He was then made acting-captain of the receiving ship HMS Magnificent at Jamaica on 8 September 1829 and officially promoted to post captain in 1831 with seniority from the beginning of his tenure as acting-captain. While commanding Magnificent Smith was the senior officer at Port Royal and received the thanks of the mercantile community there for his assistance with Jamaica's commercial interests. Aden On 27 November 1837 Smith was sent to the East Indies Station in command of the frigate HMS Volage. In January 1838 the Sultanate of Lahej agreed to transfer a number of its possessions, including the town of Aden to Britain but later decided against this and opened fire on the sloop-of-war HCS Coote. Smith was given command of an expedition, comprising Volage, the brig HMS Cruizer, Coote, the schooner HCS Mahé, and three transports, to secure Aden. Smith and his small expedition arrived at Aden on 16 January 1839 and in the morning of 18 January Volage, Cruizer, and Mahé sailed to the front of the town from where they were fired upon. At 9.30 a.m. the rest of the expedition arrived and the warships sailed in close to Aden's batteries to bombard them. By 11 a.m. the gunnery of the ships had demolished Aden's lower batteries and destroyed a large tower, while landing parties ordered by Smith had cleared out the remaining enemy musket men in the rubble. At this point Smith ordered the main two landings of troops to take place, which were completed successfully with two naval casualties and sixteen from the army, with the defending garrison of 1,000 men suffering around fifty casualties. This was the first colonial acquisition of the reign of Queen Victoria. Aden was later purchased by the East India Company and used as a coalling station. For his capture of Aden Smith was nominated a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 13 August and received the thanks of the George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, the Governor General of India. China Opening shots of the Opium War Volage and Smith subsequently sailed for China, arriving at Macao on 30 August and then immediately sailing for Hong Kong. On 4 September the Chinese at Kowloon refused to continue supplying provisions to the British contingent there. Negotiations broke down and the British were worried that their water supplies would be poisoned and so at 2 p.m. Smith, present