Family and Early Life
Riou was born at Mount Ephraim, near Faversham, Kent, on 20 November 1762, the second son of Captain Stephen Riou of the Grenadier Guards, and his wife Dorothy. He embarked on a naval career at the age of 12, joining Sir Thomas Pye's flagship, the 90-gun HMS Barfleur at Portsmouth. His next ship was the 50-gun HMS Romney, flagship of Vice-Admiral John Montagu on the Newfoundland station. Riou was rated midshipman by 1776 and joined Captain Charles Clerke's HMS Discovery for a voyage to the Pacific under Captain James Cook aboard HMS Resolution. The expedition was Cook's third voyage of discovery, and after his death at Hawaii Clerke took command, transferring to Resolution and bringing Midshipman Riou with him.
Riou took and passed his lieutenant's examination on 19 October 1780, shortly after the expedition's return to Britain, and received his promotion on 28 October. His first appointment as lieutenant was to the 14-gun brig-sloop HMS Scourge, which was sent to serve in the West Indies. Here Riou appears to have become ill, a common experience for naval officers serving in the tropics, but he survived to return to Britain and was discharged from his ship on 3 February 1782 and went into the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar. He recovered his health and by April 1783 was back on active service, joining the Portsmouth guardship HMS Ganges. Discharging from the Ganges in June 1784, he went on to half-pay, which lasted for two years until he received another appointment, this time to the 50-gun HMS Salisbury in March 1786. The Salisbury was the flagship of Rear-Admiral John Elliot, who sailed to Newfoundland take up his post as Commodore-Governor there. During this period in his life, Riou was described by a seaman aboard the Ganges as 'a strict disciplinarian with a fanatical regard for cleanliness'. He was also noted to be a religious man, and an affectionate son and brother. A further period on half-pay followed his discharge from the Salisbury in November 1788, but meanwhile he had succeeded in attracting the attention of the Townsend family, and was able to use their patronage to secure an appointment to command HMS Guardian, in April 1789.
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