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 promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, in la Fleché, a prize corvette, but soon after removed into the St. George of 90 guns, at the particular request of Sir Hyde Parker, whose flag was then flying on board that ship. On the 14th March, 1705, he assisted at the capture of the Ca Ira and Censeur, French two-deckers; and in July following, witnessed the destruction of l’Alcide 74, by the fleet under Vice-Admiral Hotham. At the commencement of 1796, he accompanied Sir Hyde Parker and the whole of the St. George’s officers, into the Britannia of 110 guns; and at the conclusion of the same year, we find him proceeding to Jamaica, as a passenger in the Comet fire-ship, for the purpose of re-joining his patron, who had recently been appointed to the chief command on that station, and gone thither in the Queen, a second rate.

Lieutenant Loring was advanced to the rank of Commander in the Rattler sloop of war, about June 1798, and shortly after ordered to superintend the evacuation of the Caymites Islands, near St. Domingo, in conjunction with Brigadier (now Lieutenant-General) Sir Brett Spencer, G.C.B. The manner in which this service was executed being reported as very creditable to Captain Loring, he was, in September following, gratified with an appointment to the Lark, a vessel superior to any other of her class on that station.

Captain Loring continued in the Lark, cruizing with considerable success against the enemy (capturing eight of their privateers, and twentyseven merchant vessels), till May, 1801; when in consequence of the expedition with which he had re-equipped her at Port Royal, after being dismasted in a hurricane, Lord Hugh Seymour, who had succeeded Sir Hyde Parker in the chief command, was pleased to remove him into the Abergavenny of 54 guns, and he was subsequently appointed to the Syren, an active frigate, from which he was paid off at Plymouth in October, 1802. His post commission bears date April 28th of the same year.

In 1803 and 1804, he commanded the Utrecht of 64 guns, bearing the flags successively of Rear-Admirals Robert 