John Laforey - American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

Laforey took command of the newly commissioned HMS Ocean as his first captaincy in the war, and with her served for three years, fighting at the First Battle of Ushant with the squadron of Admiral Keppel. The action was successful, but the aftermath spilled out into a bitter row coloured by party politics. Laforey, as a longtime supporter of Keppel, gave evidence for him at his court martial but Keppel left the Navy despite his acquittal and Laforey was dispatched to a shore command at Antigua, commanding the Leeward Islands station. There he established numerous reforms in the dockyard at English Harbour, improving cleaning and repair operations at the port. The commission was fraught with difficulty however as many captains and junior admirals refused to respond to Laforey's orders as he was of lower rank than they were. This substantially hindered operations on Antigua until Admiral Rodney promoted him to Commodore in 1780 to compensate.

Less than a year after his promotion however, Laforey and Rodney fell out over the purchase of stores from St Eustatius and Laforey fell from favour. Although Rodney was replaced by Hugh Pigot the following year, the situation did not improve as Pigot, though also a supporter of Keppel, did not approve of Laforey's provisions for the fitting out and sale of captured enemy ships and the two had a public disagreement which ended with Laforey's dispatch to England, where he was made commissioner of Devonport Dockyard. He remained in this role for several years, repeatedly passed over for promotion as a consequence of the enemies he had made during his service in the West Indies.