Vice-Admiral of the White John Byron (8 November 1723 – 1 April 1786) was a Royal Navy officer, explorer, and colonial administrator. He earned the nickname "Foul-Weather Jack" in the British press due to his frequent encounters with bad weather at sea. As a midshipman, Byron sailed in a squadron under George Anson on his voyage around the world. However, Byron's ship, HMS Wager, made it only to southern Chile, where it was wrecked. He returned to England with the captain of the ship. Byron was appointed governor of Newfoundland following Hugh Palliser, who left in 1768. He circumnavigated the world as a commodore with his own squadron in 1764–1766. Byron fought in several battles of the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence, and rose to vice admiral before he died in 1786. His grandsons include the poet Lord Byron and the admiral and explorer George Byron, 7th Baron Byron. One of Byron's great-granddaughters was the mathematician and pioneer in informatics Ada Lovelace.
Early career Byron was the second son of William Byron, 4th Baron Byron and Frances Berkeley, the daughter of William, 4th Baron Berkeley. After studying at Westminster School, he joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14, making his first voyage aboard HMS Romney in 1738–40.
Anson's voyage around the world In 1740, he accompanied George Anson on his voyage around the world as a midshipman aboard one of the several ships in the squadron.
On 14 May 1741, HMS Wager was shipwrecked on the coast of Chile on what is now called Wager Island, and Byron was one of the survivors. Under the tenuous command of Captain David Cheape, who was only promoted to the position mid-voyage following the death of his predecessor, the survivors bickered amongst themselves and split into factions. A large group of sailors, including Byron, eventually defied Cheape's authority and sailed east to Portuguese Brazil, targeting Rio Grande do Sul on the Atlantic coast. Days into the journey, Byron and several others returned to the captain and his remaining small party. Cheape's party consisted of 19 men after the deserters rejoined the camp. This included the surgeon Elliot and Lieutenant Hamilton, as well as Byron and fellow midshipman Alexander Campbell. They rowed up the coast but were punished by continuous rain, headwinds, and waves that threatened the boats. One night, while the men slept on shore, one of the boats capsized while at anchor and was swept out to sea with its two boatkeepers. One of the men got ashore, but the other drowned. As it was now impossible for them all to fit in the remaining boat, four marines were left ashore with muskets to fend for themselves. The winds prevented them from getting around the headland, so they returned to pick up the marines, only to find them gone. They returned to Wager Island in early February 1742. With one death on the journey, there were now 13 in the group. Martín Olleta, a Chono chieftain, guided the men up the coast to the Spanish settlements on Chiloé Island, where they set out again. Two men died; after burying the bodies, the six seamen rowed off in the boat, never to be seen again, while Cheape, Hamilton, Byron, Campbell, and the dying Elliot were on shore looking for food. Olleta then agreed to take the remaining four on by canoe for their only remaining possession, a musket. The party likely travelled across Presidente Ríos Lake in the inland Taitao Peninsula, a lake that Chile officially discovered in 1945. Eventually they made it to be taken prisoner by the Spanish. The Spaniards treated them well and they were eventually taken to the inland capital of Santiago where they were released on parole. The Spaniards heard that Anson had been generous in the treatment of the prisoners he had taken, and this kindness was returned. Byron and the other three men stayed in Santiago till late 1744 and were offered passage on a French ship bound for Spain. Three accepted the passage. Campbell elected to take a mule across the Andes and joined the Spanish Admiral Pizarro in Montevideo on the Asia only to find Isaac Morris and the two seamen who had been abandoned in Freshwater Bay on the Atlantic coast. After time in prison in Spain, Campbell reached Britain in May 1746, followed by the other three two months later. In England, the official court martial examined only the loss of the Wager, in which Baynes, in nominal charge at the time, was acquitted of blame but reprimanded for omissions of duty. Disputes over what happened after the wreck were instead played out as Bulkeley and Cummins, Campbell, Morris, the cooper Young, and later Byron published their own accounts, the last of which was the only one that in any way defended Cheap, who had since died. Twenty-nine crew members plus seven marines made it back to England. Byron's account of his adventures and the Wager Mutiny are recounted in The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron (1768). His book sold well enough to be printed in several editions. Byron was appointed captain of HMS Siren in December 1746.
Seven Years' War
In 1760, during the Seven Years' War, Byron commanded a squadron sent to destroy the fortifications at Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, which had been captured by the British two years before. They wanted to ensure the French could not use it in Canada. In July of that year, he defeated the French flotilla sent to relieve New France at the Battle of Restigouche.
Commodore, governor, and vice admiral In early 1764, the British Admiralty determined that a permanent naval settlement off the South American coast would be required to resupply naval vessels seeking to enter the Pacific via Cape Horn. Captain Byron was selected to explore the South Atlantic for a suitable island upon which to establish such a settlement. The South American mainland was controlled by Spain, which was hostile to the expansion of British interests in the region; to disguise Byron's mission, it was announced that he had been appointed the new Navy Commander-in-Chief, East Indies. Byron set sail in June 1764, ostensibly to take up the East Indies post. For the voyage he was granted command of the 24-gun frigate HMS Dolphin and the 16-gun sloop HMS Tamar.
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