The New International Encyclopædia/Arbuthnot, Marriot

ARBUTHNOT, Marriot (1711-94). A British admiral. He became a commander in 1746 and a captain in 1747; was commissioner of the navy at Halifax, N. S., from 1775 to 1778; became a rear-admiral in 1778, and in 1779 was appointed vice-admiral and placed in command of the North American Station. In conjunction with Sir Henry Clinton he captured Charleston, S. C., after a long siege, in 1780 (May 12), and in March, 1781, fought an indecisive engagement with a French fleet off Cape Henry. He surrendered his command to Rear-Admiral Graves in July, 1781, returned to England, and though he saw no more actual service, he became by seniority Admiral of the Blue in 1793. As a naval officer he was absurdly inefficient, being ignorant of even the rudiments of naval tactics, and as a man he seems to have been known to his contemporaries as a coarse and blustering bravo. Consult Ralfe, Naval Biography (London, 1820).