Vice-Admiral Joseph Needham Tayler CB (15 August 1783 – 19 March 1864) was an officer of the British Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, mainly as a junior officer, before finally achieving command of his own ship in 1810, serving off the coast of northern Spain. His active career was cut short by serious injury in 1813, and he then concentrated on his inventions and innovations in naval technology. He commanded a naval gunnery school in the late 1830s, before being retired in 1846.