Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
Digby Dent (1682–1737) was a
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the
Jamaica Station.
Naval career
Dent was promoted to
post captain
Post-captain or post captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy. The term "post-captain" was descriptive only; it was never used as a title in the form "Post-Captain John Smith".
The term served to di ...
in October 1715 on appointment to the command of the
fifth-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower.
Rating
The rating system in the Royal N ...
HMS ''Lynn''.
He transferred to the command of the
fourth-rate
In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided ...
HMS ''Mermaid'' in 1720, of the fifth-rate
HMS ''Launceston'' in 1722 and of the
third-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker).
Rating
When the rating system was f ...
HMS ''Lennox'' in 1726.
[ He went on to take the command of the third-rate HMS ''Captain'' in 1731 and of the fourth-rate HMS ''Dunkirk'' in 1735.][
Dent served briefly as Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station, with his ]broad pennant
A broad pennant is a triangular swallow-tailed naval pennant flown from the masthead of a warship afloat or a naval headquarters ashore to indicate the presence of either:
(a) a Royal Navy officer in the rank of Commodore, or
(b) a U.S. Navy ...
in the second-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a second-rate was a ship of the line which by the start of the 18th century mounted 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks; earlier 17th-century second rates had fewer guns ...
HMS ''Shrewsbury'', from 1736 until his death in 1737.
Family
His son Digby Dent (c1713–1761) was also a Royal Navy officer.
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dent, Digby
1682 births
1737 deaths
Place of birth missing
Royal Navy captains