of having contributed to the success of a general action, or to the glory of some well-contested single encounter.

Our officer soon made his presence felt by the enemy, for by his vigilance he kept them in a state of continual alarm. At this time, the French were employing all their skill and activity in preparing, in the various seaports contiguous to Great Britain, a vast armament for the invasion of those shores that have never seen a successful enemy upon them since the Norman conquest. Nothing now was spoken of on one side of the Channel but praams, flat-bottomed boats, and flotillas; and, on the other, sea fencibles, corps of loyal volunteers, and catama

rans.

The service on which our commodore was now employed gave but little scope to his ambition, and he performed nothing brilliant, solely because the enemy would give him no opportunity. But his untiring watchfulness, though it brought him no increase of glory, insured the safety of his country, and security to the commerce of England in the Channel.

But he was not wholly confined to the duties of vigilance, for on the 17th of May, 1804, he made an attack on a French flotilla lying at anchor off Ostend.

This was a bold, well

planned, but unsuccessful attempt to prevent the junction of the enemy's flotilla at Flushing with that of Ostend. The failure principally arose from the want of a sufficient number of gunboats, which, from the shallowness of water in which these vessels move, could alone act against the enemy with effect. Fifty-nine sail of the Flushing division reached Ostend in safety; and the English force, on the falling of the tide, were compelled to haul off into deep water, after being nearly the whole day engaged, and with considerable loss.

We shall give the narrative of this little affair in his own words, in a despatch addressed to Lord Keith.

66

MY LORD,-Information from all quarters, and the evident state of readiness in which the enemy's armaments were in Helvoet, Flushing, and Ostend, indicating the probability of a general movement from those ports, I reinforced Captain Manby, off Helvoet, with one ship, and directed Captain Hancock, of the Cruiser, stationed in-shore, to combine his operations and the Rattler's with the squadron of gunboats stationed off Ostend. The Antelope, Penelope, and Amiable, occupied a central position in sight both of Flushing and Ostend, in anxious expectation of the enemy's appearance. Yesterday,

at half-past five A.M., I received information from Captain Hancock, then off Ostend, that the enemy's flotilla was hauling out of that pier, and had already twenty-one one-masted vessels, and one schooner outside in the roads; and at half past seven the same morning I had the satisfaction to see the Flushing flotilla, of fifty-nine sail, viz. two ship-rigged praams, nineteen schooners, and thirty-eight schuyts, steering along-shore from that port towards Ostend, under circumstances which allowed me to hope I should be able to bring them to action. The signal was made in the Cruiser and Rattler for an enemy in the E.S.E. to call their attention from Ostend; the squadron weighed the moment the flood made, and allowed of the heavier ships following them over the banks; the signals to chase and engage were obeyed with alacrity, spirit, and judgment by the active and experienced officers your lordship has done me the honour to place under my orders. Captains Hancock and Mason attacked this formidable line with the greatest gallantry and address, attaching themselves particularly to the two praams, both of them of greater force than themselves, independent of the cross fire from the schooners and schuyts. I sent the Amiable by signal to support them. The Penelope (having an able pilot, Mr. Thornton)

VOL. I.

Y

on signal being made to engage, Captain Broughton worked up to the centre of the enemy's line, as near as the shoal water would allow, while the Antelope went round the Stroom Sand, to cut the van off from Ostend. Unfortunately our gunboats were not in sight, having, as I undersood since, devoted their attention to preventing the Ostend division from moving westward. The enemy attempted to get back to Flushing; but being harassed by the Cruiser and the Rattler, and the wind coming more easterly against them, they were obliged to run the gauntlet to the westward, keeping close to the beach under the protection of the batteries. Having found a passage for the Antelope within the Stroom Sand, she was enabled to bring her broadside to bear on the headmost schooners before they got the length of Ostend. The leader struck immediately, and the crew deserted her she was, however, recovered by the followers. The artillery from the town and camp, and the rowing gunboats from the pier, kept up a constant and welldirected fire for their support; our shot, however, which went over the schooners, going ashore among the horse artillery, interrupted it in a degree; still, however, it was from the shore we received the greatest annoyance; for the schooners and schuyts crowding along could not bring

their prow guns to bear without altering their course towards us, which they could not venture; and their side guns, though numerous and well served, were very light. In this manner the Penelope and Antelope engaged every part of their long line, from four to eight, while the Amiable, Cruiser, and Rattler continued to press their rear. Since two o'clock the sternmost praam struck her colours and ran on shore; but the artillery-men from the army got on board, and she renewed her fire on the Amiable with the precision of a land battery, from which that ship suffered much. Captain Bolton speaks much in praise of Lieutenant Mather, who is wounded. Several of the schooners and schuyts immediately under the fire of the ships were driven on shore in the like manner, and recovered by the army. At eight, the tide falling and leaving us in little more water than we could draw, we were reluctantly obliged to haul off into deeper water to keep afloat, and the enemy's vessels that were not on shore, or too much shattered, were thus able to reach Ostend,-these and the Ostend division having hauled into the basin. I have anchored in such a position as to keep an eye on them; and I shall endeavour to close with them again, if they move into deeper water. I have to regret that, from the depth of water in which