Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v2p2.djvu/462

 

Lieutenant Thomas continued in the Excellent until Oct. 1798, at which period he was appointed to the Thalia frigate, from whence he removed into the Defence 74, commanded by his former Captain, Lord Henry Paulet, with whom he served till the year 1800, when he rejoined the worthy Collingwood, whose flag, as a Rear-Admiral of the White, was then flying on board the Triumph, another third-rate, stationed off Brest. He subsequently followed the same officer into the Barfleur of 98 guns, and remained with him, on Channel service, till the suspension of hostilities in 1802. His last appointment as a Lieutenant was to the Cambrian frigate, from which ship he appears to have been promoted to the rank of Commander, in the Chichester 44, at Halifax, Jan. 18, 1803.

Returning from Nova Scotia, as a passenger on board the Lady Hobart packet, commanded by William Dorset Fellowes, Esq. (now Secretary to the Lord Great Chamberlain of England), Captain Thomas experienced shipwreck on an island of ice; but after being exposed to the most imminent peril in an open boat for seven days, with scarcely any thing to subsist on, succeeded in reaching Island Cove, to the northward of St. John’s, Newfoundland, from whence he returned to Bristol in a merchant vessel, Aug. 3, 1803. The