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Vice-Admiral John Benbow (10 March 1653 – 4 November 1702) was an English officer in the Royal Navy. He joined the navy aged 25 years, seeing action against Algerian pirates before leaving and joining the merchant navy in which he traded until the Glorious Revolution of 1688, whereupon he returned to the Royal Navy and was commissioned. Benbow fought against France during the Nine Years War (1688–97), serving on and later commanding several English vessels and taking part in the battles of Beachy Head, Barfleur and La Hogue in 1690 and 1692. He went on to achieve fame during campaigns against Salé and Moor pirates; laying siege to Saint-Malo; and fighting in the West Indies against France during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). Benbow's fame and success earned him both public notoriety and a promotion to admiral. He was then involved in an incident during the action of August 1702, in which a number of his captains refused to support him while he commanded a squadron of ships. Benbow instigated the trial and later imprisonment or execution of a number of the captains involved, though he did not live to see these results. These events contributed to his notoriety, and led to several references to him in subsequent popular culture. Family and early years Benbow was born the son of William and Martha Benbow. The astrologer John Partridge recorded the exact time and date of his birth as being at noon on 10 March 1653, and this is the date used by the National Museum of the Royal Navy, the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the local historical accounts of Joseph Nightingale published in 1818. A biography within an 1819 publication of The Gentleman's Magazine, however, records in a short biography entitled Life and Exploits of Admiral Benbow by D. Parkes that he was born in 1650, as does the 1861 Sea kings and naval heroes by John George Edgar. Edgar records that Benbow's father died when Benbow was very young, while Parkes' account describes his father as being in the service of the Army under Charles I and not dying until Benbow was in his teens. Encyclopædia Britannica writes that Benbow's father was in fact a tanner. Meanwhile, his uncle, Thomas, was executed by Charles I. Both Parkes and the National Museum of the Royal Navy concur that Benbow was born in Coton Hill in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and Nightingale asserts that the death of both uncle and father, and the family's association with Charles I in the years following his execution, ensured that the "family were brought very low". Benbow's lack of possessions, Nightingale writes, turned him to a career at sea. Naval career Early years Benbow entered the Royal Navy on 30 April 1678, aged 25 years. He became master's mate aboard the 64-gun HMS Rupert under the command of Captain Arthur Herbert, whilst she was fitting out at Portsmouth. He sailed with her to the Mediterranean, where Herbert was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral whilst serving under the commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, Admiral Sir John Narborough. During this period the English fleet was often in action against the Barbary pirates of North Africa that were actively preying upon European shipping. Rupert herself captured an Algerine warship in 1678, which was later commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Tiger Prize. Benbow distinguished himself well in a number of actions against the Algerine vessels, and won Herbert's approval. On Narborough's return to England, Herbert was appointed acting commander-in-chief, and made Benbow master aboard HMS Nonsuch on 15 June 1679. Nonsuch would remain at Tangiers and off the African coast and had a number of successive captains who would go on to achieve flag rank, including George Rooke, Cloudesley Shovell and Francis Wheler. All were impressed by Benbow, and would afterwards help to advance his career. Nonsuch was next in action on 8 August 1681, this time against the Algerine warship Golden Horse. Golden Horse had been engaged by HMS Adventure, under the command of Captain William Booth, and when Nonsuch arrived on the scene Golden Horse surrendered. A dispute then arose over the question of the prize money and how it should be shared out, and comments were made amongst Nonsuch's crew against those of Adventure. Benbow's repetition of these eventually came to Booth's knowledge, and the captain brought a court-martial against Benbow; however, this revealed that Benbow had only been repeating these words rather than being their originator. Benbow was ordered to forfeit three months' pay, amounting to £12 15s., to Adventure's crew, and to "ask Captain Booth's pardon on board His Majesty's ship Bristol, declaring that he had no malicious intent in speaking those words; all the commanders being present, and a boat's crew of each ship's company". Merchant trading Nonsuch then returned to England and was paid off on 9 November 1681. Benbow left the Royal Navy and entered the merchant service, sailing a merchant vessel from London and Bristol to ports in Italy and Spain. By 1686 he was a "tough merchant seaman" and the owner and commander of a frigate named Benbow, trading with the Levant. In May 1687 he commanded a merchant vessel, Malaga Merchant, and was aboard her when she was attacked by a Salé pirate. He mounted a successful defence and beat off the attack. It was claimed afterwards that he cut off and salted the heads of thirteen Moors who were slain aboard his ship, and then took them into Cadiz to claim a reward from the magistrates. A Moorish skull-cap, "coated with varnish and set in silver" and bearing the inscription "First adventure of Captain John Benbow, and gift to Richard Ridley, 1687" is referred to in 1844 by Charles Dickens in Bentley's Miscellany where he speaks of Shrewsbury's history, and the 1885 Dictionary of National Biography also relates the story. Return to the Navy Benbow only returned to the Royal Navy after the Glorious Revolution in 1688. His first recorded commission was to the post of third lieutenant of HMS Elizabeth on 1 June 1689, under the command of Captain David Mitchell. His first command came on 20 September of that year, when he was appointed captain of HMS York. He was transferred to HMS Bonaventure on 26 October and then to HMS Britannia on 12 November. Benbow's next post was as Master Attendant of Chatham Dockyard. He then moved to become Master Attendant at Deptford Dockyard in early March 1690, a post he intermittently held for the next six years. He was master of HMS Sovereign in summer 1690, under his old commander Arthur Herbert, now Lord Torrington. He was assigned to act as master of the fleet, and took part in the English defeat in the Battle of Beachy Head. After the defeat, a Royal Commission was held into the circumstances that led to it. Benbow was highly regarded as a specialist in both navigation and pilotage, and his evidence given in July 1690 to the preliminary investigation strongly favoured his old patron, Torrington. He did.... Discover the William Harrison Ainsworth August Nemo popular books. Find the top 100 most popular William Harrison Ainsworth August Nemo books.