[2][1] With the War of Jenkins' Ear ongoing, Pearl was appointed to join Commodore George Anson's squadron in a voyage around the world.
[2] The force sailed to the South Seas on 18 September, and while at Madeira on 3 November Michell was sent to replace Captain Richard Norris as the commanding officer of another of Anson's ships, the 50-gun fourth-rate HMS Gloucester.
The squadron subsequently rounded Cape Horn in terrible conditions that saw Gloucester receive great damage and high casualties amongst her crew.
With the crew sick with scurvy and lacking water supplies, Michell succeeded in getting his ship to the rendezvous with Anson at the Juan Fernández Islands in July 1741.
During the passage across the Pacific Gloucester was heavily damaged in a storm; the ship lost her mainmast and with 7 feet (2.1 m) of water in the hold was close to sinking.
Centurion was also in very poor condition and Michell, despite being a supernumerary, worked with the officers on board to supplement the seamen in keeping the ship afloat until she reached Macao.
When France invaded the Netherlands in 1747 the ships under Michell's command served off the Flanders and Zeeland coasts, playing an important role in ending the Second Stadtholderless Period in the Dutch Republic.
The Dutch politician Willem Bentinck van Rhoon wrote to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich in May saying that Michell's "diligence, activity, prudence, and spirit are quite remarkable, and will gain him universal admiration".
[2] At the 1747 British general election Prime Minister Henry Pelham had Michell stand with Chauncy Townsend as the Whig candidate for Westbury, the constituency in which Chitterne sat.