William Houston Stewart

[1] His first active service was aboard the Tweed during the Carlist Wars in Spain 1836–37, and then during the Syrian campaign 1840–41, in HMS Carysfort, during which time he was wounded and mentioned in dispatches.[1][9] In March 1843 he was appointed lieutenant in the 74-gun two-decker Illustrious, commanded by Captain John Elphinstone Erskine, flagship of Vice-Admiral Charles Adam, on the North America and West Indies station.)[1][11] William Stewart's next appointment was as lieutenant in the 50-gun razee frigate Grampus, which was commissioned at Woolwich by Captain Henry Byam Martin, and then went out to the Pacific station.[15] When Virago arrived, the port was in the hands of a group of mutinous prisoners "headed by one Cambiaso, second lieutenant of the troops stationed there; who... had committed some offence and been imprisoned a short time before."[16] Cambiaso had captured two merchant vessels: the barque Florida of New Orleans and the brig Eliza Cornish of Liverpool.[14] When Virago arrived Cambiaso had considered trying to capture her, but was deterred because of "the order and discipline on board, the well manned guns, the well drilled marines",[14] and "of the capability of even the smallest midshipman to take command of the crew in case of the absence of the superior officers".The English steamer proceeded immediately to the Straits, and it was to be hoped that her officers would learn a lesson from experience, and prove themselves more sharp sighted than they had done a month before, in their former visit to the colony.Virago searched for, and recaptured the Eliza Cornish at sea and rescued some colonists who had been abandoned on Wood's Bay.[22] On 3 May 1860, he became captain of the modern 131-gun steam three-decker Marlborough, flagship of Vice-Admiral William Fanshawe Martin, C-in-C of the Mediterranean Fleet.[1] He was appointed GCB (Knight Grand Cross of the Bath) on 21 June 1887,[1] and died in London on 13 November 1901.