Recent circumstances, relating to Captain Tomlinson, have drawn much of the public attention towards his professional conduct. Independently of this, however, it must be readily admitted, that a gentleman who “has served for a period of thirty-six years in the royal navy, during twenty-nine of which he acted as a commissioned officer, having been appointed a lieutenant in 1782, a commander in 1795, and a post captain in 1796,” is well entitled to notice; particularly when it is added, that, “in the course of this long period, he has been upwards of seventy times engaged with the enemy, and three times wounded (once dangerously) in the service of his country.”

In this light, we introduce Captain Tomlinson to the readers of the Naval Chronicle,—He is the third son of Captain Robert Tomlinson, who entered the service in the year 1755, under the patronage of Admiral Hawke. By the paternal side, he is descended from Colonel John Tomlinson, of Burntcliffe Thorn, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, who bore a conspicuous part in the civil wars, in the reign of Charles the First.

Mr. Tomlinson first went to sea, in the year 1774, with Lord Hotham, in the Resolution; of which ship his father was, at that time, first lieutenant.