He was made a lieutenant in 1790, serving on the 98-gun HMS Boyne at the attack on Pointe-à-Pitre on Guadeloupe, the Caribbean in 1794.

Savage was part of Sir Home Popham's squadron at Ostend, in May 1798.

Thompson was made post-captain on 11 August 1800, commanding in turn the 74-gun HMS Minotaur and then the 38-gun frigate HMS Perlen, in which ship he assisted at the reduction of Flushing in 1809 during the Walcheren Campaign.

[1] He is also recorded as captain of HMS Foudroyant in 1807, part of the blockade off the coast of Portugal just before the Peninsular War.

Aboukir remained on station in the Mediterranean, taking part in the capture of Genoa in April 1814 before returning to Chatham after Napoleon's defeat later that year and being decommissioned by 1816.