April 2014 }} He joined the Royal Navy in around 1790 as a midshipman, served aboard the frigate {{HMS|Circe|1785|2}}, and saw action during the Battle of Camperdown on 11 October 1797. He then served aboard the frigates {{HMS|Melampus|1785|2}} and {{HMS|Apollo|1799|2}} in the West Indies for several years. He was promoted to acting-lieutenant, and after he returned to the United Kingdom on sick leave, his promotion was confirmed{{cite journal |title= Obituary; with anecdotes of remarkable persons |journal=The Gentleman's Magazine |volume=LXXXV |issue=I |page=379 |url= http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.79254570;view=1up;seq=403 |date=January–June 1815 |accessdate=28 April 2014}} on 23 March 1802.{{Cite web |title=George Downie |url=http://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_crewman&id=5150 |work=threedecks.org |accessdate=28 April 2014 }}

In 1804 he was appointed to the 38-gun frigate {{HMS|Seahorse|1794|2}}, and in May 1805 was serving as first lieutenant under the command of Captain the Honourable Courtenay Boyle, in the Mediterranean. On 4 May 1805, Boyle sighted a convoy of Spanish ships loaded with gunpowder at San Pedro, an anchorage east of Cape de Gata. Though under the protection of a fort, two armed schooners, and three gun and mortar launches, Downie was sent in a cutter to board the vessels while covered by the guns of Seahorse. Downie boarded and brought out a Spanish brig, laden with 1,170 quintals of powder while the Spanish gun-boats continued to fire on the Seahorse, damaging the main topgallant mast, shooting away several braces and bowlines, and killing a crewman. Seahorse then discontinued the engagement, wishing to leave the coast while the breeze and daylight lasted.James, Vol. IV (1857), p. 133.

Downie was still first lieutenant of Seahorse in July 1808, under Captain John Stewart, patrolling in the Aegean Sea,James, Vol. V (1857), p. 57. when on 5 July she encountered two Turkish vessels off Skopelos. They were the Badere-Zaffer, a large frigate armed with fifty-two guns, mainly 12 and 24-pounders, but also two 42-pounders, and with a complement of 500 men under the command of Captain Scanderli Kichuc Ali. The other was the Alis Fezan, armed with twenty-four 13-pounders and two mortars, commanded by Captain Daragardi Ali, with a complement of 230. Despite being out-gunned and out-manned Seahorse engaged the Turks at 09:30 in the evening. At 10:00 he came up close alongside the Alis Fezan and within 15 minutes reduced her to a wreck, without sails and incapable of returning fire, and then engaged the larger Badere-Zaffer and in an action lasting until 01:15 reduced her to a motionless wreck. At dawn Stewart observed that her colours where still flying and so gave her a broadside into her stern, and she struck. Badere-Zaffer had suffered 165 men killed and 195 wounded; while Seahorse had 5 killed and 10 wounded, and lost her mizzen mast. On Stewart's recommendation Downie was subsequently promoted to commander.{{London Gazette |issue=16194 |date=22 October 1808 |pages=1437–1438 }}

Downie commanded the 18-gun {{Sclass|Cruizer|brig-sloop}} {{HMS|Royalist|1807|2}} from 15 June 1810 to December 1812, operating in the English Channel and taking several prizes:

• On 18 December 1810 he captured the French lugger privateer l'Aventurier, of 14 guns and 50 men, off Fécamp.{{London Gazette |issue=16436 |date=18 December 1810 |page=2021 |nolink=yes }}
• On 2 February 1811, in company with {{HMS|Castilian|1808|2}}, he pursued and captured the French lugger privateer Le Braconnier, of 10 guns and 47 men, off the coast of France.{{London Gazette |issue=16449 |date=2 February 1811 |page=205 |nolink=yes }}
• On 19 December 1811, in company with {{HMS|Skylark|1806|2}} and {{HMS|Rosario|1808|2}}, he captured the French privateer La Rondeur.{{London Gazette |issue=16624 |date=18 July 1812 |page=1400 |nolink=yes }}
• On 6 January 1812 he captured the French privateer La Furet, of 14 guns and 56 men, off Folkestone.{{London Gazette |issue=16560 |date=7 November 1812 |page=47 |nolink=yes }}
• On 28 December 1812 he captured the French privateer La Ruse.{{London Gazette |issue=16714 |date=23 March 1813 |page=610 |nolink=yes }}

Downie was promoted to captain on 1 January 1813, and was appointed to command of the sloop {{HMS|Montreal|1813|2}} on Lake Ontario. In August 1814 he was appointed to {{HMS|Confiance|1814|2}}, flagship of the British squadron on Lake Champlain, taking command of her on 3 September.James, Vol. VI (1857), p. 340.

On 11 September 1814, during the Battle of Plattsburgh, Downie was leading into battle inexperienced crews, most of them from provincial units and not from the cream of the Royal Navy. The crew of Confiance consisted of 270 men; 86 Marines, artillerymen and soldiers, and the rest "volunteers" from ships at Quebec who were of inferior quality and bad character, several having been in irons. They were all strangers to each other and to their officers; Downie was acquainted with no officer on board his ship except his first lieutenant.James, Vol. VI (1857), p. 342. The American forces had both time to prepare and were readily familiar with that area of the Lake. Early in the ensuing battle, Downie was crushed by a cannon aboard his flagship Confiance and killed instantly; the gun having been struck on its muzzle by a cannonball from the American flagship {{USS|Saratoga|1814|6}} which had sent the piece reeling backwards onto him. One eyewitness later recorded how Downie appeared when the gun, which weighed several tons, was removed:

:"His skin was not broken, a black mark about the size of a small plate was the only visible injury. His watch was found flattened, with its hands pointing to the very second at which he received the fatal blow."{{cite book|title=The Battle of Plattsburgh - What historians say about it |publisher=New York State Commission Plattsburgh Centenary |location=Albany, New York |year=1914 |page=[https://archive.org/details/battleofplattsbu00newyuoft/page/17 17] |url=https://archive.org/details/battleofplattsbu00newyuoft |accessdate=28 April 2014 }}

The loss of Downie, who was arguably the most experienced officer in the British fleet, greatly increased the odds of the American forces winning the engagement that day.

A 24-pound cannon from the captured Confiance, the same gun responsible for the death of Downie, can be found today on display in front of Macdonough Hall at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The deep indentation on the muzzle of this gun left by the ball from the USS Saratoga is still present.{{cite web | url=http://fourriversheritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/AA-County-War-of-1812-Brochure-LOW-Res.pdf | title=The War of 1812: Historic Sites in Anne Arundel County, Maryland | website=fourriversheritage.org | accessdate=28 April 2014 | page=14}} The anchor from Downie's Confiance is in the lobby of Plattsburgh City Hall in Plattsburgh, NY.

Downie is buried in the Riverside Cemetery, Plattsburgh.{{cite web | url=http://www.warof1812trail.com/riversidecemetery.htm | title=Riverside Cemetery | work=warof1812trail.com | accessdate=28 April 2014}}{{cite web | url=http://www.historiclakes.org/Plattsburg/downey.htm | title=The Demise of Capt. Downie at The Battle of Plattsburg | work=historiclakes.org | accessdate=28 April 2014}}

;Notes

{{Reflist}}

;Bibliography

• {{cite book |last1=James |first1=William |authorlink1=William James (naval historian) |title=Naval History of Great Britain |url=http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval_History/Index.html |date=1837 |publisher=Richard Bentley |location=London |access-date=28 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080702185556/http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval_History/Index.html |archive-date=2 July 2008 |url-status=dead }}

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Category:1778 births

Category:1814 deaths

Category:People from the Isle of Lewis

Category:Royal Navy captains

Category:Royal Navy personnel of the War of 1812

Category:British military personnel killed in the War of 1812