Richard, Earl Howe (1726-99) participated in some of the Royal Navy's most significant conflicts. As captain of the Dunkirk, he fired the first shots of the Seven Years' War off the eastern coast of North America in 1755. After being forced to juggle the demands of the American Revolutionary War with the British government's reluctance to put the ships he needed at his disposal, he resigned his command of the North American Station, but later made...