page_title: Thomas Pye
section_title: First commands
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Pye / First commands
caption_attribution_description: English: Painted while Vice-Admiral of the Red and Commander-in-Chief of the English Mediterranean fleet, 1742-44. In the background is Hyères Bay, Toulon, with Mathews' second in command, Richard Lestock's flagship the 90-gun 'Neptune', and units of his squadron on the right; the stern of Mathews's flagship the 90-gun 'Namur', is on the extreme left of the picture.
context_page_description: Sir Thomas Pye was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War, and the American War of Independence. He was briefly Member of Parliament for Rochester, and served as commander of several of the navy's principal stations and ports.
  Born into a family with powerful political connections, Pye used these to rise rapidly through the ranks, and to receive employments in periods of peace. He commanded a number of ships during the War of the Austrian Succession, and was appointed commander-in-chief in the Leeward Islands, but a fit of temper when he was superseded almost cost him his career. Charged with disobeying orders and other infractions, Pye returned to Britain, where he was able to use his connections, and the absence of the experienced naval officers, to ensure a lenient outcome to his court martial. Despite this he remained unemployed during the Seven Years' War, though he reached flag rank.
  Pye did not receive active postings until the end of the Seven Years' War, when he commanded several of the navy's dockyards, and even returned to the Leeward Islands to take up his old post.
context_section_description: He spent the rest of the year being stationed in British waters, after which he joined Admiral Thomas Mathews's fleet, and returned to the Mediterranean. Mathews sent Pye into the Adriatic Sea to disrupt supplies being sent to the Spanish Army in Italy during the War of the Austrian Succession. Pye was then appointed by Mathews to command the 80-gun HMS Norfolk in August 1744, and he remained in the Mediterranean after Mathews's recall, serving under Vice-Admiral Henry Medley and providing support to the Austrian army off the south of France.
  Pye returned to England in March 1748, and though the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in October that year ended the war, he was able to use his connections to secure peacetime employment. He commanded first the 50-gun HMS Norwich, which he took out to North America, and then the 44-gun HMS Humber, which he commissioned in April 1749 and sailed to the west coast of Africa. He took the 44-gun HMS Gosport out to Nova Scotia in June 1751, returning to Britain later that year, before being appointed to the 50-gun HMS Advice in February 1752 to become commander-in-chief in the Leeward Islands Station.
caption: Admiral Thomas Mathews, 1743, by Claude Arnulphy. Pye served under Mathews in the Mediterranean during the 1740s
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