[3] On 18 May 1778 he commenced studies at the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth but was discharged on 28 October 1779, joining his father's flagship, HMS Sandwich, as a midshipman.
[4] On 14 October, at the age on fifteen, his father gave him the command of a recently captured Virginian privateer, Pocahontas, and on the same day posted him on HMS Fowey.
He was then appointed as the commander of HMS Anson, following the death of its captain at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April 1782, returning with the ship to England.
[6] On 30 April 1793, following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, he was given the command of HMS America, taking a convoy from Lisbon back to England in September 1794.
[4] On 12 February 1795 he was appointed to captain HMS Vengeance,[4] but prior to sailing he broke his leg in a carriage accident resulting in it being amputated in August, following which he was invalided out of active service.