English Captain: William Gregory

William Gregory served in both the Commonwealth and the Restoration navies. In 1648, he was temporarily in command of the Warwick. In 1649, he commanded the 6-gun shallop Spy. From 1651 to 1652, he commanded the Horsleydown shallop (4 guns). In 1659, he commanded the fireship Cornelian. In 1665, he commanded the fireship Dolphin at the Battle of Lowestoft. He captured the 18-gun yacht Ruiter, and then burned a group of three Dutch ships that had surrendered (Marseveen, Ter Goes, and Zwanenburg), killing almost all their crews. If the authorities could have captured Captain Gregory, he would have been courtmartialed. He escaped, and was not heard from again. Sources:

1. R. C. Anderson, List of English Naval Captains 1642-1660, 1964.
2. J. J. Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy, 2nd Ed., 1987.
3. Frank Fox, A Distant Storm: the Four Days' Battle of 1666, 1996.