Richard Badiley Richard Badiley ( c . 1616 – 7 or 11 August 1656 ) was an English naval officer . He saw service during the First Anglo - Dutch War . Early service . He was a merchant , ship - owner , and ship - captain , probably related to several Badileys who , appear in Trinity House lists of shipmasters in the 1620s . He first appears as master ' s mate of the " Increase " , at Cadiz in 1636 , when he is described as being aged twenty and of Wapping . He served as master of the " Advance " and " Peregrine " on trading voyages to the eastern Mediterranean in the period 1637 – 45 , and fought actions with Turkish corsairs in 1637 , 1640 , and 1644 . He won particular fame for one such encounter , where with just 44 seamen he apparently defended his ships from 500 ' Turks ' . He carried out trading voyages to North America as well , and by 1648 had become a younger brother of Trinity House , and by 1654 he was described as a freeman of the Fishmongers ' Company . He continued to carry out commercial activities and leased several of his ships to the state . He does not seem to have taken a direct part in the Civil War , but had strong puritan leanings and associations and is known to have supported parliament , and pressed for freedom and religious reforms . Of his early service under the parliament , and whether on shore or afloat , nothing is known . His name does not appear in any published list of the parliamentary fleet down to May 1648 , but we find him in April 1649 captain of the " Happy Entrance " and commander - in - chief of the fleet in the Downs , specially charged with appointing and regulating the convoys of merchant ships and proposing measures to the council of state for capturing or destroying HMS " Antelope " , one of the ships which had gone over to the Prince of Wales , and was lying at Helvoetsluys . The attempt was made with success , and " Antelope " was destroyed by a party of seamen from " Happy Entrance " , commanded by her lieutenant , Stephen Rose , to whom a gold medal and a gratuity of 48l . was awarded as encouragement . On 1 March 1650 he sailed for Portugal , as vice - admiral of Robert Blake ' s expedition against Prince Rupert . At one point , having been dispatched with eight ships to revictual at Cadiz , he found and fought six French men - of - war . He sailed for England on 14 October , convoying several rich Portuguese prizes . In the summer of 1651 he served as vice - admiral to Blake in the Downs , guarding against a possible attack to support the Scots ' invasion . Following the Scots ' defeat at the Battle of Worcester , he joined Blake with the reduction of Jersey before sailing in the " Paragon " in December , escorting a convoy to the Mediterranean . Anglo - Dutch War . On 14 February 1651 - 2 he over - hauled an Algerine corsair , and having the greater force took out of her all the English captives . He then passed on to Zante , to Smyrna , and so back towards Leghorn , where , having had news of the war with Holland , he hoped to effect a junction with Commodore Henry Appleton . Appleton could not or would not stir to meet him , and the Dutch , leaving two ships , which proved sufficient to hold Appleton in check , turned to attack Badiley , who had only four ships with which to oppose the ten or eleven now brought against him ; leading to the Battle of Elba . Off the island of Elba the fight began about four o ' clock in the afternoon of 27 August 1652 , and continued till nightfall . The English ships , and the " Paragon " more especially , were singly superior to any of the Dutch who swarmed round them and endeavoured to carry them by force of numbers . The fighting was mostly hand to hand or at very short range . ' We discharged , ' wrote Badiley , ' that day from this ship ( the Paragon ) 800 pieces of great ordnance , which must have done no small execution , having sometimes two of the enemy ' s best men - of - war aboard , and all the rest within pistol and musket shot of us ' ( 31 August ) The " Paragon " had 26 killed and 57 wounded , out of a complement of 250 ; had fifty shot in the hull , many of them between wind and water , and her masts and rigging cut to pieces . Badiley thought and said that the other ships might and should have taken some of the pressure off the " Paragon " ; but in fact they were severally as hard pressed as the " Paragon " , and had not her size and strength . They fired away almost all their ammunition , and towards evening the Dutch succeeded in capturing the " Phoenix " . And so the fight ended ; the English going the next day into Porto Longone in Elba . The Dutch contemplated attacking them there , and offered the governor a large sum of money to permit them . He , however , refused it , and allowed Badiley to strengthen his position by throwing up some batteries and landing some of his ship ' s guns . Towards the end of October Badiley received orders from home to take command of the squadron at Leghorn , and , crossing over , he concerted measures with Appleton for the recapture of the " Phoenix " , the success of which led to the Grand Duke ' s ordering the English to quit the port . This they did , and were , with one exception , all captured by the Dutch , before Badiley , who was in the offing , but to leeward , could offer any assistance . After this there was nothing further to be done but to provide for the safety of the remaining ships , and Badiley accordingly went down the Mediterranean , and so home , arriving in the Downs in the early days of May 1653 . His men , he wrote , were very turbulent and mutinous , refused all compromise , and were determined to go into the river to be paid off . They obtained their demands . ' We are paying off the Straits fleet , ' wrote Commissioner Pett from Chatham on 1 June ; ' they are the rudest people I ever saw . I hope the ring - leaders will be called to account . ' About 120 of them were , however , immediately shipped off to join the main fleet with Blake . ' I have had no small trouble to quiet them , ' wrote Major Bourne on 4 June ; ' they are so enraged that they are sent away . I have promised them that as soon as the exigency of affairs permits they shall enjoy the liberty granted them . ' Rear - Admiral . The campaign in the Mediterranean had ended so disastrously , and Appleton was so vehement in his accusations , that Badiley ' s conduct was formally inquired into . The charges recoiled on Appleton , and Badiley was not only cleared of all blame but was on 7 December promoted to be rear - admiral of the fleet , a rank equivalent then to what was afterwards known as admiral of the blue squadron . He served for a few mouths in the " Vanguard " , and was then transferred to the " Andrew " , in which , as second to Blake , he went to the Mediterranean , and was engaged in the reduction of Tunis and the liberation of English captives along the northern coast of Africa . The " Andrew " came home and was paid off in the autumn of 1655 . Later life . In the summer of 1656 Badiley superseded John Lawson as vice - admiral in the command of the fleet in the Downs . This ended his service . In April 1657 he was living at Milk Yard , Wapping , in poor health , and he died there ‘ of an ulcer ’ on 7 or 11 August . He was buried on 14 August at St John - at - Wapping . William Badiley , presumably his elder brother , was for many years master attendant at Woolwich .