Admiral Zachary (variously Zacharia or Zechariah) Mudge (22 January 1770 – 22 October 1852) was an officer in the British Royal Navy, best known for serving in the historic Vancouver Expedition.
His older half-brother was William Mudge, who developed the Ordnance Survey and was responsible for much of the early detailed mapping of Britain.
[3] On 24 May 1789, he was promoted to lieutenant aboard Centurion, flagship at Jamaica of Rear Admiral Philip Affleck, and 26 November transferred to the Carnatic, Captain Ford, at Plymouth.
In addition to his other duties, Mudge had been asked to look after the 16-year-old (and future Baron) Thomas Pitt, but was compelled to flog him when the latter used ship stores to purchase romantic favours in Tahiti.
He crossed the Pacific to China in the Portuguese-flagged trading vessel Fenis and St. Joseph, a 50-foot open boat carrying 14 men, and from there proceeded home in the Lord Macartney East Indiaman.
He captured the French privateer cutters Glaneur (5 February 1799)[9] and Trompeur (30 August 1800), in the English Channel,[10] but almost lost his ship in an encounter with an immense iceberg during a passage home from Halifax with despatches from the Commander-in-Chief the Duke of Kent.
In early 1801, he received the thanks of the British merchants and consuls at Lisbon and Oporto for safely convoying a fleet from Falmouth to Portugal, and also for vessels at Viana, laden with brandy, which he escorted back to England.
[3] On 23 September 1802, he was given command of the fifth rate Blanche, and at the end of 1803, was employed at the blockade of Saint-Domingue, where he captured or destroyed 24 enemy vessels in less than a month.
[3] In her he captured the merchant Danish brig Kiellestadt in November 1806,[18] and the Vigilante in October 1807,[19] and also the French warships Agile on 29 May 1809,[20] and Charles on 29 January 1810.