John Hill

Rear-Admiral Sir John Hill (1774 – 20 January 1855) was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Hill entered the navy at a young age, probably after a period of being nominally on naval ships in order to gain seniority. He served on several ships during the years of peace between the end of the American War of Independence and the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, and was promoted to lieutenant shortly after the outbreak of the latter conflict. He served in the English Channel and the Mediterranean, and was one of the officers of at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. He was promoted to commander for his good service in the battle, but only commanded one ship, the troopship , before the Peace of Amiens.

He distinguished himself in the service of the Transport Board during the Napoleonic Wars, overseeing the movement of troops to and from continental Europe and earning the thanks of Swedish royalty and the Duke of Wellington. Advanced to post-captain, he continued in this role for some years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, until being appointed Captain-Superintendent of Deptford Victualling Yard. The remainder of his career was spent ashore at the navy's dockyards, moving to Sheerness Dockyard and then back to Deptford. He was knighted for his services in 1831, and while at Sheerness in 1838, oversaw preparations for selling . He retired in 1851 with the rank of rear-admiral and died in 1855.

Early life Hill was born c. 1774 and joined the navy on 25 September 1781, being entered on the books of the bomb vessel as a first-class volunteer under Commander James Alms. His name was borne on Infernals books until March 1783. He went out with her to the Mediterranean and supported the Egyptian campaign between 1800 and 6 March 1802, when he relinquished command. From Deptford Hill was moved to be Superintendent at Sheerness Dockyard on 9 March 1838, where he remained until returning to Deptford as superintendent of the dockyard on 11 December 1841. While at Sheerness he was nominally captain of the 98-gun , where in mid-1838 he received orders from the captain-superintendent, Thomas Fortescue Kennedy, to have , then serving as the "Guardship of the Ordinary and Captain-Superintendent's ship of the Fleet Reserve in the Medway", prepared for sale and disposal. Hill oversaw the removal of Temeraires masts, stores and guns, and the paying off of her crew. Temeraires final voyage to the breaker's yard was painted by J. M. W. Turner as The Fighting Temeraire.

Hill remained at Deptford until his promotion to rear-admiral in 1851. Hill was reported to have married and to have at least one son, who became a colonel in the British Army, and a daughter, who married the naval officer Captain William Langford Castle in 1835, but died in 1837. No ship of this name was in service at this time, and presumably Imperial is a mistake for Infernal, attested to in O'Byrne.

c. Hill would have been aged around seven at the time of his entry into Infernal. It may be that this was a titular posting only, and he did not actually physically serve until some years later, likely at the time of his assignment to Nautilus in 1788. The Gentleman's Magazines obituary for Hill states he joined Nautilus in April 1783, omitting this gap in his service. There was no Nautilus in service at this time, the previous sloop of that name having been sold in 1780, and the later ship was not launched until January 1784. Moreover, Thompson did not take command of Nautilus until 1786.

d. Both O'Byrne and The Gentleman's Magazine list , a similarly named sixth rate, instead of Proserpine. Porcupine at this time was off Scotland under the command of Captain George Martin, and began a refit in Plymouth in November 1791. Proserpine was under James Alms from May 1791, and went out to Jamaica in August that year.