[1] He was given command of Morris (1778), a British ship that had been captured on the Mississippi River, in 1779, but she was destroyed by a hurricane.
He then took over command of the prize, HMS West Florida, with instructions from Oliver Pollock, Congress's agent in New Orleans, to assist Gálvez in a planned expedition to capture the West Florida port of Mobile.
[3] Pickles was then given command of Mercury, and charged with transporting Henry Laurens to the Dutch Republic on a diplomatic mission.
[4] He died in Philadelphia on September 9, 1783, after being assaulted by a gang of Italian sailors.
[1] The prosecution of his murderers was complicated by a legal question: whether statutes previously enacted by the British Parliament were still in force in the now independent state of Pennsylvania.