1804. self was very much cut by shot in hull, masts, sails, March, and rigging: a proof that the Osprey's carronades had been discharged with quickness and precision.

Hippo

and

It is exploits like these that afford examples of gallantry in the true import of the word. Had captain Younghusband, on discovering the size and strength of the Egyptienne, forborne to attack her, no imputation would have rested on his professional character. But he had a higher sense of the duties of a british naval commander: he chose to wrestle with his powerful antagonist; and so vigorous and effective was his attack, that nothing but lightness of heel saved the Egyptienne from becoming his prize. In such a creditable encounter we must not omit to state, that lieutenant Francis Augustus Collier was second in command of the Osprey.

On the 25th, in the forenoon, this same Egypmenes tienne fell in with the british 14-gun ship-sloop HipEgyp- pomenes, (ten long 12, and two long 8 pounders, tienne. and two 24-pounder carronades, all dutch caliber,)

captain Conway Shipley, and, mistaking her probably for the ship she had been so beaten by two days before, crowded sail to get off. The Hippomenes pursued, and, after an arduous chase of 54 hours, and a running fight of three hours and 20 minutes more, came up with and captured, the french ship. The Egyptienne struck the moment the sloop got fairly alongside; and, owing to her feeble resistance, inflicted no greater loss on the Hippomenes than slightly wounding one person, Mr. John Lloyd, a

master's mate.

The bold front and rational confidence of the Egyptienne in the beginning of the one action, and her panic-struck behaviour and hasty flight in that of the other, occasion the principal difference in the merits of the two. The conduct of captain Shipley was much enhanced by his readiness to do justice to the performance of his brother-commander of the Osprey, "whose gallantry," he says, "astonished them." It is probable that M. Placiard found a diffi

culty in persuading the merchants of Bordeaux 1804. again to place him in the command of one of their privateers.

Being 30 years old and much broken in her sheer, the Egyptienne was purchased into the british service merely as a prison-ship. Her name was changed to Antigua; and she was stationed at English harbour in the island of that name.

verine

On the 24th of March the british ship-sloop Wol- Wolverine, of 13 guns,* captain Henry Gordon, being and in latitude 48° 15' north, and longitude 23° 15' west, Blonde. on her way to Newfoundland with eight merchant vessels under her protection, discovered to the eastward, which was directly to-windward, two large sail bearing down for the convoy. At 2 h. 30 m. P.M. the strangers were made out to be vessels of force, and soon afterwards to be enemies. Finding it to be their intention to cut off the rear of the convoy, the Wolverine tacked; and, as she stood on between the latter and them, signalled the merchantmen to make the best of their way into port.

At 4 P. M., having arrived within half gun-shot of the larger vessel, which was the french frigate-privateer Blonde, of 30 guns, including 24 long 8-pounders on the main deck, captain Aregnaudeau, the Wolverine hove to on the starboard tack; whereupon the Blonde hauled her wind, and, after firing her broadside, wore, with the intention of raking the Wolverine. To frustrate this manoeuvre, and to maintain her leeward position, which, on account of the extreme lowness of her ports, and the consequent necessity of using her weather battery, was most advantageous to her, the Wolverine, before she discharged a gun, wore also. The Blonde then hove to on the Wolverine's larboard beam, within pistol-shot distance, and commenced a heavy and well-directed fire with great guns and small arms; which was returned by the british vessel with

* For the extraordinary manner in which this sloop was fitted see vol. ii. p. 457.

1804. considerable spirit, although one of her two long March. 18-pounders, in being shifted from the starboard to the larboard side, got jammed in the groove, and remained utterly useless. In this way the action continued for 50 minutes; when, having had her rigging and sails cut to pieces, her wheel shot away, and her hull, low down, so pierced with shot as to fill the hold with water, the Wolverine hauled down her colours.

Out of her complement of 76 men and boys, the Wolverine had one midshipman, one boatswain's mate, one quartermaster, and two seamen killed, and 10 seamen wounded, one of them mortally. The Blonde, formerly, it is believed, a french national" 24-gun corvette" of 580 or 600 tons, out of a complement of 240 men and boys, did not, according to the admission of her officers, sustain any greater loss than her first lieutenant mortally, and five of her men slightly wounded. The damage done to the Blonde was confined to her rigging and sails, and that comparatively trifling.

In less than a quarter of an hour after the last boat with the prisoners had quitted her, the Wolverine gave a a heel and went down; thereby affording an irrefragable proof, that the ship had been defended to the last extremity, and that her officers and crew were barely saved, by their surrender, from perishing in the deep. The long duration of the action was not without its effect. The second privateer, either from bad sailing or bad management, could not overtake one of the eight merchant vessels; nor could the Blonde withdraw herself in time to do more than capture two of the number: the remainder effected their escape.

A 50 minutes' close engagement between two ships so decidedly unequal in force entitled the weaker, although the vanquished party, to at least as much praise, as is usually bestowed upon the victor in a well-matched contest. Had the Blonde been a national ship, and even worse armed, worse

66

manned, and worse fought than she was, captain 1804. Gordon and his first lieutenant would have been pro- March. moted for their gallantry, and the conduct of all on board the Wolverine been held up as an example of the devotedness of british seamen, in upholding the honour of their flag, and in protecting the commercial interests of their country. But, as it was a privateer, a " paltry privateer," in the words of the Annual Register, which had captured the king's ship, the action of the Wolverine and Blonde was considered to be discreditable to the former, and therefore not worthy to be recorded in the annals of the british navy. To make success the sole criterion of merit is as unjust, as it is discouraging: where, then, is the stimulus to persevere in an almost hopeless, or even in a barely doubtful cause; and what more can a seaman do, than stand to his gun until his vessel sinks under him?

This is as the account stands in our first edition; and, although not a line of the details here given is to be found in any other publication, we may usefully add the following from the work of a contemporary, published since; and to whom, we believe, that information on the subject was granted which was refused to us. 66 Captain Gordon, though many years a prisoner, was promoted to the rank of post-captain, and, on his return to England, most honourably acquitted by the sentence of a courtmartial." The admiralty list informs us, that captain Gordon was made post on the 8th of April, 1805: it was this lapse of nearly 13 months, and our unacquaintance, for the reason already stated, with the requested particulars of his case, which occasioned us to suppose that captain Gordon had not been rewarded in the manner he deserved.

On the 26th of March the british 36-gun frigate Apollo. Apollo, captain John William Taylor Dixon, and

* Brenton, vol. iii. p. 391. The complement of the Blonde is here reduced to "180 men"; but, in confirmation of the accuracy of our account, we may state, that the ship was captured by the British a few months afterwards with 240 men on board..

April.

1804. 28-gun frigate Carysfort, captain Robert Fanshawe, sailed from the Cove of Cork with 69 merchant vessels under convoy, bound to the West-Indies. On the 2d of April, at 3 A. M., while steering southsouth-east with a strong south-west gale, to the astonishment of every person on board, the Apollo struck the ground. The ship continued striking very heavily, and making much water: in about 10 minutes, however, the Apollo beat over the shoal, and, having lost her rudder, could not be steered. The ship then put before the wind, but, from the quantity of water she had made, and was still making, with every probability of soon foundering. In about five minutes, the Apollo struck the ground again, and continued striking with such tremendous shocks, that it was feared the ship would instantly go to pieces. The three masts were then cut away, and the ship fell on the starboard side with her gunwale under water. The violence with which the ship struck the ground, and the weight of the guns, those on the quarterdeck tearing away the bulwarks, soon made the frigate a perfect wreck abaft: only four or five guns, therefore, could be fired to alarm the convoy and give notice of danger.

Most of the officers and men were entirely naked, the captain among the rest; and who stood upon the cabin skylight grating, holding fast by the stump of the mizenmast, and making use of every soothing expression which could have been suggested to encourage men in so perilous a situation. Daylight, which appeared at about 4 h. 30 m., discovered the land, at the distance of about 200 yards, a long sandy beach reaching to Cape Mondego, three leagues to the southward. At the same time the melancholy sight presented itself of between 20 and 30 sail of the convoy on shore both to the northward and southward, and several of them perfect wrecks. An appearance of the ship's parting occasioned the crew, or the 220 that remained, (about 20 having perished between decks and otherwise,) by the captain's orders to remove to the forepart of the ship;