In 1781, this young officer was placed under the patronage of Sir Geo. B. Rodney, by whose side he served on the memorable 9th and 12th April, 1782[1]. After the recall of that celebrated chief, he continued in the Formidable with Admiral Hugh Pigot, under whom he completed his time as a midshipman. At the peace of 1783, Mr. Blamey joined the Culloden 74, fitting at Woolwich for the purpose of being stationed as a guard-ship in Hamoaze; but feeling dissatisfied with a life so inactive, and having a strong desire to make himself acquainted with the whole coast of North America, from Hudson’s Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, he subsequently proceeded, in pursuance of that design, accompanied by two young friends possessing a similar spirit of enterprise, in whose company he encountered difficulties almost insurmountable, and experienced the greatest privations, being often frozen up in his little bark without a single comfort to sustain life, some-times obliged to consume part of the vessel for want of fuel, and frequently compelled, after traversing the ice and reaching terra firma, to undergo all the varieties of misery and want. At the commencement of the French revolutionary war, Mr. Blamey joined Commodore Ford, at Jamaica, and was actively employed during the operations against the enemy in St. Domingo[2]. His promotion to the rank of Lieutenant took place about 1704, on which occasion he was appointed to the Success 32, Captain Hugh Pigot, with whom he had been intimate in his early days.
From that frigate Lieutenant Blamey removed to the Intrepid 64, commanded by the Hon. Charles Carpenter; and in her he assisted at the capture of la Perçante French national ship, mounting 26 guns, with a complement of 200 men, near old Cape François, Feb. 1796.
Lieutenant Blamey’s next appointment was to be first of the Jamaica, late la Perçante, from which ship he removed to the Leviathan 74, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Duckworth, with whom he returned to England in 1797, after
