1

1

Modeste

1808. much greater force, perhaps it would have been bet

ter to have directed the whole fire at the main, Sept.

mast-head; that fallen, the ship might have become
an easy prey to the Laurel.*

As the absurdity of this statement is so glaring,
as to deprive it of any noxious effect upon the
memory of captain Woollcombe, (for, as was
the case with lieutenant Edwards of the Boston,
captain Barker of the Tribune, captain Brown of
the Asia, and Mr. Metherell, the master of the Car-
nation, he also was dead when his conduct was im-
pugned,) we shall quit the subject with remarking,
how unfortunate it was, that captain Edward Pelham
Brenton himself did not command the Laurel when
she fell in with the Canonnière.

On the 8th of October, in the evening, the british chases 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Modeste, captain the ho

nourable George Elliot, cruising off Sandshead, bay

of Bengal, after a nine hours' chase, and a running Jéna. fight of nearly one hour, captured the french corvette

Jéna, still commanded by lieutenant Morice. The
corvette, when she struck, was a complete wreck in
her sails and rigging, and had cut away her stern
boat and booms, and thrown three of her remaining
boats overboard; but suffered no loss. The Modeste
was not so fortunate, having had her master, Mr.
William Donovan, represented as a very valuable and
gallant officer, killed, and one seaman wounded.

The Jéna was afterwards added to the british navy,
in lieu, and under the name, of the ship-sloop Victor,
which it had been found necessary to break up; and
whose 18 guns (16 carronades, 32-pounders, and
two sixes) and crew were placed on board the former.
As the new Victor was neither so large nor so fine a
vessel as the old Victor, and the latter was a similar
vessel, except in point of rig, to the british 18-gun
brig-sloop, it is probable that the statement in
captain Elliot's letter, that the Jéna was “pierced for
* Brenton, vol. iv. p. 273.

† See p. 101.

and captures

sends

at an

24 guns,” is a mistake. Unimportant as this error 1808. may appear, the facility with which Mr. Steel could

June. change “pierced for” into “mounting,” or “of," contributed, we verily believe, when this corvette again got into the hands of the French, to dignify her with the appellation of “ frigate.”

On the 11th of June, in the evening, the british Capt. 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Euryalus, captain the das honourable George Heneage Lawrence Dundas, and Ben 18-gun brig-sloop Cruiser, captain George Charles to deMackenzie, being in the Great Belt, discovered off scroy the entrance of the river Naskon several vessels at vessels anchor very close to the shore. Captain Dundas imme-chor. diately despatched four boats from the frigate and brig, under the orders of lieutenant Michael Head, assisted by midshipmen Francis Wemyss, James William Otto Ricketts, Bernard Yeoman, Jacob Richards, Philip Gaymore, Richard Moffat, and Edward Loveday, to endeavour to destroy them.

Lieutenant Head and his party, in a very gallant Galey manner, boarded and carried a large danish gun-oflieut. vessel, mounting two long 18-pounders, with a crew of 64 men, and moored within half pistol-shot of a battery of three long 18-pounders, and of a body of troops that lined the beach. Besides bringing off the gun-boat, the British set fire to and destroyed two large vessels fitted for the reception of troops; and the whole service was executed with so slight a loss to the British as one man slightly wounded. On the part of the Danes, however, the loss was serious, amounting to seven men killed and 12 wounded.

Although, since the last affair at Copenhagen, the Danes had lost all, or nearly all, of their line-of-battle boats. ships and frigates, 'they possessed some very stout brigs of war, and an immense number of well-armed gun-boats. In the calms that frequently prevailed in the danish waters, the latter were particularly destructive to the british cruisers and convoys. The convoys were generally under the protection of one or more gun-brigs, a description of vessel from their

Head.

Danish gun

and capture Tickler

Attack a convoy

1808. light carronade-armament peculiarly exposed to sucJune. cessful attacks by the long 18, 24, and in some

cases 36, pounders of the gun-boats. On the 4th of

June, during a calm in the Great Belt, the Tickler
Attack gun-brig, commanded by lieutenant John W. Skinner,

was attacked by four danish gun-boats, and, after
a conflict of four hours, in which she had her
commander and 14 men killed and 22 wounded, out
of a complement of 50 men and boys, was obliged
to surrender. For the loss of their vessel under
such imperative circumstances, the surviving officers
and crew obtained an honourable acquittal.

On the 9th of June, at 2 P. M., the british bonb

vessel Thunder, captain James Caulfield, accompaunder nied by the gun-brigs Charger, lieutenant John Aitkin der,&c. Blow, Piercer, lieutenant John Sibrell, and Turbu

lent, lieutenant George Wood, and a homeward
bound convoy of 70 merchant vessels, got under way
from Malmo road, with a moderate northerly wind.
At 4 h. 30 m, P. M. the wind began to fall, and at
5 P. M. entirely subsided. At 5 h. 20 m., just as the
convoy

had arrived abreast of the south end of the
island of Saltholm, 25 danish gun-vessels com-

menced an attack upon the Turbulent, whose station Cap- was in the rear. As the gun-boats approached, the Turbu- Turbulentopened a fire upon them from her18-pounder lent. carronades, and the Thunder threw shells and one

pound balls from her mortars, but the Charger and
Piercer were at too great a distance to cooperate.
At 5 h. 40 m. P. M. the Turbulent's main topmast was
shot away. The gun-boats shortly afterwards pulled
close alongside the british brig, and boarded and
captured her.

At 6 P. M., having secured their prize, the Danes pulsed formed on both quarters and astern of the Thunder, Thur- and kept up, as they rapidly advanced, a heavy fire.

The Thunder got her two 6-pounders out of the stern-
ports, and returned the fire both from them and from
her broadside carronades (24-pounders) as the latter
could be brought to bear. At 9h. 30 m. P. M. she

ture

Are re

der.

and cap

cut away her launch and jollyboat, they having been 1808. shot to pieces. At 10 h. 10 m., finding they could not June. induce the bomb to haul down her colours, the gunboats ceased firing, and retired with the 10 or 12 rear vessels which they had been enabled to capture. We have no means of showing the loss, if any, suštained by the Turbulentor Thunder; but we find that, for his gallant defence, captain Caulfield received the public approbation of vice-admiral sir James Saumarez, the commander in chief in the Baltic, and that lieutenant Wood, for the loss of his brig, was honourably acquitted by the sentence of a courtmartial.

On the 2d of August the gun-brig Tigress, lieute- Attack nant Edward Nathaniel Greenswood, after a contest of one hour's duration, and a loss of two men killed ture

Tigress and eight wounded, was taken in the Great Belt by 16 danish gun-vessels. Of this action, as well as of that which preceded the capture of the Tickler, we should have been glad to have been enabled to give a more particular account, but our researches have failed us in procuring details of either.

On the 1st of October the british 18-gun brig- Cruiser sloop Cruiser, acting commander lieutenant Thomas with a Wells, being off the Wingo beacon at the entrance flotilla, of Gottenbourg, fell in with about 20 armed cutters, capluggers, gun-vessels, and row-boats. Having, as tures we suppose, a commanding breeze, the Cruiser dealt with this danish Aotilla much in the same manner

three or four years previous, she was accustomed to deal with the famous french flotilla in the neighbourhood of Ostende. So far from capturing her, she captured one of them, a schuyt-rigged vessel, of ten 4-pounders and 32 men, and compelled the remainder of the flotilla to take shelter under the batteries of the island of Læsoe.

As, instead of the letter of lieutenant Wells, an abstract only (a practice at this time becoming frequent) was published in the London Gazette, and as we have been unable to supply the deficiency in the

as,

Africa with a convoy sails from

1808. account from our usual sources of information, we
Oct. are again prevented from giving details. It grati-

fies us, however, to be able to state, that, in seveti
or eight weeks after his successful encounter with
the danish gun-boats, lieutenant Wells was promoted
to the rank of commander.

On the 15th of October the british 64-gun ship
Africa, captain John Barrett, accompanied by the

Thunder bomb-vessel and one or two gun-brigs, Carls- sailed from Carlscrona in Sweden with a homeward crona. bound convoy of 137 sail. On the morning of the

20th the whole of this convoy, except one vessel
captured and three which had run on shore and were
destroyed, got safe into the channel of Malmo. While
the smaller vessels of war and the convoy anchored
in that roadstead, the Africa, for their better pro:
tection, anchored about eight miles to the southward
of the town of Drago, on the danish island of Amag.
At about 40 minutes past noon, observing a flotilla
of gun-boats advancing to attack the convoy, the
Africa got under way and stood to meet them. At
1 P. M, the little wind there had been died away to
a calm; and the danish flotilla, rowing towards the
Africa, was now seen to consist of 25 large gun and
mortar boats, and seven armed launches, mounting
between them, upon a moderate estimate, 80
heavy long guns, and manned with upwards of
1600 inen,

At 1 h. 15 m. P. M. the Africa shortened sail and

cleared for action; and at 2 h.55 m. the gun-boats strong advanced within gun-shot upon the ship's quarters

and bows, and commenced an animated fire of round
and grape. The Africa returned the fire by such
of her guns as she could bring to bear; and in this

way the engagement continued without intermission Dark- until 6 h.45 m. P. M., when the darkness put an end

to it. During the action the Africa had her colours end to twice shot away; and each time the Danes advanced action. cheering, thinking they had gained the day. The

british crew quickly rehoisted the colours, and,

Is attacked by a

flotilla.

ness

puts an