in November sailed to the coast of North America to take part in the War of 1812. On 3 April 1813, Scott commanded one of Marlboroughs boats as part of squadron, under the command of Lieutenant James Polkinghorne, which pushed 15 miles up the Rappahannock River and captured four schooners. On 22 June 1813, Scott had charge of the Marlboroughs launch, during the failed attack on Craney Island; four days later he assisted at the capture of Hampton. In July, now serving aboard , he commanded her launch at the capture of Ocracoke Island on the coast of North Carolina, and at the capture of the privateers and Atlas. In 1814, now serving as first lieutenant of , Scott took part in the storming two forts on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, in the destruction of Commodore Joshua Barney's Chesapeake Bay Flotilla on the Patuxent River, and served on shore as aide-de-camp to Rear Admiral Cockburn during the battle of Bladensburg, the burning of Washington, and at the failed attack on Baltimore. Commander and later career On 19 October 1814 Scott was promoted to commander, but received no ship until 4 May 1824 when he was appointed to the bomb vessel Meteor to take part in the demonstration before Algiers made by Vice-Admiral Sir Harry Burrard-Neale. Subsequently, on 5 November, he took command of the brig-sloop , serving at Cork and Jamaica until 1827. He was promoted to post-captain on 8 January 1828, and published his autobiography Recollections of a Naval Life in 1834. He then served aboard as flag captain to Admiral Sir George Cockburn on the North America and West Indies Stationfrom June 1834 until 1836, then to Admiral Charles Ross on the Pacific Station from August 1837 until October 1839. On 31 October 1839 he was appointed to command of the sixth-rate post ship off South America, and then on the East Indies and China Station, serving in the Second Opium War. He saw action in Second Battle of Chuenpi on 7 January 1841 in Samarang, having the frigate , and the sloops and under his command during the attack on the fort at Tycocktow. On 26 February he took part in the Battle of the Bogue. Before the first investment of Canton, he moved temporarily into the East India Company's iron-hulled steamer Nemesis, commanded by Captain William Hutcheon Hall, to force a passage up the