Vice Admiral Charles Bayne Hodgson Ross CB (July 1776 – 2 March 1849) was a Royal Navy officer who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, who later commanded the ship that took Napoleon Bonaparte into his finale exile on St Helena, and who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station.
Charles Ross was the son of Lieutenant Robert Hunter Ross, RN, and a great-great grandson of William Ross, 12th Lord Ross. He entered the navy on 1 March 1788 as a captain's servant aboard the sloop Echo, commanded by Captain Robert Carthew Reynolds. He remained in her, stationed at Newfoundland, until December. From February to April 1790 he served aboard the 74-gun Edgar, the guard ship at Portsmouth, under Captain Anthony James Pye Molloy, then moved into the Salisbury (50), flagship of Vice-Admiral Mark Milbanke, Commodore-Governor at Newfoundland, before returning to the Edgar, under Captain Albemarle Bertie.
Following the end of the war Ross, now commanding Cockburn's flagship Northumberland, was responsible for conveying Napoleon Bonaparte into exile at St. Helena. His first impression of his passenger was described in a letter to a friend:
"He is fat, rather what we call pot-bellied, and altho' his leg is well-shaped, it is rather clumsy, and his walk appears rather affected, something between a waddle and a swagger – but probably not being used to the motion of a ship might have given him that appearance. He is very sallow and [has] quite light grey eyes, rather thin, greasy-looking brown hair, and altogether a very nasty, priestlike-looking fellow."
Northumberland sailed from Plymouth on 8 August, arriving at St Helena on 15 October 1815. During the voyage Ross's relations with the former emperor were limited since neither spoke each other's language, though Ross noted that on leaving the ship Bonaparte "returned me his thanks for my attention to him with rather a better grace than I should have given him credit for."
Ross was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 8 December 1815. From 1817 to 1820 he served in the Ordinary at Portsmouth; and from July 1822 to January 1837, served as Commissioner of the Navy at Jamaica, Malta, and Plymouth. He was promoted to rear-admiral on 10 January 1837, and from 4 September 1839 until 1841 was commander-in-chief on the Pacific Station, flying his flag in the President (50). He was promoted to vice-admiral on 24 April 1847, but died two years later on 2 March 1849.