Frederick Chamier
Frederick Chamier (2 November 1796 – 29 October 1870) was an English novelist, autobiographer and naval captain born in London. He was the author of several nautical novels that remained popular through the 19th century. Life Chamier was the son of an Anglo-Indian official, John Ezechial Chamier and his wife Georgiana, daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir William Burnaby. The family home was in Grosvenor Place, London. He entered the Royal Navy in June 1809, joining the frigate as a midshipman in time for the Walcheren Campaign. After the campaign the Salsette was ordered to the Mediterranean and while at Smyrna on 11 April 1810 met with Lord Byron who on hearing the ship was making for Constantinople asked Captain Bathurst for a lift. Byron took a friendly interest in the young Chamier and when the ship stopped en-route at Tenedos within sight of the plains of Troy prevailed on the captain to allow the boy ashore to carry his fowling piece. There Byron sat down on the tomb of Patroclus, and pulled out his copy of Homer and read for his companions. Chamier would become a lifelong devotee, and sprinkle his own books in the future with many Byronic quotations. Later in May 1810, Chamier watched Byron on his famous swim across the Hellespont from Europe to Asia at the second attempt. He described the episode in his autobiography. Once in Constantinople the young midshipman accompanied his captain to various receptions and audiences for Sir Robert Adair with the sultan Mahmud II. Bathurst was promoted in November 1810 to command the 74-gun and took Chamier with him. Later by April 1811 Chamier went on to serve in the mediterranean on the fighting the slave trade. This was followed from October 1811 to 1814 on board the under Sir Peter Parker. He was onshore with Parker when the latter was killed at Bellair on 30 August 1814. On 6 July 1815 he was promoted lieutenant, and continued service in the Mediterranean, the home station, and the West Indies. From 20 September 1824 to 3 August 1825 he was first lieutenant on the . He was on the West Indies station until 9 August 1826, when he was put briefly in command of the 10-gun brig for bringing her home to England in 1827, but thereafter was very soon paid off. Chamier took no further employment and in 1833 was placed on the retired list of the navy, on which he was formally promoted captain on 1 April 1856. Effectively retired in 1827, he settled down to the life of an Essex county squire, further dividing his time between his house in Halkin Street, Belgravia, and Paris. His autobiography, The Life of a Sailor, was serialised in The Metropolitan Magazine in 1831–1832). In 1831 he was engaged in editing the translated transcript of Mikhail Zagoskin's novel Dmitrich Miloslawsky to be issued in England as The Young Muscovite; or, The Poles in Russia, which apparently dated from 1824. The translation had been provided from