During his career, Bartholomew was twice seized by press gangs and forced to serve as a sailor in the Navy, the second occasion at the orders of Lord St Vincent following an argument.

Bartholomew was present at the surrender of the Dutch fleet in 1799, on HMS Romney in the East Indies and in 1802 was in charge of the ship's chronometers during a voyage to the Red Sea.

A storm of public protest was directed at St Vincent, who had overstepped his authority and the custom of the day by ordering the impressment of a serving warrant officer after a personal disagreement.

[1] In 1805, probably due to his notoriety in the aftermath of the impressment scandal, Bartholomew was formally promoted to lieutenant and served aboard HMS Diadem during the capture of the Cape of Good Hope in 1806.

At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Bartholomew's abilities as a surveyor and cartographer were required and he was given command of the small frigate HMS Leven off the West coast of Africa, charged with preparing detailed and accurate charts of the region.

[1] Bartholomew had successfully surveyed the Azores, stretches of West Africa and was working on the Cape Verde Islands when he fell ill with tuberculosis in 1821 and died at Porto Praya on Santiago.

He has been described as "One of the unsung heroes of the surveying service" and is also considered exceptional for his rise from an impressed sailor to post captain at a time when this was almost impossible to achieve.