By early 1809 he was first lieutenant aboard HMS Nereide, then on the Cape of Good Hope Station under Captain Robert Corbett.

In August Corbett began an attack on Sainte-Rose on the eastern side of Réunion, using grapeshot to fire on two batteries overlooking the harbour.

[5] The sloop HMS Sapphire, under the command of Acting-Captain Bertie Cornelius Cator, came alongside and fired a broadside, silencing the enemy guns.

He then laid a train of powder to blow up over 100 barrels of gunpowder contained in a bomb-proof magazine, but it exploded sooner than expected.

On 19 April 1811 he was ordered by Rear-Admiral Herbert Sawyer to deliver instructions to Captain Samuel Pechell of HMS Guerriere, then somewhere off the North American coast.

He was warned You are to be particularly careful, not to give any just cause of offence to the government or the subjects of the United States of America...[5] Bingham duly sailed from Bermuda, but being unable to locate the Guerriere, commenced cruising off the coast.

On the morning of 10 May, as Little Belt was some 48 miles east of Cape Charles at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, a strange sail was sighted in the distance.

Bingham denied this, and turned down Rodgers' offer of putting into an American port for repairs, instead making for Halifax, hampered by a gale on the second day of the voyage which caused leaks in the already-damaged ship.

Bingham wrote in his report "a boat accordingly came, with an officer, and a message from Commodore Rodgers, of the President, United States frigate, to say, that he lamented much the unfortunate affair (as he termed it) that had happened, and that had he known our force was so inferior, he should not have fired at me.

[5] The Admiralty refused to try Bingham by court-martial, and the matter was never successfully concluded, both governments supporting their respective captains' version of events.

[5] In 1812 the Duke of Clarence (the future King William IV) arranged for Bingham to be esquire to the proxy at the installation of Richard Goodwin Keats to the Order of the Bath.