Edward Legge (Royal Navy officer)

Edward Legge FRS (1710 – 19 September 1747) was an officer of the Royal Navy who achieved a distinction when he was returned as member of parliament for Portsmouth on 15 December 1747 – an honour which meant little to him as he had died 87 days before.

Legge was the fifth son of the Earl of Dartmouth. He entered the navy in 1726, on board, HMS Royal Oak, one of the fleet under Sir Charles Wager for the relief of Gibraltar. He afterwards served in HMS Poole, in HMS Kinsale with the Hon. George Clinton, in HMS Salisbury and HMS Namur, and passed his examination on 4 July 1732. He was promoted to be lieutenant of HMS Deptford on 5 March 1734, and to be captain on 26 July 1738. In 1739, he was appointed to HMS Pearl, one of the ships fitting for the voyage to the Pacific under Commodore George Anson. From her, he was moved into HMS Severn, another of Anson's squadron, which after many delays sailed from St. Helens in September 1740.

In the violent storm to the southward of Cape Horn, the Severn and the Pearl were separated from the commodore on 10 April 1741. The storm, blowing from the north-west, raged continuously for forty days, during which time they beat to the westward. When the weather permitted they stood to the north, supposing that they had passed into the Pacific. They were in fact still in the Atlantic, the leeway and current together having more than nullified the laborious windward sailing, and on 1 June found themselves off Cape Frio. The case is often referred to as an instance of the extreme uncertainty of the determination of longitude by dead reckoning only. On 30 June, they reached Rio Janeiro in an almost helpless state, having lost a very great many of their men by sickness. After recruiting his ship's company, Legge returned to England, where he arrived in April 1742.

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