John Hayes (Royal Navy officer)

Rear-Admiral John Hayes CB (1767 or 1775 – 7 April 1838) was a prominent British Royal Navy officer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Hayes was best known for his skill at seamanship and his interest in the design and construction of naval vessels, beginning with his childhood education at Deptford Dockyard where his uncle Adam was a master shipbuilder. During his naval service he participated in the first and the last significant frigate actions of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, from the inconclusive engagement between Embuscade and HMS Boston in 1793 and the capture of USS President in 1815. After the war's end, Hayes was appointed as superintendent of HMNB Devonport and later was commander in chief off West Africa.