English Captain: William Davis

There were two William Davies in Pepys' list, who served in the Restoration navy. This one was probably more properly called "William Davis". This is about the second one in Pepys' list. He apparently was a captain in 1665 and died before 1689. He apparently commanded the hired merchant ship George of Bristol in 1665. This was a very small hired ship with 20 guns and a crew of 110 men. William Davies or Davis commanded the George of Bristol from 14 March 1665 until 22 January 1666, when she was wrecked in bad weather. In early June 1665, he was in the Bristol Channel, engaged in commerce protection. There was no loss of life in the wreck. In 1666, he commanded the Guinea frigate, although he does not appear in any of Frank Fox's lists for 1666. Sources:

1. Frank Fox, A Distant Storm: the Four Days' Battle of 1666, 1996.

2. Frank Fox, "Hired Men-of-War, 1664-7", Part II, The Mariner's Mirror Vol.84 No.2 (May 1998).

3. David Syrett, R. L. DiNardo, The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815, 1994.

4. J.R. Tanner, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Naval Manuscripts in the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, Vol.I, 1903.