In July Torrington gave Wheler command of a squadron of eleven ships and sent him to blockade Brest. While off the port he captured a French warship and 26 other vessels, many of them carrying stores and ammunition for the Jacobite forces in Ireland. Wheler took command of the 90-gun and fought at the Battle of Beachy Head on 10 July 1690, and at the Battle of Barfleur on 19 May 1692. He was promoted to rear-admiral of the blue in October 1692, and sent out to the Jamaica station in command of a squadron. He arrived at Madeira on 26 January, but did not reach Barbados until 1 March. There a council of war was convened, and the decision taken to attack Martinique. However no preparations had been made, and the proposed 800 men from the local militia that would be used to supplement the troops had yet to be raised. The Captain-General of the Leeward Islands, Colonel Codrington, had not been approached for assistance either. The expedition therefore did not depart until 30 March, arriving at Martinique on 1 April, but still without Codrington and his reinforcements. The British force consisted of 2,300 soldiers, including 800 men from the Barbados militia, and a further 1,500 sailors detached under Wheler's command. Codrington and his men arrived on 9 April, and a landing was effected on 17 April. After some initial success in securing strategic positions and repulsing a French attack, the expedition suffered heavy losses through sickness, with 1,000 men succumbing, and the British assault petered out. A council was held on 20 April, and the expedition was abandoned, and the men evacuated.