When the Fox arrived at Bombay, the Hon. Captain Cochrane, whom Sir Edward Pellew had appointed to command her, was there, and consequently superseded the subject of this memoir, who again returned to the Arrogant. In Sept. following, Captain Dobbie had the satisfaction to learn that the Admiralty had confirmed him in the command of the Fox, by a post commission, dated May 6, 1806; but soon after he heard, with much concern, that the commander-in-chief had taken great offence at his sending his acting order to be presented at the Board. When he received that order some ships were about to sail for England, which opportunity he must have lost (and another might not have occurred for months) had he waited to ask permission; and it never once entered his mind that the Admiral would object to it: besides which, it unfortunately happened that in the order itself, the orders that accompanied it, and also in a note from Sir Edward Pellew under the same cover, there was no mention whatever of his having appointed, or even of his intention to appoint, any other officer to command the Fox, all which tended to confirm Captain Dobbie in the erroneous idea that Sir Edward intended to give him the vacancy. He valued the Admiral’s good opinion very highly, and felt a corresponding degree of concern at falling under his displeasure; but every effort that he made to dissipate it was unfortunately without success.
By some extraordinary accident, the Admiralty commission for the Fox did not reach Captain Dobbie during his continuance under Sir Edward Pellew’s command. Captain the Hon. A. Maitland being appointed by their Lordships to command the Arrogant, he resigned her to that officer in the spring of 1807, took his final departure from India in Aug. following, and landed at Portsmouth on the 1st Jan. 1808, after an absence of eighteen years from his native country.
In the summer of 1809, Captain Double was appointed pro
Dobbie with 100 guineas for the purchase of a piece of plate, as an acknowledgment of their sense of his services in the above expedition. He also received 250l. from the Patriotic Fund, in consequence of his being so badly wounded at Baite in Mar. 1803.
