James Coutts Crawford was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782, by John Singleton Copley. Depicting the September assault, which Crawford served throughout.
Batavia, on the island of Java, target of the British force in mid-1811
James Coutts Crawford, a naval officer like his father, and later a prominent citizen of New Zealand
HMS Childers was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, initially armed with 10 carriage guns which were later increased to 14 guns. The first brig-sloop to be built for the Navy, she was ordered from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She had an active career in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous French privateers and during the Gunboat War participated in a noteworthy single-ship action. The navy withdrew her from service at the beginning of 1811, at which time she was broken up.
French batteries firing at Childers off Brest (1793); National Maritime Museum
Boats from Melpomene and Childers cutting out Aventurier; National Maritime Museum
HM Ship Egeria, Capt Lewis Hole, with the Aalborg, Danish Cutter, a prize, in Tow, HM Brig Childers shewing her Nos March 2, 1809