He took the opportunity to carry out a resupply mission to the colonies in Australia during the interwar years, a task he completed successfully, even though it involved a circumnavigation of the globe.

Reuniting with his old patron Jervis, Bowen returned to the Caribbean and after distinguishing himself in actions against the French colonies there, finally received his own commands.

[3] After two years with his father Richard joined his elder brother James' merchant ship and made trading voyages between England and Jamaica.

[3] He applied to join the navy as a volunteer and a position was found for him by his friend, Captain Benjamin Caldwell, then the commander of the frigate HMS Emerald.

[4] Caldwell went on to equip the 14-gun ship-sloop HMS Lightning for service while awaiting the launch of Hannibal, and Bowen received an appointment to her and the position of midshipman on 12 August 1779.

The wind made prevented the British from approaching, causing Darby to order boats to tow HMS Perseverance into range.

Jervis pressed on, bringing the sternmost French ship, the 74-gun Pégase to action early in the morning of 21 April and forcing her to surrender.

[6] The damaged Foudroyant underwent a repair and refit, during which time Jervis arranged for the transfer of some his crew including Bowen to MacBride's Artois.

[6] Richard's service aboard Artois came to an end when Jervis, by now appointed commodore and commander-in-chief of a secret expedition, sent for his men to rejoin Foudroyant.

[1] With the prospect of war with the Dutch looming in 1787 he received an appointment to HMS Royal Sovereign, which was being prepared as the flagship of Admiral Hugh Pigot.

[7] He went out to the West Indies on the advice of his brother James, and his patron Jervis, and with their recommendations he was able to secure the attention of the commander of the station Commodore Sir Peter Parker.

Temporarily shelving hopes for promotion, he took command of the government brig Lord Howe at the request of Sir John Orde, the Governor of Dominica.

[7] During this time Bowen made studies of mathematics, astronomy and surveying, before returning to serve under his old patron, now Rear-Admiral Sir John Jervis, in 1790 during the Spanish Armament.

There the Lieutenant-Governor, Philip Gidley King, decided that the rice supply was insufficient for the needs of the colony and despatched Bowen to Bengal to acquire more.

[10] Bowen developed a plan of attack and on 17 February led an assault force consisting of Boyne's barge and a number of small boats.

[15] He was sent out in the Terpsichore to North America, where he learnt that HMS Daedalus, under Captain Sir Charles Knowles, was being blockaded in the Chesapeake by two French frigates.

[16] He received notes of praise from Rear-Admiral Charles Thompson and Vice-Admiral Benjamin Caldwell of the navy, and General Sir John Vaughan and Lieutenant-General Robert Prescott from the army.

[18] Bowen soon recovered, and spent some time in the North Sea, until December 1795, when his old patron, Jervis, replaced Admiral William Hotham as commander of the Mediterranean Fleet.

[18] Jervis requested Bowen to come out and take command of a squadron of small vessels operating around Gibraltar in defence of British trade and the garrison there.

After closing on her, and determining that she was attempting to manoeuvre into a position to better fight the Terpsichore, Bowen ordered a gun be fired to test her intent.

Now bereft of his prize, Bowen returned to port empty handed, writing to Jervis that 'As we feel conscious of having done out duty, to the utmost of our power, we endeavour to console ourselves with the expectation of our conduct being approved.

I lament exceedingly that you and your brave crew were deprived of the substantial reward of your exertions; but you cannot fail to receive the tribute due to you from the government and country at large.

He immediately set out to join the fleet, and having fallen in with several other British frigates, including HMS Emerald, came across the Spanish first rate Santísima Trinidad.

He opened fire on the massive Spanish vessel, at the time the world's largest warship, carrying 136-guns on four decks, over a hundred more guns than the Terpsichore.

[26] Terpsichore was in harbour, tied alongside the Mole in late May, and taking advantage of her apparent unreadiness to put to sea, two Spanish frigates carrying troops and money, attempted to leave Algeciras on 29 May.

[26] Pallas returned to port, but Terpsichore lingered, and that night captured a small prize from under the guns of the Spanish shore batteries.

Bowen took part in the first bombardment of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 5 July, and worked with Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson to prepare plans for an assault on the town.

At the head of forty or fifty of his men he gained the mole, took the battery covering the harbour by storm and spiked its guns, and was advancing into the town in pursuit of the fleeing Spanish.

[29] The Naval Chronicle summarised his life and achievements; ...that spirited and indefatigable officer, who, in time of peace, had relieved and rescued from ruin an infant colony; who had taken from the enemy three frigates, of very superior force, after obstinate engagements, and one of them with boats only, in the face of a powerful land force; who had preserved, to render further services to his Majesty, the brave garrison of Fort Matilda, at Guadeloupe; who had, in his little frigate, engaged the largest first rate in the Spanish navy; who had annoyed the enemy's trade almost beyond example; who, for the protection which he had afforded to the commerce of Britain, had received the most honourable acknowledgements from the merchants of London; who had been dangerously wounded in the execution of his duty; and who had finally laid down his inestimable life, for the glory of his King and Country.

I was very much agitated by the danger you apprehended your brother was in, when you wrote: I have, however, derived great consolation from the report of Captain Mansfield, that he was much recovered and was able to walk down to the Mole, before he sailed.[22]B.