Early in 1693 he was appointed to the 70-gun ship Elizabeth, one of the grand fleet which, after accompanying Sir George Rooke past Ushant, returned to Torbay on 21 June, and remained there for a couple of months.
In the following October he was appointed to the 60-gun ship Dunkirk, and the command of an expedition sent to the West Indies, where it was to co-operate with the Spaniards against the French settlements in Hispaniola.
The squadron appointed for this service, consisting, besides the Dunkirk, of three 50-gun ships and some smaller vessels, together with transports carrying twelve hundred soldiers commanded by Colonel Luke Lillingston, sailed from Plymouth on 22 January 1695.
At Savana, however, it was found that, contrary to the hopes the governor had held out, the Spaniards were not ready, and it was the end of April before Cape Français could be attacked.
In the account of the expedition published by Burchett, who, as secretary of the admiralty, was in a better position for learning the truth than any other man could possibly be, the accusations of Lillingston are passed over with contempt.