I represent Robert Deans. I was Captain and Commander of HMS Mentor. I was from North Berwick, East Lothian in Scotland. I and my brother James both pursued careers in the Royal Navy. He became a surgeon aboard the Isis and I entered the Navy under his sponsorship as an ordinary seaman in July 1755. I served aboard exploratory vessels and even fought pirates. I commanded the Jamaica in the Caribbean for a couple of years before being given the Mentor in March of 1780 and raised to the rank of captain. The Mentor was a sloop built in Maryland in 1778. It spent between April 1780 and May 1781 – the height of Spanish hostilities – patrolling the waters near Pensacola, and at times our crew would go ashore to help the army shore up defenses. Sometimes we’d cruise out to take Spanish prizes. In March 1781, I realized the Mentor couldn’t hold out against the much larger Spanish convoy and our guns, ammunition, and men were better spent defending Pensacola on shore. The ship was taken up the Blackwater River, where it capsized and was burned to keep from falling into enemy hands. After the surrender of Pensacola on May 10, 1781, the crew sailed for New York with the rest of the survivors and prisoners of war. Gálvez ordered me to stay behind with Gen. Campbell to serve as hostages against the surrender of Natchez, which had revolted against the Spanish occupiers. Arturo O’Neill had taken over as Governor of West Florida when I was finally sent on to Havana, then to Spain to be exchanged. Caught in a web of bureaucracy, I was not released until spring 1783. In July 1785, I married Elizabeth Earle and we lived at her father’s estate at Huntington in Scotland. I died at Huntington on January 5, 1815, having attained the rank of Rear Admiral.
Sources: 35, 27