Early Naval Service
Pellew first went to sea aboard the sloop Falcon in 1771, serving in the West Indies. He went to the North American station on the frigate Flora in 1776. Pellew was promoted to lieutenant in the Royal George in April 1779 and then served on the frigates Danae and Apollo. He was placed in command of the cutter Resolution in the North Sea in 1782, and he retained command when she was transferred to the Irish station serving until 1787. In March 1789 he joined Salisbury, and was promoted to commander in 1790, but was not employed again during the peace.
On the outbreak of war in 1793 Pellew was temporarily without a ship, and served as a volunteer aboard his brother's command Nymphe, being in charge of her aft guns when she captured the French frigate Cléopâtre on 18 June, the first British naval victory of the French Revolutionary Wars. For this action, his brother was knighted and he was presented to King George III and made post captain of Squirrel. In April 1795 he was made captain of a larger frigate, Amphion, commanding her off Newfoundland and in the North Sea. In September 1796, sailing to join his brother's squadron in the Channel, Pellew took Amphion into Plymouth for repairs. On 22 September she suddenly exploded alongside the dock. About 300 of her crew and visitors were killed. Pellew survived, being blown through an open stern gallery window on to the deck of a sheer hulk. An inquiry blamed the explosion on the Amphion's gunner, who was suspected of stealing gunpowder which caught fire and blew up the fore magazine. However, Pellew had already complained that the magazine was poorly constructed and unsafe, and questioned the judgement on the deceased gunner.
In February 1797 Pellew was appointed to Greyhound but, having been put ashore when her crew mutinied at the Nore, and under pressure from his commander-in-chief, he resigned the command, being moved in July to Cleopatra. He commanded her first in the Channel, until November 1798, and then on the Halifax and Jamaica stations. In 1800, Pellew suffered a setback when a boat attack to seize some Spanish vessels from an anchorage off Cuba was driven off with significant casualties and only the capture of a small galley. Later Cleopatra ran aground off Abaco, one of the Bahamas. She was aground for three days and only floated off after her guns and some ballast had been thrown overboard.
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