As a Rear Admiral he was a senior officer in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War in 1855. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station in 1857. Baynes refused to obey orders from the Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, James Douglas, to land marines on San Juan Island to engage American soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General William Selby Harney that had occupied the island on 27 July 1859. Accordingly he is credited with adopting a policy of non-intervention that helped to defuse the San Juan Boundary Dispute of 1859 between Britain and the United States of America.
Baynes
William Selby Harney