of Long Island, the capture of New York, and the various expeditions up the North and East rivers[1].
In 1777, three years after he had passed for that rank, Mr. Paterson was promoted by Lord Howe to be a Lieutenant in the Strombolo fire-ship, which vessel formed part of several expeditions undertaken by his Lordship during his stay in America[2]. On his return to New York, after assisting in the attack upon, and capture of Philadelphia, our officer was removed into the Brune, commanded at that time by Captain Fergusson, the late Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital, and subsequently by the present Admiral W. Peere Williams Freeman, with the latter of whom he returned to England at the close of 1778. His next appointment was to the Ardent, as first Lieutenant; and from that ship he went, early in 1780, into the Alcide, in which we find him present at the capture of St. Eustatia, Feb. 3, 1781[3]. From this period he served under the flag of Sir George B. Rodney in the Sandwich, Gibraltar, and Formidable, until advanced by that gallant veteran to the command of the Blast fire-vessel, an event that occurred in 1782, the same year in which the fleet of Great Britain obtained a most complete victory over that of France, commanded by the Count de Grasse, who was himself captured with the Ville de Paris, and four other ships of the line, besides one sunk in the action[4].
The Blast remained in the West Indies until the peace of 1783, when she returned to England, and was put out of commission. At the commencement of the war with the French republic, Captain Paterson obtained the command of the Gorgon store-ship, in which he proceeded with the late Viscount Hood to the Mediterranean, where he was promoted by his Lordship to post rank in the Ariadne, of 20 guns, by commission dated Jan. 20, 1794; and in the course of the same year removed into the Melpomene, a fine frigate taken possession of at Calvi, when that place surrendered to the British arms[5].
- ↑ See Retired Captain, Sir Andrew Snape Hamond.
- ↑ For a Memoir of Earl Howe, see Naval Chronicle, vol. I, p. 4, et seq.
- ↑ See p. 127.
- ↑ See p. 35, et seq. An interesting memoir of Lord Rodney will be found in the Naval Chronicle, v. I, p. 353, et seq.
- ↑ See p. 252.
