By the American War of Independence he had been promoted to captain. He was in command of HMS "Europe" as part of Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot's fleet in the March 1781 Battle of Cape Henry, in which the British fought off a French fleet attempting to enter Chesapeake Bay, and again later that year in the critical Battle of the Chesapeake in early September, in which the British lost control of the bay, enabling the decisive Franco-American victory at Yorktown.