Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/356

772  officer is descended from a very respectable family in North Britain; was born in Edinburgh March 20, 1763, and commenced his naval career in June 1779, on board the Princess of Wales, a hired armed ship. He afterwards served for a short time in the Santa Margaritta frigate, and in June 1780, joined the Victory, of 100 guns, bearing the flag of Admiral Geary, Commander-in-Chief of the Channel fleet. On the 3d of the following month he was present at the capture of twelve sail of French merchantmen, from Port-au-Prince, St. Domingo, whose cargoes were valued at 91,000l. sterling.

In Feb. 1781, Mr. Smith was removed into the Fortitude, 74, commanded by the late Sir Richard Bickerton, and forming part of the armament sent under Vice-Admiral Darby to the relief of Gibraltar, in the spring of that year. On her return to Spithead, the Fortitude received the flag of Sir Hyde Parker, who had recently been appointed to the command of a squadron destined to escort seven hundred sail of merchant vessels from Leith to the Baltic. Returning from that service, Sir Hyde fell in with the Dutch Admiral Zoutman off the Dogger Bank, and a bloody battle ensued, during which the Fortitude had 20 men killed and 67 wounded. During the remainder of the war she was employed in a variety of services, and among others assisted at the capture of a French convoy by the fleet under Vice-Admiral Barrington ; at the relief of Gibraltar by Lord Howe ; and was engaged in the partial action with the combined fleets of France and Spain, off Cape Spartel, Oct. 20, 1782, on which occasion she had 2 men killed and 9 wounded.

The Fortitude was paid off at Plymouth in April 1783, and Mr. Smith soon after joined the Ratler sloop, in which he went to the coast of Guinea, and from thence to the West