[6] By the time Hawke had replaced the unfortunate Admiral John Byng at Minorca in 1756 Rowley had been moved to the 50-gun HMS Hampshire.

Osborn was at the time blockading the French under Admiral La Clue in the Spanish city of Cartagena preventing them from joining the fleet off Louisburg in Nova Scotia.

Had La Clue managed to break out from Osborn's close blockade the modern map of North America might appear quite different.

[10] Rowley joined Admiral Anson's fleet in the channel in 1758 and took part in the fateful expeditions along the coast of France.

In addition to these forces the French army amounting to 8,000 or 9,000 men, under the field command of Marquis d'Aubigné, were fast marching on Saint Cast from Brest.

A great deal of confusion followed and as panic set in among the British, the French forces moved down a covered way to the beach and deployed three brigades into line with a fourth in reserve.

The five frigates and the bomb ketches tried to cover the British retreat and their fire disordered and drove back the French line for a while.

[14] With the huge loss of life and military equipment, the battle ended British hopes of an invasion of Brittany during the Seven Years' War.

[13] By late October 1759 Rowley had been exchanged by the French for their own prisoners who were held by the British (a common practise of the time) and was once more in command of the Montagu.

[15] The French had designs to invade Scotland and had been ordered to break through the blockading British ships and collect transports for the invasion.

[16] The risks of taking such a large fleet into the dangerous shoals of the bay with the Atlantic gales beating down upon them separated Hawke from many of his contemporaries and showed not only his daring genius but the confidence that he inspired in his subordinates.

[16] In 1760 he went out with Commodore Sir James Douglas to the West Indies, where he took part in the expedition against Dominica that landed General Rollo and forced the island into capitulation on 7 June after one day of fighting.

After several years on the beach, in October 1776 Rowley was appointed to the 74-gun HMS Monarch, in which at the beginning of 1778 he convoyed some transports to Gibraltar.

[19] On his return to England he was attached to the fleet under Admiral Keppel whom he had last seen leading the van at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in HMS Torbay.

[22] At the end of 1778 Rowley moved into the 74-gun HMS Suffolk and was sent to the West Indies with a commodore's Broad pennant in command of a squadron of seven ships, as a reinforcement to Admiral John Byron, whom he joined at Saint Lucia in February 1779.

[26] The three battles were inconclusive and when the hurricane season arrived de Guichen returned to Europe and Rodney sent Rowley to Jamaica with ten ships of the line to reinforce Sir Peter Parker, as there was an imminent threat to the colony from the Spanish.

In 1782 Rowley succeeded to the command of the Jamaica Station a post which he held until the end of the American War of Independence.

[27] Rowley had proved throughout his career that he was both brave and a very capable officer and yet the successes of other commanders of the Jamaica station had set an extraordinary precedent that he could not match in his brief time there.