Sir Charles Thompson , 1st Baronet Sir Charles Thompson , 1st Baronet ( c . 1740 – 17 March 1799 ) was a British naval officer . After long service in the Seven Years ' War , American War of Independence and War of the First Coalition , he was Admiral John Jervis ' s second in command at the battle of Cape St Vincent . However , his disregard for Jervis ' s signal to tack to counter a Spanish attacking move nearly lost the battle , and began an enmity with Jervis that eventually ( with ill health ) led to Thompson ' s retirement . From 1796 to 1799 he was also MP for Monmouth . Family . His father is thought to be Norborne Berkeley , later Baron Botetourt , of Stoke Gifford , Gloucestershire , governor of Virginia , his mother was Margaret Thompson . ( Charles was illegitimate ) . He , his mother and sister Elizabeth Thompson were all beneficiarys in Norborne Berkeley ' s will . He married Jane , daughter and heiress of Robert Selby of Bonnington , near Edinburgh in 1783 , by whom he had issue : Norborne Charles ( 1785 – 1826 ) who joined the navy but was court martialed for insubordination ; Charles Robert ( 1788 – 1801 ) who died at sea aged 13 ; Elizabeth ( 1790 - , Jane ( 1794 – 1815 ) who died in Portugal aged 21 , and is buried at the English Cemetery , Lisbon ; and Henry ( 1796 – 1868 ) . Naval service . His first service at sea was on a merchantman , but he soon joined the Royal Navy on in 1755 , just before the outbreak of the Seven Years ' War . In the following five years he served on that ship then on HMS " Prince Frederick " and ( under Captain Samuel Barrington ) . He passed his examination for lieutenant in 1760 and was commissioned as the fifth lieutenant of on 16 January 1761 , serving on her in the Channel Fleet and then in the Mediterranean . When peace came , this ship was paid off and Thompson transferred to the sloop , serving on her on the North American station from August 1763 to her paying - off in July 1768 in South Carolina ( with no transport provided to get her officers back to England , though they were later paid £39 0s . 6d each for the journey ) . Thompson was back in North America as ' s first lieutenant from May 1770 , and there Commodore James Gambier promoted him to commander in February 1771 , commanding the sloop and then ( after 3 months ) appointed acting captain of . He took the later ship back to England in December 1771 and , though his acting captaincy was not confirmed by the admiralty , they did on 7 March 1772 promote him to full captain , commanding . Service in the West Indies . Thompson sailed , in " Chatham " to the West Indies as the flagship of Vice - Admiral William Parry , and Thompson later moved from her to the frigate . He returned to England in 1774 , and then went back to the West Indies in command of the in early 1776 ( capturing the 20 gun French ship " Le Compas " ) . He accompanied a merchant convoy to England in October 1777 , before yet again going out to the West Indies in 1780 . Sir John Laforey was appointed commissioner of the shipyard at Antigua in 1780 , but Thompson refused to recognize this authority , leading to a long feud . In the Caribbean , Thompson was moved by Sir George Rodney to the 74 gun , commanding her throughout the American War of Independence , including at the battles of the Chesapeake , St Kitts , under Sir Samuel Hood ) . In April 1782 , Thompson was present in the rear division at the Battle of the Saintes . Sir George Rodney ' s decisive victory over the French in the Caribbean . He sailed " Alcide " back to England at the end of the War . Later service . In 1787 Thompson commanded at Portsmouth , and in 1790 ( during the crisis of the Spanish armament ) . When the War of the First Coalition broke out in 1793 he was put in command of , as part of Sir John Jervis and Lieutenant - General Sir Charles Grey ' s expedition against France ' s West Indian possessions , participating in the capture of Martinique ( directing the boat attacks on Fort Royal ) and Guadeloupe as a commodore . Also during this time in the Indies , Laforey and Thompson ' s feud reignited over Laforey conduct as commander - in - chief at the Leeward Islands , thus providing an excuse for First Lord of the Admiralty to recall Laforey but causing alarm amidst the other Admiralty commissioners ( Sir Charles Middleton resigned over the affair ) . In the course of promotions through seniority , Thompson was promoted to rear - admiral of the blue on 12 April 1794 , and sailed back to England the following year ( with as his flagship ) to be made vice admiral on 1 June 1795 ( with his flag in ) . Mediterranean service . Thompson was next put in command of a detached squadron as part of the British blockade of Brest , before being transferred to , in which he served in the Mediterranean . In the " Britannia " he acted as second in command at the battle of Cape St Vincent , disregarding Jervis ' s signal to tack to counter a Spanish attacking move and thus nearly losing the battle . This angered Jervis but he chose not to bring the issue into the public sphere , and so later that year Thompson ' s and Jervis ' s contribution to the battle were rewarded with a baronetcy and an earldom respectively whilst still on station . Continuing on the station for a time , Thompson ' s next disagreement with Jervis ( over the latter ' s insistence on hanging two mutineers on the Sabbath on Sunday 9 July 1797 ) gave Jervis sufficient justification to insist that the Admiralty recall Thompson . After Thompson ' s death , Jervis wrote of him as a ‘ gallant man , but the most timid officer ’ , and drew attention to his having ‘ the manner of a rough seaman ’ which Thompson cultivated by his habit of dressing casually in a sailor ' s frock and straw hat . On his recall , Thompson was then given a post in the Brest - blockade fleet which he held until 1798 despite failing health , his health eventually forcing him to strike his flag and return to England early in 1799 , where he died later that year . Political office . Thompson was elected MP for Monmouth in 1796 and held the seat until 1799 although he did not have a significant attendance in parliament .