Arthur Forrest (Royal Navy officer)
| Arthur Forrest | |
|---|---|
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Arthur Forrest
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| Died | 26 May 1770 Jamaica |
| Allegiance |
 Great Britain
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| Service/branch |
 Royal Navy
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| Years of service | – 1770 |
| Rank | Commodore |
| Commands held | |
| Battles/wars | |
Arthur Forrest (died 26 May 1770) was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, rising to the rank of captain and the post of commodore.
Details of Forrest's parents and upbringing are unknown, but he had served in the merchant navy as mate or master, trading with Cartagena. He volunteered to serve as a pilot, passed his lieutenant's examination by December 1740, and was given command of the sloop Pilot. During this time he was under orders to train officers in the pilotage of Port Royal. His skills led him to take a distinguished part in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in March 1741. He came to the attention of Edward Boscawen after serving under him in an attack on the Baradera battery on shore on 17 and 18 March 1741, and on 25 May he was promoted by the expedition's commander, Admiral Edward Vernon, to command the bomb vessel HMS Alderney. Further appointments followed, to the sloop HMS Hawk in November 1742, and then to HMS Success. During this time he served on the home station and in convoy service to America.
In 1745 he was promoted to post captain and given command of HMS Wager, in which he took out a large convoy to Newfoundland. In November he was at Boston, where, by pressing some seamen contrary to colonial custom, he got into a troublesome dispute, ending in a serious fray, in which two men were killed. The boatswain of the Wager was arrested on a charge of murder, was convicted, and sentenced to death ; the sentence, however, does not appear to have been carried out. Forrest afterwards went to the West Indies, where, in the following year, he captured a Spanish privateer of much superior force.
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