Lancelot Skynner

He was named after his paternal uncle Captain Lancelot Skynner who had been killed on HMS Bideford on 4 April 1760, fighting a superior force of French frigates.

[1] In 1779 Skynner joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman on the newly launched HMS Brilliant, serving in the English Channel under Captain John Ford.

[2] On return to England he transferred still under Ford to HMS Nymphe, a 36-gun frigate newly captured from the French and held at Portsmouth.

[5] Still on Beaulieu, in August with HMS Mermaid they jointly made a successful attack on the French man-o-war La Vengeance off Basseterre.

Its fateful voyage related to the conveyance of £1.2 million of gold bullion from England to Germany to support a bank crash there.