Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet ...

Mariot Arbuthnot (1711 – 31 January 1794) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet ...

, who commanded the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

's North American station during the

American War for Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

Early life

A native of Weymouth, Dorset in England, Arbuthnot was the son of Robert Arbuthnot and Sarah, née Bury. Robert's father was the son of the Rev. Robert Arbuthnot, Presbyterian minister of Crichton & Cranston. Mariot Arbuthnot entered the Royal Navy in the late 1720s, became a lieutenant in 1739, and commander in 1746. In 1746 he was commander of the sloop , which captured two French privateers while employed as a cruiser in the channel. He was appointed

post captain Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain ...

in 1747. On 22 June 1747 Arbuthnot became captain of the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed an ...

. Shortly afterwards he became captain of the .

Seven Years' War

In 1757 he became chief officer of the . In 1759, during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...

, he commanded the , one of the ships employed under Commodore Robert Duff in the blockade of

Quiberon Bay Quiberon Bay (french: Baie de Quiberon) is an area of sheltered water on the south coast of Brittany. The bay is in the Morbihan département. Geography The bay is roughly triangular in shape, open to the south with the Gulf of Morbihan to t ...

, and was present at the total defeat of the French on 20 November. Towards the end of the war he commanded . In 1770 he was made captain of .

American War of Independence

Governor's House, Halifax, Nova Scotia (inset) by Dominic Serres, c

From 1775 to 1778, he was Resident Commissioner of the Navy, Halifax Nova Scotia. He was

Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia The lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia () is the viceregal representative in Nova Scotia of the , who operates distinctly within the province but is also shared equally with the ten other jurisdictions of Canada, as well as the other Commonweal ...

, 1776–78. He was replaced in this role by Richard Hughes. It may have been about then that an armed

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

was named '' Arbuthnot'' after him. On 19 March 1779, he was made Vice-Admiral of the Blue, and on 2 May 1779 took command of . That same year he took up his appointment as commander-in-chief on the

North American Station The North America and West Indies Station was a formation or command of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed in North American waters from 1745 to 1956. The North American Station was separate from the Jamaica Station until 1830 when the ...

. Soon after arriving at his destination, he was blockaded in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

harbour by the French fleet under Count d'Estaing. In December 1779, Arbuthnot conveyed the troops of Sir Henry Clinton to

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

, and cooperated with him in laying siege to that city. The surrender document signed by prominent citizens was addressed to him and Clinton. On 26 September 1780 he was promoted to

Vice-Admiral of the White The Vice-Admiral of the White was a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, immediately outranked by the rank Vice-Admiral of the Red (see order of precedence below). Royal Navy officers holding the ranks of commodore, rear admira ...

. On 13 March 1781, he fought the French Newport squadron, at the

Battle of Cape Henry The Battle of Cape Henry was a naval battle in the American War of Independence which took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on 16 March 1781 between a British squadron led by Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot and a French fleet under Admiral ...

, (Arbuthnot's account of the battle of Cape Henry) before returning to England.

Later life

He advanced by seniority to become, on 1 February 1793,

Admiral of the Blue The Admiral of the Blue was a senior rank of the Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major mar ...

. He died in London the following year, leaving two sons, John and Charles. That he was ignorant of the discipline of his profession was proved by his altercation with Sir George Rodney; that he was destitute of even a rudimentary knowledge of

naval tactics Naval tactics and doctrine is the collective name for methods of engaging and defeating an enemy ship or fleet in battle at sea during naval warfare, the naval equivalent of military tactics on land. Naval tactics are distinct from naval strat ...

was shown by his absurd conduct of the

; and, for the rest, he appears in contemporary stories (cf. ''Morning Chronicle'', 18 May 1781) as a coarse, blustering, foul-mouthed bully, and, in history, as a sample of the extremity to which the maladministration of

Lord Sandwich Earl of Sandwich is a noble title in the Peerage of England, held since its creation by the House of Montagu. It is nominally associated with Sandwich, Kent. It was created in 1660 for the prominent naval commander Admiral Sir Edward Montagu. ...

had reduced the British Navy. Admiral Arbuthnot was the nephew of Dr.

John Arbuthnot John Arbuthnot FRS (''baptised'' 29 April 1667 – 27 February 1735), often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his members ...

, the satirist and mathematician.

References

External links

* *
The Georgian Era
* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Arbuthnot, Mariot Mariot Arbuthnot Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War Governors of the Colony of Nova Scotia English people of Scottish descent People from Weymouth, Dorset Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War 1711 births 1794 deaths