French and Indian War
He was a midshipman at the Siege of Louisbourg (1745), promoted to Lieutenant in 1753 and to Commander in 1759. By the end of the war in 1763, he was captain of HMS Syren. While commanding the Syren, Sir Charles reported the attack on St. John's and took part in recapturing Newfoundland.
Following the war, Sir Charles went to St. Petersburg to help re-organize the Russian navy for Catherine the Great in 1764-1765.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May, 1770 for carrying out "a series of curious experiments to determine the different degrees of cold at different depths in the Sea".
Read more about this topic: Sir Charles Douglas, 1st Baronet
Famous quotes containing the words french, indian and/or war:
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Land of opportunity, land for the huddled masses—where would the opportunity have been without the genocide of those Old Guard, bristling Indian tribes?”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)
“... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)