Promoted to captain on 22 March 1779, Pole became commanding officer of the first-rate HMS Britannia, flagship of Rear Admiral George Darby, Second-in-Command of the Channel Squadron. He transferred to the command of the sixth-rate HMS Hussar in 1780 which ran aground off Hell Gate although he was acquitted at the subsequent court-martial. He was given command of the fifth-rate HMS Success and in her, while undertaking an escort mission in support of the armed store-ship HMS Vernon, captured and then destroyed the Spanish frigate Santa Catalina in the Strait of Gibraltar in the action of 16 March 1782.
