officer and his successor, Captain Jonathan Faulknor, until Feb. 28, 1786. During the Spanish armament we find him again serving with Captain Thompson, in the Elephant 74,. His commission as a Lieutenant bears date Nov. 15, 1790. On the 2d April, 1791, Lieutenant Richards was appointed to the Barfleur 98, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Faulknor; and after the breaking up of the fleet which had been equipped in consequence of the dispute with Russia, he appears to have successively joined the Falcon sloop, and Assurance 44; commanded by Captains James Bissett and V. C. Berkeley.
Under these officers, Lieutenant Richards was principally employed at the Leeward Islands, from whence he returned home first of the Asia 64, Captain John Brown, in the summer of 1794. During the previous operations against Martinique he served on shore, in the seamen’s battery, with 100 of her crew under his command. The hardships which he suffered, in common with the other officers of the naval detachment, have been noticed in our memoir of Sir Charles Ogle – vol. 1, part I, note at p. 711. His subsequent appointments were to the Fury sloop, employed on Channel service; and, May 15, 1795, to the Alfred 74, fitting for a foreign station.
The Alfred formed part of the fleet that sailed from St. Helen’s, under Rear-Admiral Christian, in Nov. 1795; and she was twice obliged to put back through stress of weather[1]; the latter time dismasted. After refitting at Plymouth we find her placed under the orders of Vice-Admiral Cornwallis, with whom she finally took her departure for the West Indies, Feb. 29, 1796.
Early in the following month, the Alfred captured la Favorite French national ship, of 22 guns; and retook two of the convoy, which had been dispersed by a heavy gale in the latitude of Cape Finisterre[2].
- ↑ See p. 296 et seq. of Suppl. Part I.
- ↑ Vice-Admiral Cornwallis returned to Spithead on the 14th Mar., in consequence of his flag-ship having sustained much damage by running foul of the Belisarius transport.
