in the army) the whole of whom met together on the arrival of the victorious fleet at Jamaica.
At the peace of 1783, he joined the Trepassey of 12 guns, commanded by his brother, the late Captain Francis Cole, a brave and excellent officer, and accompanied him from the West Indies to Halifax, where he removed into the Atalante sloop, Captain Thomas Foley, with whom he continued on that station till 1785. In the following year we find him proceeding to Newfoundland in the Winchelsea of 32 guns, in which frigate he served under the command of the present Viscount Exmouth until 1789, when, in consequence of a recommendation from Sir Francis Drake, he was received on board the Crown, a 64-gun ship, bearing the broad pendant of the Hon. Commodore Cornwallis, who had recently been appointed to the chief command in India.
Unfortunately for Mr. Cole, the account of his patron’s death reached India a few months after his arrival there, and all hopes of speedy promotion were consequently abandoned by him; nor did he obtain the rank he had so long sought after until 1793, at which period he had served upwards of thirteen years under some of the best practical seamen in the navy[1]. In October, 1794, he was appointed first Lieutenant of the Cerberus, a new 32-gun frigate, at the particular request of Captain John Drew, on whose application two Midshipmen were promoted into her for the purpose of securing that situation to Mr. Cole, whose character and abilities he held in the highest estimation.
In 1795, Lieutenant Cole joined the Sans Pareil of 80 guns, bearing the flag of Lord Hugh Seymour, to whom he was recommended in the warmest manner by his late Captain. After serving for four years under the eye of that distinguished nobleman, it was left to his option, as senior Lieutenant of the Sans Pareil, either to accept the rank of Commander, and go on half pay, or proceed as his Lordship’s Flag-Lieutenant to the West Indies, where promotion might be expected, accompanied by immediate employment. Mr. Cole very naturally chose the latter, and accompanied his noble
- ↑ Mr. Cole followed Commodore Cornwallis from the Crown, into the Minerva frigate, and continued with that officer nearly five years.
