Thomas Cotes

Vice-Admiral Thomas Cotes (4 June 1712 – 16 July 1767) was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station.

Naval career Promoted to post captain in 1740, Cotes was appointed to the command of the third-rate HMS Edinburgh in 1745 and saw action at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747. He was promoted to rear admiral in May 1755 by virtue of his seniority on the Captain's List.

The appointment followed a series of British setbacks in the Caribbean, including the French capture of two Royal Navy ships. In 1756 there were eight British vessels at the Jamaica Station, including three 60-gun ships of the line: , and . All were in poor condition, especially Dreadnought and the fifty-year-old Mary. Cotes' predecessor, Admiral Townshend, had written to Admiralty that these three vessels were so short of serviceable cannons that they "can hardly be looked on as of equal force with our new 50-gun ships." Arrayed against them were an unknown number of French vessels, including at least two of 74 guns, along with the two captured British vessels, the 50-gun ships and . The French fleet was based at Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola, under the command of Admiral Joseph de Bauffremont.

Suspecting he was badly outnumbered, Townshend had adopted a defensive position at Jamaica and written for help from both England and from the small Royal Navy contingent in the Leeward Islands. Cotes orders were to make haste for Jamaica with the 90-gun , two 60-gun ships, a 50-gun vessel and six frigates. On arrival he was to supersede Townshend in command of the Station, and then sail out to defeat Bauffremont's fleet. Cotes took advantage of his unexpected naval superiority by deploying his ships of the line to watch over Cap-Haïtien, while his frigates cruised for stray French commercial craft. Over the summer his frigates captured three French store ships and a military transport, along with many small French privateers. With the French thus occupied, Cotes was able to ensure the safe passage oft eh British merchant convoy, which departed in midsummer.