Admiral of the Blue Thomas Smith (1707 – 28 August 1762) was a Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator, credited with the invention of the divisional system that remains in use in the British navy. At the time of the incident the Gosport was harboured in Plymouth Sound and Smith was acting-commanding officer due to all of his superiors being ashore. While in command, a French corvette that had entered the Sound for shelter passed the Gosport while departing, and Smith signaled for the French captain ‘to haul in his pennant in respect to the king of Great Britain's colours’.
On 5 May 1730, Smith was promoted to the rank of captain and given the command of the 24-gun Success. during this period Smith spent a lot of time organising anti-invasion defences off the coast of Suffolk and Essex aboard the 40-gun Hastings. and in August 1755 he was made Commander-in-Chief, the Downs. Under this system the lieutenants on board a ship would be placed in charge of a division of the ship's company, and would be responsible for the health, welfare and efficiency of the men under their jurisdiction. By 1765 the system appears to have been the structure of choice for ships in the Royal Navy.