Born in 1773 at Douglas on the Isle of Man,[1] Young joined his father's ship, the frigate HMS Severn in 1781, and passed for lieutenant ten years later in the buildup to the French Revolutionary Wars.

[2] He was however unable to gain a position of this rank until 1795, when he was sent to the Caribbean on HMS Thorn, and was commended for the capture of the French corvette Courier-National and for an armed landing on the island of St Vincent in which he was embroiled in the thick of the fighting but was unhurt.

[1] Young claimed for the rest of life that when the combined fleet emerged on 21 October, Nelson ordered him to remain close to HMS Victory, so that despatches home could be instantly sent off.

This was a mixed blessing, as Young's lack of influence again resulted in his being overlooked and passed over for seagoing commissions, a problem not aided by recurring bouts of ill health following the severe sickness he incurred in 1807.

[4][5] In 1839, Young received a pension from the Greenwich Hospital but the remainder of his life was spent in bitter contemplation of what might have been had he performed the famous Trafalgar Way journey, and he died an impoverished and broken man in 1846.