1807. as well as of a redoubt on the point, mounting 31 Feb. heavy guns.

Turk

At about 10 A. M. the firing commenced, and in ish half an hour the turkish 64 ran on shore on the ships run on asiatic side of the stream. In a few minutes aftershore. wards the pasha's frigate, and all the other vessels, except one frigate, one corvette, and one gun-boat, did the same. 'The two latter were captured. The frigate cut her cables to escape from the heavy fire of the Pompée and Thunderer, and was making for the european side; when the Active, by signal, weighed and stood after her, but was unable to prevent the Turks from running their ship on shore. Captain Moubray then sent his boats, under the command of lieutenant George Wickens Willes and Walter Croker, who took out the crew of the frigate, and afterwards destroyed her.

Their

struc

&c.

As the redoubt on the point maintained its fire, de- and the turkish ships that had run on shore near it tion, kept up their colours, while a part of the crews remained armed on the beach, and a considerable body of asiatic troops, both horse and foot, appeared on the hills, the British were under the necessity of continuing the cannonade. A few shells from the Pompée dispersed the Asiatics, and lieutenant Mark Oates, of that ship's marines, landed and brought off their green standard. Meanwhile the boats of the Thunderer and Standard, under the command of lieutenants John Carter, John Waller, and Thomas Colby, boarded and destroyed the three turkish frigates on shore on the asiatic side; and lieutenant Edward Nicolls of the Standard's marines, to whom the duty of burning the 40-gun frigate had been assigned, struck and carried off the flag of the captain pasha. Profiting by the consternation of the Turks from the explosions on all sides of them, lieutenant Nicolls, accompanied by lieutenant of marines William Finmore and lieutenant Lestock Francis Boileau, entered the redoubt, the Turks

Feb.

retreating as the party approached. He then set 1807. fire to the gabions, and spiked the guns; eight of which were brass, and carried immensely large marble balls. The expected explosion of the lineof-battle ship, which the Repulse, by signal from the commander in chief, was assisting the Pompée's boats to destroy, obliged the British to retire from the shore before they had quite completed the demolition of the redoubt. The boats detached upon this service were commanded by lieutenant William Fairbrother Carroll, having under him lieutenant Walter Croker, lieutenants of marines David Holt and William Lawrie, master's mate David Sinclair, and midshipmen Thomas Smith, George Parkyns, Edmund Lyons, and Norfolk King.

loss.

The loss sustained by the British in their engage- British ment with the turkish squadron and the redoubt amounted to three seamen and one marine killed, and one officer,* nine seamen, and four marines wounded, belonging to the Thunderer, five seamen wounded belonging to the Pompée, one officer and five seamen wounded belonging to the Standard, and one marine wounded, to the Endymion; total, four killed and 26 wounded: making, with the previous loss, 10 killed and 77 wounded, the amount in the official return.

John

up the

At 5 P. M., having destroyed the turkish squadron, Sir and left the Active, in conjunction with the prize- procorvette, gun-boat, and a division of the Pompée's ceeds boats to effect the total destruction of the battery, Straits. sir Sidney with the remainder of his division got under way; and, sir John having also weighed, the whole squadron pursued its course up the channel, with a strong breeze from south by west, which was as fair as it could blow. At 8 P. M. the ships passed Galipoli, and, entering the sea of Marmora, stood

* In consequence of the manner in which the general return of loss is drawn up at the foot of sir John Duckworth's public letter, we are unable to specify what officer was wounded in any of the separate services performed during this expedition.

2

1807. for Constantinople. The british admiral carried little sail during the night; and on the following day, Feb. the 20th, the wind lessened considerably.

An

off

The chors delay caused by this double misfortune made it nearly 10 P. M. before the squadron came to anchor; islands. and then, not off the town of Constantinople, but off the Prince's islands, about eight miles from it.

Prince's

Sir John

re

mains there

spatches

Con

stan

On the 21st, at daybreak, the wind blew moderately from the south-east; and every one in the squadron, except the admiral and the ambassador, and de expected probably that the ships would weigh, and, Endy- in the letter as well as spirit of sir John's instrucmion to tions, proceed off the town, to be ready to bombard it the instant Mr. Arbuthnot should give the word. tinople In fact it would appear that, as the ambassador, his suite, and the british residents of Constantinople were completely out of the hands of the Turks, and as hostilities had actually commenced between the latter and the British, the whole of the contingencies referred to in sir John's instructions were got rid of, and that therefore the admiral was now at liberty to act upon his own responsibility. Sir John, however, thought otherwise, and preferred consulting the ambassador, whose pacific disposition he must by this time have known. The british squadron, consequently, remained at anchor; and the Endymion was the only vessel that moved, or that made an attempt to move, towards Constantinople.

Corres

pondence be

tween

The frigate, with the ambassador's despatches, anchored at about 11 h. 30 m. A. м. within four miles of the town, that being as near as, according to sir John's letter, the lightness of the wind and the buth- strength of the current would permit her to approach. In these despatches Mr. Arbuthnot declares," that Porte. the british fleet will avail itself of the first favour

Mr.Ar

not and

the

able wind to proceed towards Constantinople ;" tells the Turks, that "the arrival of the fleet ought to convince them that, when orders have been given to british officers, no difficulties, no dangers, can retard their execution a single moment;" and promises that,

1807.

"in case a favourable answer arrives on the day following at sunset, all hostile demonstration shallcease." Feb.

John

Turks.

On the 21st, at daybreak, "sir John Thomas Sir Duckworth, vice-admiral of the white and knight of threatthe bath,"* as he very properly styles himself, fires ens the his first epistolary broadside at the turkish fleet. He informs the Sublime Porte that, "having it in his power to destroy the capital and all the turkish vessels, the plan of operations which his duty prescribes to him is, in consequence, very clearly marked out.” Was ever any thing so happily expressed? The viceadmiral then demands, as the only alternative, to be put in possession of the turkish ships and of stores sufficient for their equipment, and gives the turkish government half an hour after the translation of his note to the reis effendi, to determine upon the proposal.

tinua

ence.

As a proof of the conciliatory spirit of the Turks, Conand of how much was to be expected from them by tion of negotiation, they refused to permit the flag of truce corresto land. On the same evening Mr. Arbuthnot pondaddressed a note the reis effendi, and declared, that "the answer to the admiral's note must be delivered in half an hour." Whether or not the officer who carried this note was permitted to land is uncertain. Midnight of the 21st produced another threatening note from the admiral, beginning thus: "As it has been discovered by our glasses, that the time granted the Sublime Porte to take its decision is employed in warping the ships of war into places more susceptible of defence, and in constructing batteries along the coast, it is the duty of the viceadmiral to lose no time."+

* This honour was conferred upon him on the 6th of June, 1801, on his return from taking quiet possession of the danish West-India islands, and probably as a compensation for his loss of prize-money, owing to the almost immediate restoration of the captured colonies.

†These extracts are from the copies of the correspondence in the London journals, as translated from the Moniteur. This, which may account for the occasional obscurity of the language, is the only way in which they have been made public.

Oppor

execut

re

1807. Daybreak on the 22d arrived, and with it appeared Feb. at the admiral's mast-head the gladdening signal of Prepare to weigh." The breeze, which continued tunity to blow from the south-east, freshened in the forelost of noon; but the preparative flag still stuck fast to ing No. 66. Towards 4 P. M. the wind began to slacken, threats and at 5 P. M. subsided to nearly a calm. The ships remained at their anchors; and the opportunity of showing, that the threats, of which the admiral and the ambassador had been so lavish, were not empty boastings, was lost. The effect of mortified pride was very serious upon the ambassador; for he Am- was taken sick that very afternoon, and became so bassa- ill on the day following, that the admiral, whose sick. frame was formed of tougher materials, had the whole burden of diplomacy upon himself.

dorgets

Sir

acts in

stead.

Sir John's first letter in the character of ambasJoin sador bears date on the 23d, and is written in a very his lofty and choleric tone. The vice-admiral begins by practising what, in moderate language, may be called a ruse. He says: "When the Active joins me, or even when my squadron shall be joined by all our naval force, even that shall not occasion any alteration in the terms I have proposed. I must tell you frankly, I will not consent to lose any more time. I owe it to my sovereign and to my own honour not to suffer myself to be duped, and those who are capable of thinking so meanly of others, justly become themselves the object of suspicion. You are putting your ships of war in motion; you take every method of increasing the means of defence; but if the Sublime Porte really wishes to save its capital from the dreadful calamities which are ready to burst upon it, the thought of which is shocking to our feelings of humanity, you will be sent here very early to-morrow morning with full powers to conclude with me the work of peace, which Mr. Arbuthnot would by this time have set out to conclude on shore, if he had not been prevented by a very serious indisposition. I now declare to you, for the last