John Bastard (Royal Navy officer)

Bastard was born into a family with considerable political connections, and was a grandson of the distinguished Royal Navy officer Captain Philemon Pownoll (d.1780), the builder of Sharpham House.

[1][2] Through his mother John was the grandson of the distinguished naval officer Philemon Pownoll, whose estates at Sharpham, near at Ashprington, in Devon he eventually inherited.

[1][4] Shortly after Bastard took command Rattlesnake came across the French privateer-frigate Bellone under Captain Jacques François Perroud off Ceylon, and despite the Frenchman's heavier armament, chased her north-west.

[5] Bastard's next command was the brig-sloop HMS Albatross in January 1807, though she was sold in Bombay in April that year.

[1] The Bellone had been brought into the Navy as the sixth rate HMS Bellona, with Bastard becoming her first British commander.

[7][a] He was later given command of HMS St Fiorenzo, after her captain, George Nicholas Hardinge, had been killed during the chase and capture of the 40-gun French frigate Piémontaise.

[8] Bastard then served in North America, where he was temporarily in command of the 74-gun HMS Bellona on the Halifax station.

[11] Instead they found the USS Nautilus, under William M. Crane, which failed to outrun the British squadron and surrendered, becoming the first warship either side lost during the war.

[1] John Bastard died at Upper Grosvenor Street, London on 11 January 1835, at the age of 48.