Early Life
Little is known about Dundas's early life, but he appears to have been born in or around 1765, and to have joined the navy in 1778, during the American War of Independence. He was promoted to lieutenant on 15 July 1793, shortly after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War, with one of his earliest commands being the sloop HMS Merlin. His next promotion was to commander on 2 September 1795, and he was then raised to post-captain on 9 July 1798. Dundas received command of the 20-gun sixth rate HMS Prompte shortly afterwards and in 1799 he captured a valuable Spanish whaling ship. In March 1799 he captured a Spanish warship, the Urca Cargadora, pierced for 26 guns, but only mounting 12. He was then moved to HMS Solebay, and escorted a convoy of merchantmen to the Mediterranean, returning to Britain on 2 July 1802.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Dundas (Royal Navy Officer)
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