serviceyears branch commands death_place death_date allegiance awards nationality battles birth_date rank residence article_title name
1765 & ndash ; 1823 kingdom of great britain wilhelmina 1798 6 sheerness 1787 6 centurion 1774 6 southampton 12 june 1823 kingdom of great britain ukgbi knighthood knight commander of the order of the bath british battle of vizagapatam fl . 1 august 1765 captain united kingdom james lind -lrb- royal navy officer -rrb-
 james lind
james lind -lrb- royal navy officer -rrb-

sir james lind kcb -lrb- fl .
1 august 1765 -- 12 june 1823 -rrb- was an officer of the royal navy who served during the american war of independence and the french revolutionary and napoleonic wars .
the son of james lind , a distinguished naval physician , lind also embarked on a career at sea , but served in a more front line role .
after serving on a number of different ships he finally received his own command in 1800 , but his first chance to show his ability came only in 1803 when in command of .
here he captured a french privateer after his imitation of a merchant ship encouraged the privateer to actually attack his heavily armed frigate .
he then revealed the true nature of his ship and the hapless privateer had no choice but to swiftly surrender .
promoted to command the 50-gun lind had another opportunity to distinguish himself , when the convoy under his protection was attacked in the harbour of vizagapatnam by a heavily armed french squadron under rear-admiral charles-alexandre durand linois .
despite being on shore at the time lind hurried back to take command and supervise operations to resist the french , who though were able to capture one of the merchants , decided not to risk pressing the attack on the `` centurion '' and withdrew .
the survival of the `` centurion '' in the face of overwhelming forces was hailed as a great achievement back home in britain , with lind being knighted for his efforts .
