Profile of John Byron on Famous Like Me

John Byron (November 8, 1723 – April 10, 1786) was a British vice-admiral. He was known as Foul-weather Jack because of his frequent bad luck with the weather.

Byron was the second son of the 4th Baron Byron. He joined the navy at a young age, accompanying Baron Anson on his circumnavigation as a midshipman. Byron's ship, HMS Wager, was shipwrecked on the coast of Patagonia, and the survivors had to make their way by boat to Rio de Janeiro. This episode was the basis of the novel The Unknown Shore by Patrick O'Brian which closely follows Byron's own account.

In 1760 he was in command of a squadron sent to destroy the fortifications at Louisbourg. In 1761, Commander Byron took possession of the Falkland Islands on the part of Britain on the ground of prior discovery, and his doing so was nearly the cause of a war between Great Britain and Spain, both countries having armed fleets to contest the barren sovereignty.

Between June 1764 and May 1766 Byron completed his own circumnavigation as captain of HMS Dolphin. On this voyage, Byron discovered islands of the Tuamotus, Tokelau and the Gilbert Islands, and visited Tinian in the Northern Marianas Islands.

In 1769 he was appointed governor of Newfoundland. He was made Commander-in-chief of the British fleet in the West Indies in 1778 and 1779 during the American War of Independence. He unsuccessfully attacked a French fleet under the Comte d'Estaing at the Battle of Grenada in July 1779.

He was the father of John "Mad Jack" Byron, who in turn fathered the poet Lord Byron.

External link

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

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