1799 as a captain in the American Navy.

In several notable instances the privateersmen tried conclusions
with ships that flew the royal ensign, and got the better of
them. The hero of an uncommonly brilliant action of this sort was
Captain George Geddes of Philadelphia, who was entrusted with the
Congress, a noble privateer of twenty-four guns and two hundred
men. Several of the smaller British cruisers had been sending
parties ashore to plunder estates along the southern shores, and
one of them, the sloop of war Savage, had even raided
Washington's home at Mount Vernon. Later she shifted to the coast
of Georgia in quest of loot and was unlucky enough to fall
athwart Captain Geddes in the Congress.

The privateer was the more formidable ship and faster on the
wind, forcing Captain Sterling of the Savage to accept the
challenge. Disabled aloft very early in the fight, Captain Geddes
was unable to choose his position, for which reason they
literally battled hand-to-hand, hulls grinding against each
other, the gunners scorched by the flashes of the cannon in the
ports of the opposing ship, with scarcely room to ply the
rammers, and the sailors throwing missiles from the decks, hand
grenades, cold shot, scraps of iron, belaying-pins.

As the vessels lay interlocked, the Savage was partly dismasted
and Captain Geddes, leaping upon the forecastle head, told the
boarders to follow him. Before they could swing their cutlases
and dash over the hammock-nettings, the British boatswain waved
his cap and yelled that the Savage had surrendered. Captain
Sterling was dead, eight others were killed, and twenty-four