Obtained his first commission in Mar. 1812; and was a lieutenant of the Warspite 74, Captain Lord James O’Brien, at the close of the French war in 1814. He subsequently served under Captains William King and John Toup Nicolas, in the Leonidas 38, and Egeria 28, the latter ship successively employed at Newfoundland, in escorting King George IV. to Scotland, in the suppression of smuggling on the North Sea station, and in supporting the civil ​authorities at Newcastle during the disturbances amongst the keelmen of the river Tyne, in Nov. and Dec. 1822^[1]. He was promoted to the command of the Sparrowhawk sloop, July 17th, 1824.