Captain Michael John Everitt RN: Killed in Victory
Captain Michael John Everitt (1753–1779) came from a Royal Navy family and began his own naval career young. Records place him at the Royal Naval Academy from 1765, followed by promotion to lieutenant in 1772 and commander in 1777. His father, Michael Everitt, had also served as a naval officer.
In early 1779 Everitt commanded HMS Port Royal in the Caribbean. His transfer to that ship had an unexpected consequence: it freed his previous command for the young Horatio Nelson, giving Nelson one of the first important steps in his own command career.
Everitt was then appointed to HMS Ruby, a powerful 64-gun ship of the line. On 2 June 1779, while cruising off Haiti with HMS Aeolus and HMS Jamaica, Ruby encountered the French frigate Prudente.
A long chase followed. Prudente fired backwards with her stern guns as the British closed the distance. One of those shots struck Ruby, killing Everitt and another sailor. Everitt was only about 26 years old.
His ship continued the action. By sunset, Ruby had forced Prudente to surrender, and the captured French frigate was subsequently taken into Royal Navy service. Everitt therefore died in the middle of an engagement that ended in British victory.
His story is remarkably short but dramatic: a naval officer from a Fareham family, connected indirectly with the beginning of Nelson’s rise, killed in action while commanding a ship of the line at just twenty-six years old.
