1780-1781: In 3rd Rate line of battleship Ariadne, sloop of war Parrot, and the Desperate frigate, in the West Indies, where he was thrashed and beaten into a passable midshipman, though of the sort to keep a captain nervous o' nights. Rather a lot of conquests on land and sea, and the theft of a trifling sum of 2,000 guineas off a French prize of war. Devilishly well detailed in The King's Coat.

1781-82: In the Desperate frigate. Participated in the Battle of the Chesapeake, the Siege of Yorktown, escaped, thence to the evacuation of Wilmington, North Carolina, by Crown forces in November of 1781, where he made the acquaintance of the Chiswick family, and the lovely Caroline Chiswick, who figures prominently in this adventure. See The French Admiral.

1782-83: Still in Desperate serving as midshipman and master's mate, participated in Adm. Sir Samuel Hood's Battle of St. Kitts. In English Harbour, Antigua, rated Passed Midshipman by an examining board, February, '82. Promoted Lieutenant and sent aboard the Shrike brig o'war as first officer by clerical error. Commerce warfare on the Cuban coasts, took part in an expedition to swing Muskogean and Seminole Indians into war on England's side, which effort failed (and it was not his fault), participated in Capt. Horatio Nelson's abortive attempt to retake Turks Island from the French in the spring of '83, and ended up in temporary command of Shrike two weeks before the Revolutionary War ended, and sailed her back to England to pay off at Deptford Hard. See The King's Commission.

1784-86: Fleeing an irate, titled, husband who'd caught him in flagrante