He received promotion for his loyalty to William of Orange, and gained a great reputation for his successes in the War of the Spanish Succession. His most famous battle was in 1718 at Cape Passaro, when he sank a Spanish fleet which was attempting to take Sicily. His son John (1704–57) owed his rapid and somewhat undeserved promotion to his father’s influence. He was sent with an inadequate force in 1756 to save Minorca, then under siege by the French, and to protect Gibraltar, but returned to England having failed to do either. He was court-martialled for negligence and shot.