spend time at Mr Braken's naval academy at Greenwich. He was entered onto the books of one of the royal yachts by Sir Alexander Hood, who would become an enduring patron of Cooke's. In 1776 he obtained a position as a midshipman on the ship of the line , aged thirteen. Cooke served aboard Eagle, the flagship of the North American Station, during the next three years, seeing extensive action along the eastern seaboard. Notable among these actions were the naval operations around the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778, when Eagle was closely engaged with American units ashore. He distinguished himself in the assault, causing Admiral Lord Howe to exclaim "Why, young man, you wish to become a Lieutenant before you are of sufficient age!" On 21January 1779, Cooke was promoted to lieutenant and joined in the East Indies under Sir Edward Hughes, but was forced to take a leave of absence due to illhealth. Cooke returned to England and then went to France to spend a year studying, before rejoining the navy in 1782 with an appointment to the 90gun under Captain Alan Gardner. Cooke saw action at the Battle of the Saintes, at which Duke was heavily engaged. He remained with Gardner following the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, bringing an end to the American War of Independence, and served as his firstlieutenant aboard his next command, the 50gun . Gardner became commodore at Jamaica, flying his broad pennant aboard Europa and retaining Cooke as his firstlieutenant until Cooke was injured in a bad fall and had to be invalided home. He had recovered sufficiently by the time of the Spanish Armament in 1790 to be able to take up an appointment from his old patron, Sir Alexander Hood, to be thirdlieutenant of his flagship, the 90gun . When the crisis passed without breaking into open war, London was paid off and Cooke went ashore. Frigate command With the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in February 1793, Cooke rejoined Hood and became firstlieutenant of his new flagship, the 100gun , part of the Channel Fleet. On 21February 1794, Cooke was promoted to commander and given his first independent command, the small fire ship . Three months later, Incendiary was a signal repeater for the Channel Fleet during the Atlantic campaign of May 1794, relaying Lord Howe's signals to the fleet and operating as