Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/84

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508
VICE-ADMIRALS OF THE BLUE.

missioner Hope[1]. The vessel in which he commenced his professional career was the Weazle, of 14 guns; and he afterwards accompanied his relative, successively, into the Hind, Crescent, Iphigenia, and Leocadia; serving in the West Indies, on the coast of Guinea, in the North Sea, and at Newfoundland.

From the Leocadia, Mr. Hope was removed into the Portland of 50 guns, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Campbell, on the Newfoundland station; and in Oct. 1782, he obtained the rank of Lieutenant in the Daedalus frigate, to which he was re-commissioned after the peace of 1783.

The Daedalus was employed on the coast of Scotland until 1784, when she was paid off at Chatham. We next find our officer serving as Flag-Lieutenant to the late Admiral Milbanke, Commander-in-Chief at Plymouth, with whom he continued till the spring of 1786, when he joined the Pegasus frigate, at the particular request of her Commander, H.R.H. Prince William Henry, whom he accompanied to Newfoundland, Halifax, and the West Indies[2]. On the latter station Lieutenant Hope exchanged into the Boreas, of 28 guns, at that time commanded by the heroic Nelson; and he remained in that ship until Nov. 30, 1787, on which day she was put out of commission at Sheerness.

Our officer was subsequently nominated one of the Lieutenants of the Victory, a first rate, fitting for the flag of Earl Howe; but as the disturbances in the United Provinces of Holland were speedily suppressed, by the vigorous measures of Great Britain and of Prussia, he was soon afterwards paid off, and for a short time remained on half-pay. His next appointment was to the Adamant, of 50 guns, in which ship the late Sir Richard Hughes hoisted his flag as Commander-in-Chief on the North American station, and sailed for Halifax about the month of June, 1789.

Early in 1790, Lieutenant Hope obtained the command of the Rattle sloop; and in the month of June following, (Captain Knox, of the Adamant, being under the necessity of retiring from active service, through ill health) he was chosen

  1. Charles Hope, Esq. Commissioner of Chatham Dock-yard, died Sept. 10, 1808.
  2. See p. 7, et seq.