Continuing in active service during the years of peace, Spear rose to lieutenant and served on a number of ships during the French Revolutionary Wars.

He fought a particularly fierce action with a superior French force, for which he received plaudits from his commanding officer, and supported the Invasion of Martinique.

[1][2] The Marlborough was commanded at this time by Captain Taylor Penny, also from Weymouth, and a previous acquaintance was probably responsible for Spear obtaining a position on the ship.

[2][3] Spear then served in the Western Approaches for the rest of 1780, where Marlborough was again in action at the end of the year, capturing the Dutch 64-gun Prinses Carolina on 30 December 1780.

[4] Following the British victory at the Saintes, Marlborough sailed to North America with Admiral Hugh Pigot in July, and spent between September and October at New York.

Spear was serving aboard the latter vessel when she was used to carry Caroline of Brunswick from Cuxhaven to Greenwich in March 1795 for her marriage to the Prince of Wales.

[4][5] He remained in command of Lily until 1802, when he transferred to HMS Chichester, a former 44-gun frigate, now armed en flûte, and sailed her back to Britain in February 1803.

[4][5] Britain had been temporarily at peace with France after the signing of the Treaty of Amiens, but with the outbreak of war in March 1803, Spear was ordered back to the West Indies, transporting the second battalion of the Royal Scots from Portsmouth to Barbados in June 1803.

Hood thanked Spear for his timely action, and the brig, Vrow Elizabeth, and her cargo of coffee and cotton, were sold for £20,000 in prize money.

Spear took part in the pursuit of a French squadron in June 1806 which had recently arrived in the Caribbean under Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez, and was again moved from his ship, this time to become acting captain of the 74-gun HMS Agamemnon.

[5][8] Returning to command Dart during the second half of 1806, Spear captured the 8-gun schooner privateer Jeune Gabriella on 9 November 1806, and also recaptured a brig bound from Halifax to Trinidad with a cargo of fish.

[8] Spear was transferred to take command of the sloop HMS Nimrod in 1807, and continued to operate with success against privateers, capturing the 5-gun Nouvelle Entreprise on 27 December 1807.

The two brigs, mounting 16 guns each and so constituting the superior force, hauled up and fired on Goree, badly damaging her sails and rigging, and disabling her.

Cochrane wrote a personal letter to Spear saying "I am sorry that the spirit and gallantry displayed by yourself, officers, and crew, did not meet with the success which you all so evidently deserved".

[14] Spear was then to have transferred from Goree to the sloop HMS Fawn, pursuant to orders brought out by Commander George Alfred Crofton.

[14] Cochrane approved the gesture, writing out two commissions for Spear and Crofton, leaving the names of the ships blank to allow them to come to a mutual agreement.

[17][18] Though possessing a powerful fleet, the French commander avoided any contact with the blockading force and stayed in port, or else made very short voyages, returning to the harbour when the British appeared.

[22] Spear was one of those badly affected, and the commander in chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Sir Edward Pellew, ordered him back to Britain with his ship.