Cornwall; and entered the royal navy as midshipman on board the Belliqueux 64. He subsequently served in the Plumper and Tickler, gun-vessels, commanded by his father; and, early in 1801, was received on board the Neptune 98, flag-ship of Vice-Admiral (afterwards Lord) Gambler, then third in command of the Channel fleet. During the peace of Amiens, he was successively removed to the Endymion frigate and Isis 50, in which latter ship he accompanied the Vice-Admiral to and from Newfoundland. On her passage thither, she encountered a hurricane, was thrown on her beam ends, lost her top-masts and jib-boom, had all her sails blown to shreds, and was obliged to cut away her mizenmast: the main-mast was about to follow, when she fortunately fell off, partially righted, and at length shewed her stern to the wind. After her return home, she received the flag of Rear-Admiral (now Sir Edward) Thornbrough, and cruised for a short period in the North Sea. During her second trip to Newfoundland, several of her midshipmen, including Mr. Williams, were borne on the books of the Puissant, receiving ship at Spithead, having been left behind for the purpose of passing the usual examination at the Navy Office.
In the summer of 1804, Mr. Williams again sailed for St. John’s, under Vice-Admiral Gambier’s successor, the late Sir Erasmus Gower, by whom he was appointed acting lieutenant and commander of the Mackerel schooner, mounting four small carronades, with a complement of fifteen officers and men. In this pigmy man-of-war, which he joined, and fitted out at Bermuda, we find him rendering essential assistance to the Tartar frigate, Captain Edward Hawker, by carrying out a bower anchor, and receiving and landing her main-deck guns, after she had parted her cables in Murray’s Reads, and struck on one of the reefs forming the eastern passage. Subsequently, the Mackerel, with fifty-seven French prisoners of war on board, was driven from her anchorage in a N.W. gale, and in rounding St. Catherine’s Point, for the purpose of taking shelter under the lee of the island, she repeatedly grazed the rocks, the foam and spray
