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1799. amounted to no more than two seamen killed and Nov. one wounded.

Being, on account of the shot-holes in her larboard side, and the direction of the wind, which blew strong from the westward, unable to enter Gibraltar, the Speedy ran for Tetuan bay; where on the 7th, at 2 A. M., she came to an anchor, and commenced stopping her numerous leaks. The spanish gun-boats are represented to have lost 11 men killed, besides several wounded; and four of the gun-boats, it ap pears, were seen from the rock of Gibraltar to strike to the Speedy.

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Having rendered herself seaworthy, the Speedy stood across the Strait, and anchored at Gibraltar. The following account of what followed we extract from a contemporary work, but must preface it by stating, that the account of the Speedy's action with the gun-boats is the most confused and imperfect of any that has been published. Indeed, according to captain Brenton, his brother sustained two separate attacks, on different days; but, upon the authority of the Speedy's log, one only occurred. "The captain and crew," says our contemporary, much out of humour with general O'Hara, the governor; but when captain Brenton waited on him, his excellency thus addressed him: I conclude, sir, you think I have treated you very ill in not affording you assistance, but I have made arrangements with the governor of Algesiras, to prevent this town being kept in a constant alarm and annoyance by the spanish gun-boats, which in consequence are never to be fired on from the rock. There is the copy of a letter which I have written to the admiralty, and I most sincerely wish you may obtain your promotion. The letter was so handsomely worded, that the captain could say nothing about the transaction of the preceding night, and shortly after was promoted to the rank of post-captain."*

* Brenton, vol. ii. p. 490.

بہت

The Speedy's vigorous attack had created such a 1799. panic on board the gun-boats, that they remained Nov. three days under Fort Barbary, and then bore up for Malaga, instead of standing across to Algesiras ; thus leaving the trade through the Straits unmolested for two months, at the end of which the Spaniards, having recovered from their alarm, managed to get back to their port.

Among the many weary hours to which a naval life is subject, none surely can equal those passed on board a stationary flag-ship; especially in a port where there is a constant egress and regress of cruisers, some sailing forth to seek prizes, others returning with prizes already in their possession. During the whole of the year 1797, and the greater part of 1798, the 54-gun ship Abergavenny, as she lay moored in Port-Royal harbour, Jamaica, daily exposed her officers and men to these tantalizing torments. At length it was suggested, that a small tender, sent off the east end of the island, or even into Cow bay scarcely out of sight of the harbour, might acquire for the parent-ship some share of the honours that were reaping by the cruisers around her. A 38-gun frigate's launch having been obtained, and armed with a swivel in the bow, the next difficulty was to find an officer who, to a willingness, could add the other requisites, for so perilous and uncomfortable a service. It was not every man who would like to be cramped up night and day in an open boat, exposed to all kinds of weather, as well as to the risk of being captured by some of the many picaroons that infested the coast.

An acting lieutenant of the Abergavenny, one, on whom nature had conferred an ardent mind, habit, an indifference about personal comfort, and 18 or 20 years of active service, an experience in all the duties of his profession, cheerfully consented to take charge of the cruiser-boat. Mr. Michael Fitton soon gave proofs of his fitness for the task he had undertaken; and the crew of the Abergavenny could now and

1799. then greet a prize of their own, among the many that dropped anchor near them. With a part of the funds that a succession of prizes had brought to the ship, a decked vessel was at length purchased: with the fruits of her gains, another; and so on, until the schooner, whose little exploit we are now about to record, came, in her turn, to be the Abergavenny's tender.

Oct.

On the 5th of October the schooner Ferret, mounting six 3-pounders, with a crew of 45 men and boys, and commanded by acting lieutenant Michael Fitton, while cruising off the north-east end of Jamaica, discovered a large schooner, with eight ports of a side and an english ensign and pendant, bearing down upon her. Judging from the immense size of the ensign and length of the pendant, (one large enough for a line-of-battle ship, and the other longer than was worn by any british man of war,) that she was an enemy's cruiser, lieutenant Fitton tacked to speak her. Resolved, at the same time, with such apparent odds against him, to try for the weathergage, he trimmed his sails as if close hauled, and yet edged a little off the wind, to induce the schooner, who had now substituted spanish for english colours, to come into the tender's wake. Having at length got her there, the latter hauled up, and soon weathered the Spaniard.

A brisk action now commenced, and lasted for half an hour; when the privateer sheered off, and made sail. Lieutenant Fitton immediately proceeded in chase, and at 11 P. M., with the help of her sweeps, the Ferret again got alongside of the priva teer. The action was now renewed, and continued as long as before; when the tender, having had her rigging and sails much cut, and being close in with San-Jago de Cuba, gave over the chase. On account of the privateer's firing high, the Ferret incurred no loss; but it was afterwards ascertained, by the capture of some of the men belonging to the same privateer, that the latter had 11 men killed and 20 wounded,

out of a crew of 100, and that she mounted fourteen 1799. 6-pounders. The inhabitants of the east end of Oct. Jamaica were spectators of the contest; and, seeing the disparity of force between the two vessels, and that the british vessel followed the privateer towards the Cuba shore, sent information to Port-Royal, that the Abergavenny's tender had been captured.

It is not the sole misfortune under which the commanding officer of a tender labours, that, while he incurs all the risk, and all the responsibility, he only shares prize-money as one of the lieutenants of the flag-ship: the case is harder where that flag-ship remains idle in port, otherwise the prizes she might make by cruising would perhaps afford to the tender's commander a counterbalancing advantage. Another misfortune, and one more sensibly felt by an enterprising officer, is, that his little skirmishes with enemy's privateers, unless he takes a vessel which the admiral or the captain of the flag-ship wishes to have purchased into the service, or that some relative or protégé of the admiral or captain is on board the tender, are seldom noticed. Desirous as we have been to get at all these cases, we are satisfied that there are many, highly creditable to the parties concerned, of which the public yet knows nothing.

On the 11th of October, at 7 h. 30 m. A. M., the british 38-gun frigate Révolutionnaire, captain Thomas Twysden, cruising off the coast of Ireland in a heavy gale from the south-south-west, discovered to-leeward and immediately chased a strange ship; which, at 5 P. M., after a run of 114 miles in the nine hours and a half, hauled down her colours without, as it appears, making any resistance, and proved to be the french privateer Bordelais, of Bordeaux, an extraordinary fine ship, mounting 24 guns on a flush deck, 16 of them long brass 12-pounders, and the remainder brass 36-pounder carronades, with a complement of 202 men.

The Bordelais was of very large dimensions, mea

1799. suring 625 tons, and was esteemed one of the fastest Oct. sailing privateers out of France. This was only her second cruise: in her former one she had taken 29 valuable prizes. It was a singular coincidence, not merely that the Bordelais was constructed by the same builder who had constructed the Révolu tionnaire, but that the builder, at a splendid dinner given by the owners of the Bordelais to her officers soon after the termination of her first trip, should have said, "England has not a cruiser that will ever touch her except the Révolutionnaire; and, should she ever fall in with that frigate in blowing weather, and be under her lee, she will be taken."* The Bordelais was added to the british navy by the same name, and established with 22 carronades, 32-pounders, and two long nines, and a complement of 195 men and boys.

On the 12th of October, at 10 P. M., the british ship sloop Trincomalé, of 16 guns, probably 6-pounders, and about 100 men and boys, captain John Rowe, cruising in the Straits of Babelmandel, fell in with the french ship-privateer Iphigénie, of 22 guns. (16 long 8 and 6 pounders, and four 36-pounder brass carronades,) captain Mabroux. A smart en gagement immediately ensued, and was warmly maintained for two hours, when the combatants fell on board each other. Captain Mabroux, placing great confidence in the number of his crew, had had the Iphigénie's studdingsail-booms rigged out, and grap pling irons placed at their extremities, ready to board; when, suddenly, the Trincomalé, by accident, blew up, leaving alive of her officers and crew only one seaman and one lascar.

some

As the ships, at the time of the explosion, touched each other, the shock stove in the side of the pri vateer, and forced the main and mizen masts clear out of her. In a very few minutes the Iphigénie went down, and along with her, about 115 officers and

* Marshall, vol. ii. p. 205.

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