Having joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer, young Thomas qualified as a Lieutenant on 9 February 1707. His passing certificate, giving an indication of Thomas’s skills as a mariner, read as follows:
In pursuance of the directions of His Royal Highness signifyed to us by letter from Mr Burchett of 29th January past, we have examined Mr Thos. Gadsden and find he hath gone to sea near five years in Her Maj. shipps undermentioned in the quality here expressed, viz:
Swiftsure Volunteer by order Yr. 2 M. 5 W. 1 D. 4
Harwich Ditto 0 4 3 6
Swiftsure Midshipman 2 0 1 1
He produceth a journall kept by him in Her Maj. shipp the Swiftsure and Certificates from Capt. Wynn and Capt. Griffith of his sobriety, diligence, obedience he commands and recommendations for performance – he can splice, knott, reel a sail, work a shipp in sailing, keep a reckoning of a shipp’s way by plain sailing and Mercator, observe by sun or starr, find the true amplitude, shift his tydes and is qualified to do the duty of an able seaman and midshipman. Dated 9th Feb 1707
Thomas’s naval career ended on 21 March 1712 when he was discharged from HMS Dreadnought on that date and remained on half-pay.
Swiftsure
gadsdensoftheworld 