he fell in with and captured the Jason, a French privateer carrying 8 guns and 52 men. In the following November, he captured off Morlaix the French corvette Epreuve, carrying 14 guns and 136 men. He remained in the Niger until the end of the war in 1762. Quitting the Niger on the conclusion of peace, he remained without a commission till 1766. In that year, he was commissioned to the 74-gun , at Portsmouth, and retained that command for three years. In 1770, he was appointed successor to Captain Robert Hughes in command of the 74-gun , a guardship at Portsmouth, and held this, his last command, for three years. He died two years later on 23 September 1775. Inventor Bentinck had great ingenuity in mechanical pursuits, and effected many useful nautical improvements, especially with regard to ships' pumps. He introduced such important additions and improvements into the chain pump used on board ship as to have gained the credit of its invention. He gave his name to "Bentinck shrouds", which supported the rigging of masts. Next, he invented the "Bentinck boom" which, among other things, made going about much easier. Finally, Bentinck developed a triangular mainsail often used as a storm sail which became known as simply "the Bentinck sail". On 20 June 1765, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Member of Parliament At the general election of 1761 he was elected to parliament for the town of Rye, one of the Cinque Ports, and retained his seat till the dissolution for the 1768 election. Personal life Bentinck was a count of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1763 he married Renira van Tuyll van Serooskerken, daughter of Baron de Serooskerken, and by her became the founder of a second English line of Bentincks. They had five children; two boys and three girls, their eldest son, William Bentinck (1764–1813), also entered the Navy, and rose to the rank of vice-admiral. See also References Notes Bibliography 1737 births 1775 deaths John Bentinck English inventors Royal Navy officers Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Fellows of the Royal Society 18th-century Royal Navy personnel British MPs 1761–1768 Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War