This report indicates that she had been born around 1789, joined the Royal Navy in her mid-teens about 1804, and served aboard the "Queen Charlotte" during its previous commission as flagship of the Channel Fleet in 1813–1814. It also claims that she was a highly capable sailor: an able seaman was a fully qualified member of the crew, who could steer with the ship's wheel, and navigate through shallow waters using a sounding lead as well as going up the rigging and out along the yardarms to adjust the ship's sails, while the "captain of the fore-top" was the leader of one of the elite teams of "topmen" who were the most skilled sailors aboard the ship, working high above the deck to control the upper sails of the foremast. To be captain of the fore-top aboard the flagship of Great Britain's premier battle fleet was to be recognized as one of the most capable sailors in the entire Royal Navy.