Mate, on board the Chatham of 50 guns, and Lark, Aurora. Carysfort, Maidstone, and Boreas frigates. The two former ships were employed principally at the Leeward Islands. His removal from the Aurora, to make room for an Admiralty Midshipman, proved a fortunate circumstance for Mr.Monkton, as that vessel was soon after lost, on her passage to India, and all on board perished. In the Carysfort he saw much hard service, and had several narrow escapes: the first was in 1771, when, being on her return from Pensacola, and the Havannah, to Jamaica, the ship, owing to the perverseness and ignorance of the pilot, ran ashore in the night, upon the Martyr reefs, in the Gulph of Florida; where her situation was such as promised little chance of being able to save the ship, and at first, not much hope of preserving the lives of the crew. However, after nine days incessant labour, she was at length got out from amongst those dangerous rocks, through a very difficult and intricate channel, and carried to Charlestown in South Carolina, under jury masts, with the loss of her guns, and most of the provisions and stores.
In the ensuing year the Carysfort was ordered to England, and on her passage thither from Jamaica, was obliged to throw all her guns overboard in a heavy gale of wind. After refitting, she was again sent to the West Indies, where she encountered a violent hurricane, during which she lost her first Lieutenant, five seamen, and all her masts, besides being once more obliged to part with her guns.
The Carysfort was paid off at Chatham, in Sept. 1773; and Mr. Monkton soon after joined the Maidstone, in which frigate he continued about three years, and was present at the capture of more than two hundred sail of vessels, principally on the Jamaica station; from whence he returned to England, in the Boreas, about the autumn of 1777.
On the 19th Nov. following, Mr. Monkton was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, and appointed to the Three Sisters, an armed ship, hired from the merchants, and employed in giving protection to the trade on the coast of Scotland, and about the Orkney and Shetland Islands. After being thus employed for a period of two years, he was appointed second Lieutenant of the Vestal frigate, then fitting at Deptford; and subsequently sent to the Newfoundland station, where she captured and destroyed many of the
