Richard entered the navy in 1781 on board the Britannia, the flagship of Vice-admiral Samuel Barrington, and was present at the relief of Gibraltar and the rencounter with the allied fleet off Cape Spartel in October 1782.

It did not come again till 29 April 1802, when, after seven years' continuous service, mostly in the North Sea, he was promoted to be commander, and three weeks later was appointed to the Arrow, one of a class of sloops built and armed on a plan proposed by [Sir] Samuel Bentham.

She carried, in fact, twenty-eight 32-pounder carronades, an armament heavier, so far as the mere weight of shot was concerned, than that of any frigate then afloat, but, of course, effective at only a very short range.

By the end of 1804 she was in need of a thorough repair; many of her timbers were rotten, and a survey at Malta decided that she was too weak to heave down; she must go home to be docked.

They sailed from Malta towards the end of January, and on 3 February were seen and chased between Algiers and Cape Tenez by two French frigates of thirty-eight and forty guns, the Incorruptible and Hortense, the only two ships of Villeneuve's squadron which had continued at sea when the squadron itself was driven back by bad weather on 21 January.

Between these and the convoy Vincent interposed the Arrow and the Acheron, hoping that he might at least be able to give the merchant ships time to escape.

From her he moved into the Hind; but in September 1808, being at Malta, he complied with the request of Sir Alexander John Ball to assist him in the duties of the port as captain of the Trident.