In the mean time, his friend, Captain Locker, of the Lowestoffe, who had been suffering ill health, from the climate, almost ever since his arrival, found it necessary, for the preservation of his existence, to quit that ship, arid return to England, about the middle of the year 1779. It was soon after this period, that Sir Peter Parker, who was in February advanced to be Vice-Admiral of the Blue, detached a small squadron, among which was the Lowestoffe, then commanded by Captain Charles Parker, for the purpose of intercepting some Spanish register-ships, in the Bay of Dulce. The British squadron, under the Honourable Captain John Luttrell, found that these register-ships had taken shelter under the strong fortress of St. Fernando de Omoa, which is situated on the south side of the Bay of Honduras, and on the Gulph of Dulce: but, fortunately falling in with the Porcupine sloop, Captain Pakenham, which had a short time before been sent to co-operate with a small detachment of troops under the command of Captain Dalrymple, dispatched by the Governor of Jamaica, to drive away the Spaniards from infesting the baymen on the Musquito and Bay of Honduras shores, which service they had completely effected, it was judiciously agreed, between the naval and military commanders, to unite their forces, and proceed immediately to the attack of Fort Omoa, Accordingly, on the 16th of October, they stormed and carried the fort: taking, and carrying away, the register-ships, on board of which were about three millions of piastres; as well as two hundred and fifty quintals of quicksilver, found on shore in the fortress. From the advantages of participating in this brilliant enterprise, Captain Locker had been thus deprived by want of health; and his second lieutenant, singular as it may seem, by an excess of patronage. While these transactions were taking place, however, Captain Nelson had, on the 11th of June 1779, obtained his post-rank, through the same generous influence as withdrew him from the now fortunate Lowestoffe. He had, therefore, neither reason nor inclination to complain, for he had not yet completed his twenty-first year. In the bloom and vigour of youth, with an age of experience in the service, acquired within nine years, he was well qualified for the situation to which he had been thus liberally promoted. The possession of Fort Omoa continued little more than a month. A considerable body of Spaniards invested it, on the 28th of November; and the garrison and crew of the Porcupine, left for it's protection, were so reduced by a pestilential disorder which raged among them, that they were constrained to evacuate the fort, after spiking the guns and embarking the ammunition and stores.