Hugh Dalrymple (1731-79)
Despite being born to an influential Scottish noble family, Dalrymple’s progress through the ranks was surprisingly slow, although he managed to secure a number of peace-time commands. His sudden death prevented him from gaining distinction in the latter stages of the American War of Independence.
He was one of fifteen children of Sir James Dalrymple M.P and of his wife Lady Christian Hamilton, the daughter of the Earl of Haddington. He was the older brother of the first hydrographer of the Admiralty, Alexander Dalrymple, and a younger brother of Lieutenant-Colonel James Dalrymple.
Dalrymple entered the navy in 1744, being rated as an ordinary and then able seamen in a variety of ships, as he waited to be promoted to midshipman. As an able seaman in the Warwick 60 (Captain Thomas Innes) he was present at several minor actions in the West Indies during the latter stages of the War of Austrian Succession. After the war ended in 1748, he served for nearly three years in the Surprise, 24 (Captain Patrick Baird), both as able seaman and then midshipman. After passing his examination for lieutenant in February 1752, he was unemployed during the four years of peace that followed. However, on 2 May 1754 he took the opportunity to marry Lady Helen Wemyss, the daughter of the 5th Earl of Wemyss. Apparently, they lived at Fordell in Fife (which Dalrymple inherited in that same year), and at Potterow in Edinburgh; the couple would have no children.
On 28 February 1756 shortly before the start of the Seven Years War, he was commissioned lieutenant, serving in a succession of small vessels until April 1759 when he was promoted commander of the storeship Medway 6. From December he commanded the ex-French privateer Postillion 18, sailing to Dublin in March 1760 and operating out of Limerick that summer. Whilst on this station he detained several vessels accused of smuggling. In January 1761 the Postillion arrived at Plymouth with five victuallers from Quiberon Bay before returning to Dublin, and in May she was in the Cowes Roads with thirty sail, which she convoyed to Virginia and Maryland. When returning home in November she lost one of her convoy to a French privateer near the Scilly Islands. She arrived at Plymouth with two dozen ships on 7 December; another fourteen had lost contact with the convoy. In early January 1762 she was in the Downs, and for the first half of the year she escorted convoys to and from Portugal. The Postillion spent the rest of the year at Portsmouth before sailing for the Downs in January 1763 to be paid off a month later, following the end of the Seven Years War.
Despite the arrival of peace, Dalrymple continued to be employed, recommissioning the sloop Diligence 10 in May 1763 and departing for North America four months later. Shortly after his arrival (and by now well into his thirties), Dalrymple was posted captain by Rear-Admiral Lord Colville on 24 November. Appointed to command the Arundel 20, he returned to Plymouth from Virginia on 14 January 1764; weeks later the ship was paid off.
After some years on half-pay, on 23 April 1771 Dalrymple was appointed to command the frigate Emerald 32, lying at Portsmouth. She sailed for Leith in early July and operated in the Shetlands and Orkneys for some months thereafter. On her return south in April 1772 an error by the pilot resulted in the frigate grounding at the entrance to the Thames, but after jettisoning some stores and four cannons she was got off. She then progressed upriver to Sheerness to be paid off in May.
In October 1772 Dalrymple was appointed to the frigate Cerberus 28. On 24 April 1774 one of her boats returning from Weymouth with provisions overset with the loss of seven men. In June of that year she sailed for Plymouth with money to pay the dockyard workers. There a storm damaged a number of vessels including the Cerberus, which drove aground when entering Cawsand Bay. Although she got off after flying a distress signal to summon the boats of the fleet, she suffered significant damage to part of her keel. After repairs she continued serving in home waters, but her captain left the ship at the end of the year.
With the American War of Independence escalating, Dalrymple commissioned the frigate Juno 32 in December 1775 – when he joined her at Portsmouth, she was so short of men that seamen from the local guardships had to be sent aboard to help rig her. She eventually sailed with a troop convoy for North America in early April 1776, and she served under the orders of Commodore Sir Peter Parker at Rhode Island during the early summer of 1777. Early in the next year, she escorted a group of transports to Cape Cod that were intended to take the British troops who had surrendered at Saratoga back to Britain on parole. The Juno herself was to carry their commander, Major-General John Burgoyne, but when the American Congress reneged on the surrender terms, the trip fell though. The Juno was then ordered to cruise off Cape Ann and Cape Cod, but she made few captures of American merchant ships, and after returning to Rhode Island on 7 August 1778 she was set on fire to prevent her capture by the French.
During December 1778 and January 1779, Dalrymple temporarily commanded the Cumberland 74 for Captain Joseph Peyton. In March he began commissioning the new ship of the line Canada 74 at Chatham, although it was not until end of May that she was ready for service with the Grand Fleet. On arriving at Portsmouth Dalrymple, on receiving news that the Franco-Spanish fleet was approaching the Channel, immediately set out to join the British force, and thus, the Canada was present in the retreat up the Channel during August. In October she put to sea with the fleet once more, but by this time she had so many crew members in the sickbay that she was described as ‘so sickly as to be almost useless’. Even so and in the latter part of the year she cruised to the westward in company with the Foudroyant 80, Captain John Jervis.
It was during this cruise that Captain Dalrymple (then in his forty-ninth year) died, on 28 December 1779. He was buried at sea, and the ship’s first lieutenant, Isaac Schomberg, took command of the Canada for two months until a permanent captain (Sir George Collier) was appointed.
Despite his brother William’s long-running disagreement with James Cook over the (non-)existence of a ‘great southern continent’, Hugh Dalrymple was a friend of the great explorer, and several other future Pacific navigators served on his ships.