French Revolutionary Wars
By now the French Revolutionary Wars had broken out, and after a period spent recuperating from his several ordeals, Collier joined Commodore Peter Rainier's flagship HMS Suffolk in June 1795. Collier had passed his lieutenant's examination in 1790, but only now did he receive his commission, when he was appointed lieutenant and commander of the Suffolk Tender on 31 July 1795. Rainer sent him to the Cape of Good Hope, but shortly after his arrival, the commander of the station, Admiral Thomas Pringle ordered that Suffolk Tender be surveyed. She was subsequently condemned as unseaworthy, and Collier returned to Rainer at Madras without a ship. Rainer recommended that he return to Britain, where the good report of his service would assure him further employment and promotion. Collier duly arrived in England in May 1799, and on 2 July that year received an appointment to the 64-gun HMS Zealand, which was then under the command of Captain Thomas Parr. A further advance came shortly afterwards, when he made first lieutenant on 29 July aboard Vice-Admiral Andrew Mitchell's flagship, the 50-gun HMS Isis. He was present at the capture of the Dutch squadron in the Vlieter Incident in August, and was chosen by Mitchell to carry the despatches back to Britain.
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