Gordon Falcon (Royal Navy officer)

Towards the end of his career, Falcon served aboard HMS Royal Adelaide as flag captain to William Hargood, the Commander-in-Chief at Plymouth.

He first served under William George Fairfax, on board the fifth-rate frigate, HMS Sheerness, Rear-admiral Henry Harvey's flagship, in the English Channel.

[1] On 21 July 1803, Falcon joined HMS Cambrian, then serving as the flagship of Sir Andrew Mitchell, on the North America and West Indies Station.

[1][4] He later followed Mitchell into HMS Leander and while aboard, on 23 February 1805, assisted in the capture of the 46-gun, French frigate, Ville de Milan, and the simultaneous re-capture of her prize, the 32-gun Cleopatra.

[1] Having received intelligence that British deserters were aboard, Leopard had been sent from Halifax, Nova Scotia, with orders to stop and search the American frigate.

[10] Although they knew they were outgunned, the British decided to fight in the hope of disabling Constitution sufficiently to save two valuable convoys they had escorted from Gibraltar a few days earlier and that were, at that time, only 30 nautical miles (56 kilometres) to the south.

[11][10] George Douglas, the commander of Levant and senior officer, proposed to draw Constitution away to the north as far as possible, with Falcon suggesting a line abreast so that both vessels could use their stern chasers at the same time and perhaps cause sufficient damage to slow their pursuer down.

[10] It soon became obvious however, that it was not possible for either of them to use stern chasers; the ports on Cyane being too small to accommodate the carronades she carried, and the guns on Levant severely restricting the movement of the tiller.

Released after the war, Falcon and Douglas stood trial for the loss of their ships on board HMS Akbar on 28 June, at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

[1] In August 1833, Princess Victoria and her mother, the Duchess of Kent, visited Plymouth in the royal yacht Emerald, which because of the light winds was being towed by a steamship.

[18][19] On arriving between St Nicholas Island and the Citadel, a welcoming committee including Falcon, Harwood and the lieutenant-governor of the city, John Cameron went aboard to greet the royal party and provide an escort to the dockyard at Devonport.

[19] The route was busy with shipping and Falcon later recounted how he felt the hawser, by which Emerald was being towed, ought to have been shortened to give the steamship greater control.

[20][21] The yacht's mast was put under enormous strain when it became entangled with the hulk's cathead and, fearing it might snap, Falcon, on Hargood's advice, ordered the admiral's barge alongside so that the royal visitors might be evacuated.

[1][24] On 7 October 1834, Falcon married Louisa, the widow of a Captain Cursham, and daughter of the deceased Richard Meyrick of Runkton, Sussex.