action with three French brigs, capturing one in January 1801. In the Caribbean later that year Gordon, on an independent mission, was captured by the Haitian government of Toussaint Louverture and spent four months in prison before being released by cartel. He was made first lieutenant of the 18-gun brig in 1802 and returned to the West Indies. Racoons capture of the French corvette Lodi in July 1803 led to Gordon's appointment as commanding officer of HMS Raccoon in October 1803 and his promotion to commander on 2 March 1804. Frigate captain Gordon was promoted to post-captain on 16 May 1805 and assigned command of the 28-gun frigate but shortly after his arrival in England was taken seriously ill and had to resign his command. He was without a command until 1807, when he took over the 28-gun frigate , engaged in blockade duties off Cádiz, and took part of a hard-fought action between three British ships and the combined forces of a Spanish convoy, 20 gunboats and land artillery off the town of Rota in April 1808. He became captain of the 38-gun frigate at Gibraltar in June 1808 and spent the next three years in operations in the Mediterranean Sea and Adriatic Sea. Active was one of the four ships under the command of William Hoste that successfully defeated a much larger French squadron at the first Battle of Lissa in March 1811 and she was one of three that defeated three more powerful French frigates off Palagruža in November 1811. In this latter action Gordon's left knee was shattered by a cannonball and his leg had to be amputated; he used a wooden leg for the remainder of his life. He recuperated in Malta and was able to take Active back to England in June 1812. He took command of the frigate in September 1812, escorting convoys for the West Indies and enforcing the blockade of France. In 1814 she transferred to the American station, where the War of 1812 was still under way. Gordon, with Charles Napier as his second in command, distinguished himself as commodore leading the successful raid on Alexandria on the Potomac in August 1814 and also taking part in the less successful attack on Fort McHenry and the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814. He went on to provide logistic support during the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. He was