A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CAPTAIN ARTHUR WAKEFIELD. [From Chamber's Edinburgh Journal.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 185, 8 May 1847, Page 3

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CAPTAIN ARTHUR WAKEFIELD. [From Chamber's Edinburgh Journal.]

Arthur Wakefield, the son of an opulent yeoman in Essex, was born in the year 1800, and at the age of ten was selected by the enterprising Captain Beaver, aft^r his return from Africa, as one of his probationary midshipmen (then technically called " young gentlemen," but now naval cadets) in the frigate Nisus. At the Cape of Good Hope, the young naval aspirant had the misfortune to lose his patron, who died in consequence of the injuries his constitution had sustained on the western shores of Africa. The late Sir Charles Schcmberg succeeded to the command, and brought the ship home. How young Arthur Wakefield acquitted himself on the voyage may be judged of by the following anecdote : — On returning, his father solicited Captain Brenton (the friend and secretary of the Earl St. Vincent) to appoint his son to the Spartan, which Brenton commanded ; and, for the purpose of getting the appointment confirmed, all three travelled up to London. In the hall of the Admiralty stood Captain Schomberg. Mr. Wakefield

having detailed the arrangements which had | been made, Schomberg turned round sharply to Brenton, and said, " You shall not have him. As long as I have a pendant flying, Arthur shall be one of my midshipmen." The consequence was, that he was retained on board the Nisus, under his old commander. Circumstances, however, afterwards obliged him to exchange into the Hebrus, in which vessel he served at the battle of Bladensberg with so much distinction, that he was approvingly named in the extraordinary gazette announcing the victory ; it not being usual to mention officers in the grade of midshipmen at all, unless their conduct had been unusually praiseworthy. He was also at the seige of Algiers, doing the responsible duty of midshipman of the signals. After this event, there being a general peace, Mr. Arthur Wakefield went to France to acquire the French language, and to pursue other studies : buthe was speedily recalled by the distinguished appointment of flag-midship-man to Sir George Campbell, who had become port-admiral of Portsmouth. He next served under Sir Thomas Hardy as his aid-de-camp in the Spanish colonies of South America. When at Valparaiso, he was promoted, and returned home as third lieutenant of the Superb. While on shore, he happened to attend a public dinner of the Merchant Seaman's Society, at which a minister of state spoke with undeserved praise of the build and efficiency of the mercantile navy. On returning Wakefield told his father that " he had never heard such nonsense in his life ;" for the fiscal regulations by which the builders of trading vessels were tied down rendered them, as a fleet, the worst craft in the world. His father recommended him to place his ideas on paper. Lieutenant W T akefield did as lecommended, and the paper was read to the Earl St. Vincent, at whose house, Rocket, he Wd.s a constant visitor. The old a.lmiral was struck by the force of the facts and reasonings, and advised its publication. The advice was taken, and the lieutenant's ideas were put forth in a pamphlet, the appeal ance of which is said to have originated those alterations in the specified build of merchant ships which have since so materially imp-oved them. This was in 1825, an. soon after, young Wakefield was appointed to the Blazer, destined once more for Spanish America. He had not long departed before his father happened to call on the Earl Si. Vincent. To his grief, he heard that his lordship was in all probability dying. Mr. Wakefield was nevertheless announced to him, and bis reply was singularly characteristic. The attendant was desired to advise the visitor to " let his son keep at sea, and lice upon his pay." These were amongst the last words which the aged veteran spoke. The Blazer returned to England, for the purpose of taking out those celebrated but uniortunate African travellers, Clapperton, Denham, and the son of Mungo Park, with their attendants, the brothers Lander. On arriving off the African coast, Lieutenant Wakefield left the Baser to take ti c command of the Conflict sloop, in which he remained during five yeais, performing signal services in her in the captuie of blavers. The Conflict was paid off in February, 1828. By this time, his father having retired from Sussex to reside in France, Aithur Wakefield joined him, inspecting the most celebiated dockyards belonging to the country ; but he was not long away from the service he so ardently loved. At the close of the same year he joined the Rose as senior lieutenant, and a short time later was promoted to the rank o! j capta'n. We must, however, pass over the rest of his naval adventures, as being interesting only to professional persons, that we may arrive at his last unfortunate venture, the end of which deprived him of life, and joined his nime with one of the most painful catastrophes which the modern history of colonisation affords. *****