John William Spranger

Who was John William Spranger?

Rear-Admiral John William Spranger was a Royal Navy officer active during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.

He was appointed Lieutenant on 23 August 1790, and Commander on 7 June 1794. In 1795, he commanded the sloop HMS Rattlesnake in the expedition to capture Cape Town. He commanded a battalion of sailors from the fleet at the Battle of Muizenberg, and was mentioned in both the Army and Navy despatches from this engagement.

He was later recorded as a captain with seniority from 1795, suggesting his appointment to post was made after this engagement; it is certainly known that the promotion of Temple Hardy, the commander of the other sloop at the Cape, was made the day before the despatches were published.

On 2 December 1796, in command of the frigate HMS Crescent, he led a squadron which destroyed a French settlement in Madagascar and captured five merchant vessels. In 1799 he briefly commanded the HMS Stately before she became a troopship, and in 1801 took command of the newly commissioned frigate HMS Aeolus, serving in the Baltic sea and then to the West Indies.