HMS Warspite
Following the obligatory court-martial hearing over the loss of Ajax, after being acquitted Blackwood was given command of Warspite, where one of his midshipmen was his nephew Price Blackwood, 4th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye. With this command he sailed in the North Sea and later with the Channel Fleet, receiving a small squadron command during the blockade of Toulon in 1810. He continued to serve in Warspite after her repairs in 1812, returning to the Channel Fleet, and serving at the blockades of Brest and Rochfort during a cruise that took Warspite to Vlissingen, Netherlands; Douarnenez, France; Basque Roads, France; and Cawsand, Cornwall.
One of his midshipmen, James Cheape, describes Blackwood as a disciplinarian who seemed to order lashings almost daily. Elsewhere Cheape describes the conflict between Blackwood and Lord Keith when in November 1813, Cheape says he wrote that Lord Melville ordered a line of battleships to the "Western Islands", and wanted the Warspite to be among them. Lord Keith, however, advised Captain Blackwood, "that he could not possibly send him as he had orders to send another ship" and sent his friend Captain West's ship instead. Captain Blackwood then sent a "private letter to Lord Keith - saying he wished the Warspite to have the preference before any other ship - when showed the letter to Lord Keith he would not read it - so I suppose they don't speak now." This caused Blackwood to resign his command immediately after a continuous active service of six years.
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