Thomas Pringle

Vice-Admiral Thomas Pringle (died 8 December 1803) was a Royal Navy officer who served in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Early life

Thomas Pringle was born into a wealthy Scottish family, the only son of Walter Pringle, a wealthy man who owned slave plantations in the British West Indies. Pringle joined the Royal Navy, and was sent to the West Indies. In Barbados, he purchased Rachael Lauder, an enslaved mulatto woman, to save her from her sexually abusive father William Lauder. The pair had become lovers, and after purchasing her Pringle manumitted Lauder and set her up in a house in Bridge Town. After settling Lauder in the house, Pringle left the island, returning to his military career; Lauder took his surname and later the surname Polgreen as well. He served in North America in 1775, as first lieutenant of . Stationed at Quebec as American forces approached, Pringle was sent to Britain in November 1775 aboard the merchant vessel Polly, with despatches warning of the imminent American attack. On his return to England in November 1776 he was promoted to post-captain. In January 1777, he was given command of , assigned to the West Indies station. He served well there, capturing a number of American naval vessels, transports, and privateers, including the Virginia State Navy brig Mosquito on 5 June 1777, and the privateer Johnston on 29 November 1777. His most notable prize was on 10 July 1778, captured in company with James Richard Dacres's .

Pringle operated for the next two years with Admiral Samuel Barrington's fleet, seeing action at the Battle of St. Lucia on 14/15 December 1778, and at the Battle of Grenada on 6 July 1779.

The Nelson connection In April 1782 he escorted a convoy from Cork to Quebec. Joining him for this task, and placed under his command, was Captain Horatio Nelson, in command of the frigate . In the event Nelson found the voyage to be not as bad as he had feared and also realised that he had misjudged Pringle, subsequently declaring that Pringle was 'my particular friend, and a man of great honour.' Nelson and Pringle's friendship was an enduring one.

The Peace, and the French Revolutionary Wars Pringle returned to Britain at the end of 1782, in time to capture another privateer in the Channel, this time the Légère on 11 December 1782.

In May 1790 he was put in command of , a 100-gun first-rate that served briefly as Admiral Samuel Barrington's flagship. In 1791, Rachel died and left some of her slaves to Pringle in her will. In October 1793, Pringle was given command of the 74-gun , joining Lord Howe's fleet. Pringle was therefore present at the Glorious First of June the following year, where his ship had two killed and nine wounded. He later removed to , and sailed to South Africa to take command of the Cape of Good Hope Station in May 1796. He was in Saldanha Bay under Vice-Admiral George Elphinstone when a squadron of the Batavian Navy under Rear-Admiral Engelbertus Lucas was forced to surrender on 17 August 1796. His legacy as commander of the navy on the Cape station was commemorated in the naming of Pringle Bay.

In 1797, he had to put down a mutiny aboard his flagship which was anchored in the harbour. The seamen aboard the ship had threatened their captain, George Hopewell Stephens, with a court-martial composed of members of the crew on charges of cruelty and mistreatment. The mutinous spirit was temporarily quashed with a general pardon, while Stephens requested a regular court-martial to clear his name. While this was held aboard , Pringle sent a ship to recall the Tremendouss previous captain, Charles Brisbane.