numerary on board the Cambridge 80, flag-ship of the commander-in-chief at Plymouth; and subsequently served for nine months, as Admiralty midshipman of the Hunter sloop, under Captains George Jones and Samuel H. Inglefield, on the West India and Channel stations. In Mar. 1803, he joined the Conqueror 74, Captain (afterwards Sir Thomas) Louis, then fitting out with the greatest expedition in Hamoaze: and May 27th following, the Monarch 74, bearing the flag of Lord Keith, on the North Sea station. His promotion to the rank of lieutenant took place in May 1804, on which occasion he was appointed to the Sulphur bomb. Captain Donald M‘Leod, employed off Boulogne, where he witnessed an attempt to destroy the enemy’s flotilla, by means of “catamarans,” Oct. 2d following[1]. His subsequent appointments were, – on the 28th of the latter month, to the Cygnet sloop, then commanded by Captain M‘Leod, but afterwards by Captain Robert Bell Campbell, with whom he again went to the West Indies; – Aug. 6th, 1806, at the particular request of Captain Campbell, to be first lieutenant of the Alligator 26, in which ship he returned home from that station; – May 9th, 1807, to the Barfleur 98, Captain Sir Joseph S. Yorke, employed in Channel service; and, June 8th, 1807, to l’Espoir sloop. Captain Henry Hope, fitting out for the Mediterranean; to which quarter he proceeded with the following recommendation from Lord Keith to Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis:–
“Dear Louis, – Now that I am a gentleman at large, I must endeavour to push my followers among my old friends. Mr. Higgs, of l’Espoir, may deliver you this. He is a good young man, and was with me in the Queen Charlotte, Foudroyant, and Monarch. If you can shew him any civility, it will very much oblige your faithful and obedient humble servant,
Unluckily, the distinguished officer to whom Lieutenant Higgs was thus strongly recommended, had died previous to
