SIR JAMES HAWKINS WHITSHED,
Admiral of the Red; Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth; Knight Commander of the most Honourable Military Order of the Bath.
This officer is the son of a clergyman, and a native of Ireland. His father held a living, on which he resided, in the county of Louth.
The first ship in which Mr. Whitshed actually went to sea, was the Aldborough, commanded by Captain Bennett, whom he accompanied to Newfoundland. He afterwards served under Lieutenant, now Admiral, Sampson Edwards, in the Canada schooner; and after the loss of that vessel, returned to England with Admiral Duff, in the Romney.
His next ship was the Diamond frigate, Captain C. Fielding, who, in May 1776, was ordered to America, as commanding officer of the convoy Bent thither, with a large detachment of British and foreign troops. In 1778, Mr. Whitshed acted for some time as Lieutenant in the Rainbow, Captain Sir George Collier; and being confirmed in that rank by Lord Howe, he came to England in the Iris, and on his arrival, was appointed to the Amazon frigate, in which he remained until the nomination of Sir George B. Rodney to the command in the West Indies, at the close of the year 1779. He was at that period removed to the Sandwich, of 90 guns, bearing that officer’s flag, and consequently participated in the capture of the Caraccas fleet, and the defeat of a Spanish squadron under Don Juan de Langara[1].
After his arrival at Gibraltar, Lieutenant Whitshed was promoted to the command of a newly purchased vessel, in which he followed Sir George Rodney to the West Indies; where, on the 18th April following, he was made Post in the Deal Castle. That ship was left, with the Cameleon sloop-of-war, at Gros Islet Bay, St. Lucia, whilst the Commander-in-Chief took the fleet to America, during the hurricane months. Early in October, these vessels were both driven
