Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Hart (1 May 1781 – 22 December 1856) was a British naval officer and diplomat of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. After a brief stint in the East India Company he joined the Royal Navy in 1796 on Sir Edward Pellew's frigate HMS Indefatigable, participating in the action of 13 January 1797 before following Pellew to the ship of the line HMS Impetueux where he experienced a mutiny before taking part in a number of cutting out expeditions and the Ferrol Expedition. At the Peace of Amiens Hart transferred to the ship of the line HMS Foudroyant in the Mediterranean Sea where he was promoted to lieutenant and joined Sir John Gore's frigate HMS Medusa, in which he participated in the action of 5 October 1804 before sailing to India in 1805. There he was reunited with Pellew who made him his flag lieutenant and appointed him to a succession of acting commands, including to that of the frigate HMS Caroline in which he played an important role in the Raid on Griessie in 1807.

In 1811 health issues forced Hart to return to England where he served in the English Channel before being promoted to post-captain later in the year. In 1814 he became the flag captain of Gore's flagship HMS Revenge in which he helped oversee France's surrender of Corfu. Hart's next command was the frigate HMS Sapphire which he sailed to the Leeward Islands to protect British interests in the warfare resulting from the Spanish American wars of independence. In 1820 he was again forced to relinquish his command due to ill health and he would not gain his next command for ten years until Gore again requested for him to become his flag captain on the East Indies and China Station. There he was given temporary command of the frigate HMS Imogene to go on a diplomatic mission to Zanzibar where he secured the loyalty of the imaum and received a ship of the line as a gift for William IV. In 1835 he returned to England and was knighted for his diplomatic and military services. He became a commissioner of Greenwich Hospital, London before being promoted as a retired rear-admiral in 1846. He died at Queen's House, Greenwich, on 22 December 1856 at the age of seventy-six.

Early life Henry Hart was born on 1 May 1781 at Wilmington in Kent as the eighth son of Richard Hart of Uckfield and his wife Sarah.O'Byrne, Naval Biographical Dictionary, p. 471Noel-Smith and Campbell, Hornblower's Historical Shipmates, p. 55 On his mother's side he was related by marriage to Sir Thomas Miller and on his father's side to Sir Percival Hart Dyke, the Hart family being descended from Sir Percival Hart of Lullingstone Castle.Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, p. 413 As a child Hart joined the East India Company as a volunteer.Noel-Smith and Campbell, Hornblower's Historical Shipmates, p. 117

Naval career Early career

Hart left the East India Company for the Royal Navy in March 1796, becoming a midshipman on the frigate HMS Indefatigable under Captain Sir Edward Pellew in the English Channel. As such he participated in the action of 13 January 1797 where Indefatigable and the frigate HMS Amazon drove the French ship of the line Droits de l'Homme ashore, destroying her, in which action nineteen men of Indefatigable were injured.

Having become a follower of Pellew, Hart joined him in his new command, the ship of the line HMS Impetueux, in March 1799. He was rated as an able seaman upon joining Impetueux but was restored to his rank as a midshipman on 15 March.Noel-Smith and Campbell, Hornblower's Historical Shipmates, p. 118 On 31 May the crew of Impetueux (who already had a reputation for insubordination) mutinied unsuccessfully against Pellew in Bantry Bay.Noel-Smith and Campbell, Horblower's Historical Shipmates, p. 83 Hart was midshipman of the watch at the time the mutiny started and identified a number of the mutineers at the court martial in June. While spending most of his time in Impetueux on the blockade of Belle Île, Hart distinguished himself on several occasions. On 29 July he took part in the successful cutting out of the French brig Cerbere in Port Louis and then on 29 August he participated in the similar cutting out of the French brig La Guépe, which was "desperately defended", in Vigo Bay.Noel-Smith and Campbell, Hornblower's Historical Shipmates, p. 119 He also served in the Ferrol Expedition in August; while Impetueux bombarded fortifications he was given command of a small flat-bottomed boat and brought troops ashore on the beaches of the landings.

Hart left Impetueux when the Peace of Amiens began in 1802, joining instead the ship of the line HMS Foudroyant which was the flagship of Admiral Lord Keith in the Mediterranean Fleet. He completed his necessary time of service as a midshipman on Foudroyant and was made an acting lieutenant on 2 April 1802 in the frigate HMS Medusa under Captain John Gore, still in the Mediterranean.Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, p. 478 His new rank was confirmed on 12 June. He spent the rest of the Peace sailing on Medusa visiting all the French and Spanish ports in the Sea and acting as an escort to important personages such as Ferdinand IV and Sir William Drummond. Hart rose to become the first lieutenant of Medusa. As such on one occasion after the Napoleonic Wars had begun, Medusa discovered two French privateer feluccas chasing the British cutter British Fair off Gibraltar.Ralfe, Naval Biography of Great Britain, p. 470 Upon the attack of Medusa the feluccas split up and attempted to flee but as Medusa passed the first of them closely Hart was ordered to board her and he did so successfully while Medusa destroyed the other ship with her guns. The action was witnessed by Gibraltar's garrison and the crew were cheered by it as they returned. Hart continued in Medusa after this and as such participated in the action of 5 October 1804 where Medusa and three other frigates captured three Spanish frigates and destroyed a fourth in the Atlantic Ocean.Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, p. 479

The following November Medusa captured the Spanish frigate Matilda which had on board a cargo of quicksilver worth £200,000. Hart was given command of Matilda and sailed her into Portsmouth where she and her cargo could be further evaluated. Re-joining Medusa soon after, he sailed on 15 April 1805 to India with the new Governor-General of India, Lord Cornwallis on board, and arrived there in July.Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, p. 481 His old captain Edward Pellew, described as his "sincere and valuable friend", was now a rear-admiral and Commander-in-Chief, East Indies and with Hart in Madras he took him from Medusa to serve as his flag lieutenant on board the ship of the line HMS Culloden. Hart continued to serve as such until August 1806 when, still a lieutenant, Pellew began to appoint him to a series of acting commands on the station.Noel-Smith and Campbell, Hornblower's Historical Shipmates, p. 120

Acting commands Hart's first acting command came when he was given command of the frigate HMS Terpsichore as one of a series of lieutenants serving as her acting-captain after the death of her commanding officer in July.Winfield, British Warships 1714–1792, p. 1003 After having moved on from Terpsichore, Hart's next command came in 1807 when he was transferred to the acting-command of the frigate HMS Duncan before again being replaced in a rotation of acting-captains.Winfield, British Warships 1793-1817, p. 416 Towards the end of 1807 Hart was again placed in an acting command role, this time of the frigate HMS Caroline. Caroline was serving with Pellew's squadron off Java and in August, before Hart's arrival, she had reconnoitred the Dutch-controlled port of Griessie and discovered Dutch ships of the line at anchor there.Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, p. 414 On 11 December Hart sailed Caroline with the rest of the squadron back to Griessie to attack it and destroy the Dutch force present.

Hart was given command of the landings and of all seamen ashore during the attack, and he was successful in coordinating both of these aspects of the attack; the dockyard and storehouses were destroyed and the scuttled remains of the Dutch naval presence left in the East Indies burned.Allen, Battles of the British Navy, pp. 214–245 This came to be known as the Raid on Griessie. Caroline was used by Pellew as his flagship for some of the operation after Culloden grounded herself and her crew became intoxicated on a store of liquor. When Culloden grounded Caroline was directly astern of her and it was thought that Caroline would either hit Culloden or have to run herself ashore to escape that, but through the quick use of a spare anchor the crisis was averted just before Caroline hit the flagship's stern.Allen, Battles of the British Navy, p. 215 Hart was praised for his good seamanship is avoiding the incident. Around the same time as the Raid, Hart cut out a Dutch 14-gun sloop-of-war from Java's coast in broad daylight and soon afterwards participated in an action against a number of batteries and gun boats in the mouth of Manila Bay.

Hart was superseded in command of Caroline by Captain Charles Gordon at the beginning of 1809 and was transferred to the acting-command of yet another frigate, HMS Fox.Winfield, British Warships 1793-1817, p. 353Winfield, British Warships 1714-1792, p. 1009 On 23 March Hart sent Foxs boats in to a creek where they captured the French 8-gun privateer La Carravanne which had been attempting to make the journey to Surabaya. Hart served in acting-command of Fox until 1811 when his health deteriorated to such an extent that he was forced to leave the East Indies and Pellew's command completely.Noel-Smith and Campbell, Hornblower's Historical Shipmates, p. 199

Having served as an acting-captain for four years Hart expected that he had by this time been promoted fully to post-captain but found upon his return to England that the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Mulgrave, had only signed off on his promotion to commander, dated 12 October 1807, for which he was "bitterly disappointed".Syrett and DiNardo, Commissioned Sea Officers, p. 204Noel-Smith and Campbell, Hornblower's Historical Shipmates, p. 121 This meant that despite extensive experience in command of frigates Hart was not of the correct rank to truly command one, and as such in November 1810 his next command was the sloop-of-war HMS Thracian, which he was given only after Mulgrave was replaced as First Lord by Charles Philip Yorke.Winfield, British Warships 1793-1817, p. 690 In Thracian Hart served off the coast of Cherbourg for almost a year before being promoted to post-captain on 1 August 1811.

Post-captain