1760. The Company’s ships Royal George and Oxford intercepted and captured three Dutch ships and three sloops off Culpec. In 1761 the Company’s ship Shaftesbury stood into Madras Roads, in defiance of two French ships there blockading the town, who attacked her, but, succeeding in beating them off, she then embarked a detachment of troops, and proceeded to St. Thomas, where she engaged and beat off a French frigate. The captain, officers, and crew of the Shaftesbury were warmly commended for their gallant conduct on this occasion, and received a reward of 2,000l.
The Company’s ship Winchelsea fought a French frigate single handed and beat her off. The Court in this case also distributed the sum of 2,000l. among the crew for their gallant conduct.
1779. The Company’s ship Bridgewater fought an American privateer of superior force, and beat her off, for which the crew received a reward of 2,000l. from the Court of Directors.
1782. The Company’s ships, under Commodore Johnstone, fought a gallant action at Port Praya, in which the enemy were defeated.
1786. The Princess Royal, Captain Horncastle, fought an action in the Straits of Malacca.
1793. The Company’s ships Triton, Royal Charlotte, and Warley, in company with H.M.S. Minerva, were employed in the blockade of Pondicherry, and assisted at the capture of that place.
1794. The Company’s ship Pigott fought a gallant action at Bencoolen with three French frigates. In this year, there not being a single English man-of-war in the Indian Seas, or to the eastward of the Cape, and while the port of Calcutta was blockaded, and the whole trade of India a prey to large and well-appointed privateers, the Company’s ships William Pitt, Britannia, and Houghton, under Commodore Mitchell (who was knighted for his services on this occasion), cruised in the Indian seas as men-of-war for the protection of commerce. They captured two large privateers, and defeated a French squadron of two frigates, a brig of war, and an armed ship, the Princess Royal.
When, in 1795, the great expedition was ordered for the West Indies, application was made to the Company for assistance, and fourteen of the Company’s ships were fitted out immediately, and ten others sold to Government and equipped as line-of-battle ships.
In the same year an expedition was fitted out at St. Helena, consisting of the Company’s ships Goddard, Mauship, Hawkesbury, Airly Castle, Asia, Essex, and Busbridge; which proceeded to cruise to windward of the island, where they intercepted and captured a valuable fleet of nine Dutch Indiamen. This undertaking involved in its consequences the annihilation of the Dutch East India Company.
The Company’s ships Bombay Castle, Exeter, and Brunswick were fitted out as men-of-war at Bombay, and assisted in taking the Cape of Good Hope.