John Duckworth briefly attended Eton College, but began his naval career in 1759 at the suggestion of Edward Boscawen, when he entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman on HMS Namur.

After some time in North America, where Duckworth was court-martialled for negligence after an accident at Rhode Island on 18 January 1777 left five men dead, the Diamond was sent to join Vice-Admiral John Byron's fleet in the West Indies.

[3] In June 1800 he sailed to take up his post as the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief at Barbados and the Leeward Islands Station, succeeding Lord Hugh Seymour.

[9][10] Duckworth was nominated a Knight Companion of the most Honourable Military Order of the Bath in 1801 (and installed in 1803),[3] for the capture of the islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix and defeat of the Swedish and Danish forces stationed there on 20 March 1801.

[11] From 1803 until 1804, Duckworth assumed command as the commander-in-chief of the Jamaica Station,[12] during which time he directed the operations which led to the surrender of General Rochambeau and the French army,[13] following the successful Blockade of Saint-Domingue.

[6] On his return to England again, he was called to face court-martial charges brought by Captain James Athol Wood of HMS Acasta, who claimed that Duckworth had transgressed the 18th Article of War; "Taking goods onboard other than for the use of the vessel, except gold & etc."

[15][16] In 1805 the Admiralty decided that Duckworth should raise his flag aboard HMS Royal George and sail to join Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson off Cadiz as third in command.

However, the Plymouth Dockyards could not make Royal George ready to sail in time, and Duckworth was directed to raise his flag in HMS Superb, with Captain Richard Keats as his flag-captain.

Although known for a cautious character, he abandoned the blockade and sailed in search of a French squadron under Admiral Zacharie Allemand, which had been reported by a frigate off Madeira on 30 November, on his own initiative.

Duckworth gave chase and came within seven miles of the enemy, but at that point his ships being well separated, to the dismay and disappointment of the men, he decided not to risk engaging and abandoned the pursuit.

[19] Duckworth then set sail for the Leeward Islands to take on water, dispatching the 74-gun HMS Powerful to reinforce the East Indies squadron.

Keats silently suspended a portrait of Nelson from the mizzen stay before addressing the men in a manner intended to encourage enthusiasm for the cause in the coming battle.

With the band playing ‘God save the King’ and ‘Nelson of the Nile’ the Superb having made up all ground on the fleeing enemy fired her starboard broadside as she was laid up against the Imperiale, the largest ship in the French navy.

[31] Duckworth also displayed the willingness of accept changing tactics employed by Nelson, and maintained the superiority of British naval gunnery in battle.

It was, however, widely thought that but for this graphic demonstration of British sea-power and significant victory he may well have faced a court martial for having abandoned his post off Cadiz without orders to do so.

[32] Duckworth was appointed second in command of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1805[33] primarily on consideration by the Admiralty of having a senior officer in the forthcoming operations with the Imperial Russian Navy.

Accompanying him were some of the ablest Royal Navy officers such as Sidney Smith, Richard Dacres and Henry Blackwood but he was in doubt of having the capability to breach the shore batteries and reach the anchored Ottoman fleet.

Aware of Turkish efforts to reinforce the shore artillery, he nevertheless took no action until 11 February 1807 and spent some time in the strait waiting for a favourable wind.

In the evening of the same day Blackwood's ship, HMS Ajax accidentally caught fire while at anchor off Tenedos, and was destroyed, although her captain and most of the crew were saved and redistributed among the fleet.

[34] Finally, on 19 February, at the action at Point Pisquies (Nagara Burun), a part of the British force encountered the Ottoman fleet which engaged first.

[37] On 20 February, the British squadron under Duckworth, having joined Smith with the second division of ships under command of Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis, reached the Ottoman capital, but had to engage in fruitless negotiations with the Sultan's representatives, advised by Napoleon's ambassador Sébastiani, and with the accompanying British ambassador Charles Arbuthnot and Russian plenipotentiary Andrey Italinski, the latter being carried aboard on HMS Endymion, under the command of Captain Thomas Bladen Capel,[38] due to the secret instructions that were issued as part of his orders for the mission,[39] and therefore losing more time as the Turks played for time to complete their shore batteries in the hope of trapping the British squadron.

[51] Although this was a minor command in a remote station spanning from Davis Strait to the Gulf of St Lawrence, he also received a promotion to admiral of the blue, flying his flag aboard the 50-gun HMS Antelope.

[citation needed] As the governor and station naval commander, Duckworth had to contend with American concerns over the issues of "Free Trade and Sailor's Rights."

At about this time he found out that his oldest son George Henry had been killed in action while serving in the rank of a Colonel[53] with the Duke of Wellington, during the Peninsular War.

[2] Sir John was created a baronet on 2 November 1813, adopting a motto Disciplina, fide, perseverantia (Discipline, fidelity, perseverance),[54] and in January 1815 was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth 45 miles from his home; a post considered one of semi-retirement by his successor, Lord Exmouth.

[3] He was buried on 9 September at the church in Topsham, where he was laid to rest in the family vault, with his coffin covered with crimson velvet studded with 2,500 silvered nails to resemble a ship's planking.

The memorial describes him as Admiral of the White Squadron of his Majesty's Fleet and depicts a naval scene which, by comparison with artworks on the same theme, represents his famous passage through the Dardanelles in 1807.

^ The sword was forged by Richard Teed (1756–1816) of Lancaster Court, London, and carried the inscription: Presented in 1804 by the Assembly of Jamaica to Vice Admiral Sir I.T.