Around the World: a narrative of a voyage in the East India Squadron, under Commodore G. C. Read ... By an Officer of the U.S. Navy.
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Title: Around the World: a narrative of a voyage in the...)
Title: Around the World: a narrative of a voyage in the East India Squadron, under Commodore G. C. Read ... By an Officer of the U.S. Navy.
Publisher: British Library, Historical Print Editions
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British Library
Read, George Campbell;
1840.
2 vol. ; 12º.
1424.g.11.
George Campbell Read was a United States Naval Officer.
Background
George Campbell Read was born an January 9, 1788 in Ireland, according to naval records undoubtedly supplied by Read himself. This may perhaps be reconciled with the statement in J. W. Reed's History of the Reed Family in Europe and America published in Read's lifetime (1861), that he was the grandson of John Read of London and Virginia and the son of Benjamin Read who came from the Ohio country to Philadelphia in 1787. Read's Irish background is confirmed by the attendance of the Philadelphia Hibernian Society at his funeral.
Career
He entered the navy as a midshipman from Pennsylvania on April 2, 1804, served in the merchant marine during furlough, and was made lieutenant in 1810.
At the opening of the War of 1812 he was in the Constitution and participated in her celebrated escape from Sir Philip Broke's squadron, July 17-20, 1812, and her victory over the Guerrière on August 19 following. As third lieutenant, Read boarded the Guerrière to receive the surrender. He was also in the United States in her action with the Macedonian on October 25, 1812, the second famous frigate victory of the war.
In 1814 he went to Lake Ontario, but in letters to the Secretary of the Navy, William Jones, 1760-1831, a friend and patron, he complains of assignment there to a small schooner. He commanded the Chippewa in Bainbridge's squadron against Algiers, 1815, and the Hornet in the West Indies, 1818-21, and on two voyages to Spain during treaty negotiations in 1819. Made captain in 1825, he commanded the Constitution in 1826, and the Constellation from 1832 to 1834, both in the Mediterranean.
In the Constellation he had difficulties with refractory younger officers, one of whom he caused to be hoisted forcibly to the masthead when he refused orders to go there. These troubles later received considerable publicity and led Read to request a court martial which was held at Baltimore in June 1835. He was sentenced to a year's suspension, though the court's feelings were obviously not unfavorable. His best-remembered service was in the small squadron - flagship Columbia and John Adams - which sailed in May 1838, for the Orient.
At Bombay news reached Read of the capture and plundering of the Salem peper schooner Eclipse by piratical natives of Quallah Battoo, Sumatra. Sailing thither, he bombarded the town on December 25, 1838, and on January 1 landed 350 men at the neighboring town of Muckie, razing the village and securing finally a pledge of restitution and friendship from the local rajah. On the China coast the following April the squadron afforded assurance to foreigners restricted to their factories at Canton during the first efforts of the Chinese government to curb the opium traffic. He sailed for home in August, via Hawaii, and reached Boston in June 1840.
Thereafter he commanded the Philadelphia navy yard, and acted in 1845 as president of the midshipmen's examining board which approved the establishment of a naval academy at Annapolis and outlined its organization. He commanded the African Squadron, 1846-49, and was again at the Philadelphia yard until 1853. Placed on the reserved list in 1855, his last service was as governor of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum from May 1861 until his death. His burial was at the Asylum, but his body was subsequently removed to an unknown location.
Achievements
He served on Old Ironsides during the War of 1812 and commanded vessels in actions off the Barbary Coast and India. Read eventually rose to the rank of rear admiral.
