SANDS. 193 



58. JOSHUA RATOON SANDS. 



JOSHUA RATOON SANDS was born at Brooklyn, New York, May 13, 1795. 

 He entered the navy September 1812, and for a while was with Commodore Chaun- 

 cey on Lake Ontario. In 1846, as commander of the Vixen, he aided in the capture 

 of Alvarado, Tabasco, and Laguna, and was for some time a governor of Laguna. 

 During the bombardment of Vera Cruz he was conspicuous for his bravery, and 

 in 1847 was sent to Washington City with dispatches. In 1857 he was engaged 

 in laying the Atlantic cable, and in 1858 cooperated with Admiral Paulding in the 

 capture at Nicaragua of the filibuster Walker. From 1859 to 1861 he commanded 

 the Brazilian squadron and was retired from active service in 1861, being in his 

 sixty-seventh year. He died at Baltimore in 1883. 



His father, Joshua Sands (1772-1825), was a wealthy merchant of New York, 

 for a time collector of the port, and twice elected to Congress. Joshua was brother 

 of Comfort, born at Sands Point, Long Island, about 1740, a merchant and active 

 supporter of the patriot cause. He was a large ship-owner and the eighth presi- 

 dent of the Chamber of Commerce, New York. 



The mother of Joshua R. Sands was Ann Ascough, whose father Richard 

 was a surgeon in the British army. Probably a nomadic tendency came from 

 this side. A sister of Joshua R., Eliza, married Edward Trenchard (1784-1824), 

 who at the age of 16 decided to enter the United States navy and in 1812 super- 

 intended the building of the sloop-of-war Madison for Commodore Chauncey on 

 Lake Ontario. She was launched November 26. "Eight weeks before," says 

 Cooper, "her timber was growing in the forest." Trenchard took part in the 

 engagements against the Barbary pirates in 1815-1816. In 1819 he was in com- 

 mand of the Gyrene, cruising off Africa to suppress the slave-trade, and fell in 

 with 2 brigs and 5 schooners near the mouth of the river Gallinos. He captured 

 them all and, finding them slavers, shipped officers and crews to the United States. 

 On account of illness he was given shore duty in 1822-1823, and died in Brooklyn 

 in 1824. His son, Stephen D. Trenchard (born at Brooklyn, July 10, 1818), 

 became a midshipman in the navy, 1834. He was long assigned to the Coast 

 Survey, and so distinguished himself in the rescue of the British bark Adieu, 

 threatened with shipwreck off Gloucester, Massachusetts, that he received a sword 

 from Queen Victoria. At the outbreak of the Civil War he helped salvage govern- 

 ment property at the Norfolk navy-yard and was then given command of the 

 steamer Rhode Island. She was detailed to tow the Monitor from Hampton Roads 

 to Beaufort, North Carolina, and only by Trenchard's alertness was the whole crew 

 of the Monitor saved from drowning when she foundered off Cape Hatteras. Later 

 he captured prizes and Confederate blockade-runners. His only son is an artist 

 who "is most successful in his painting of waves and surf." 



A grandson of Comfort Sands is Ferdinand Sands, who married Susan Bard, 

 a daughter's daughter of Nicholas Cruger. Nicholas was a West India merchant 

 who carried on an extensive business at Santa Cruz and was twice captured by the 

 British. Ferdinand and Susan had a son, Louis Joseph Sands, who went as secre- 

 tary with Joshua R. Sands, his grandfather's first cousin, while laying the Atlantic 

 cable (1857), and later to Nicaragua. During the Civil War he was on the Seminole 

 under Admiral Dupont at the capture of Hilton Head, South Carolina. While 

 in temporary command of a small gunboat in the Roanoke river the boat struck 

 a torpedo and several of the crew were killed, while the survivors saved themselves 

 by swimming until picked up by boats. After the war he studied art and devoted 

 himself to painting. 



