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## A Naval Career Built on Unusual Circumstances
Fitzjames entered the Royal Navy in 1825 at the age of twelve, serving as a first-class volunteer on HMS Pyramus. His early career followed the standard pattern for a junior officer — ship to ship, rank to rank — but several of his early postings gave him experience that distinguished him from most of his contemporaries.
In 1834, he joined the Euphrates Expedition, a British attempt to establish a steam navigation route through Mesopotamia — modern-day Iraq — as part of a broader effort to maintain communications between Britain and India. The expedition, led by Colonel Francis Chesney, attempted to bring two small steamers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, up the Euphrates River from its mouth to the Mediterranean Sea. It was an engineering and logistical challenge of considerable difficulty in an unfamiliar environment. The Tigris was destroyed by a sudden storm in May 1836. Fitzjames survived and continued with the Euphrates. The expedition ultimately failed in its strategic objectives, but Fitzjames returned with navigational experience and a reputation for staying calm in difficult conditions.
In 1836, he carried official dispatches across the Syrian desert from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean coast — a solo overland journey under conditions that required endurance and judgment. The specific details of this journey contributed to the image of Fitzjames as an officer who could handle demanding physical circumstances without complaint.
He served as a gunnery lieutenant in the Egyptian-Ottoman War of 1839–1840, participating in naval operations along the Syrian coast. He later saw action in the First Opium War, during which he was wounded during the capture of Zhenjiang in July 1842. He wrote a poem about the campaign under the pseudonym “Tom Bowline” — a small biographical detail that has attracted comment because it suggests a personality comfortable with humor and self-expression alongside professional duty.