1909. February list for the present year, is 1140, including 59 hired vessels. These deducted leave 1081, 20 more than the abstract total; a difference discoverable, almost wholly, among the building ships, those in the abstract being 82, while Steel enumerates 100. Among the latter he includes 50 instead of 47 line-of-battle ships. The three surplus ships were the Akbar, Julius, and Orford; the first, ordered but countermanded; the two others, not ordered at all. As a further proof of his imperfect information, Steel names 14 only out of his remaining 50 under-line building ships. Nor does the list, as usual, notify the yards or places at which the unnamed vessels are constructing. The abstract for the present year shows the launching of the Caledonia, a ship of very large dimensions, and, as a first-rate, of extraordinary qualifications. Some interesting particulars respecting her will be found in the Notes to the Abstracts at the end of the volume. Offi cers, &c. The 20 captured enemy's national vessels purchased into the service will be found among those in the foreign prize-lists of the year 1808;* as will the 34 vessels lost by the british navy during the same period, in the list appropriated to them.t The number of the latter still continues to be of serious amount; of which the wrecked cases, with all their attendant calamities, constitute full two thirds. The number of commissioned officers and masters, belonging to the british navy at the commencement of the year 1809, was, Admirals 46 superannuated 45 *See Appendix, Nos. 6, and 7. And the number of seamen and marines, voted for the service of the same year, was 130000.* Feb. dron We last year left in the road of Brest, waiting an opportunity to put to sea, a squadron of eight sail of the line and some frigates. The continued pre- French valence of westerly gales, during the latter part of squa January and the commencement of February, having sails driven admiral lord Gambier from his station off from Ushant, afforded that opportunity; and accordingly, on the 21st of February, at daylight, rear-admiral Willaumez weighed and put to sea with the following squadron: Brest. 74 Tonnerre. Aquilon دو دو gun-frig. Indienne 40- Elbe.. وو Jacques-Remy Maingon. Jean-Jacques-Etienne Lucas. Guillaume-Marcellin Proteau. Brig-corvette Nisus; schooner (late british) Magpie. 4 cover At 9 A. M. the rearmost ship doubled the Vendrée rock, and the french squadron, in line of battle, stood for the Raz, with a fresh breeze at northnorth-east. Just as the headmost ships had cleared Is disthe Raz passage, they were descried by the british 74-gun ship Revenge, captain the honourable Charles RePaget. The latter immediately steered for the venge. Glenans, to give information to captain John Poer Beresford; who, with the Theseus 74, and the *See Appendix, No. 9. ed by 1809. Triumph and Valiant, of the same force, captains Feb. sir Thomas Masterman Hardy and Alexander Robert Kerr, was blockading three sail of the line and three frigates in the road of Lorient. At 30 minutes past noon the Revenge lost sight of the french ships, but at 3 h. 15 m. P. M. again discovered them, and a minute or two afterwards exchanged numbers with the Theseus, in the south-west, off Isle Groix. M.Wil mez's tions. The instructions to M. Willaumez were to chase lau- from off the port of Lorient the british blockading instruc- squadron, stated to be of four sail of the line besides frigates, in order that commodore Troude, with his three sail of the line and five frigates, might join the former. If, however, the tide should happen not to suit at the moment that he appeared off the port, the rear-admiral was to proceed straight to Basque roads, and dispossess of that anchorage a british squadron, stated also to consist of four sail of the line. M. Willaumez was then to anchor in the road of Isle d'Aix, and there wait for further orders. So far the Moniteur. But those orders had already issued. Adding to his 11 sail of the line the Rochefort squadron of three, and the Calcutta armed en flûte and frigates, M. Willaumez was to make the best of his way to Martinique; and, with his fleet and the troops that were on board of it, he was to save that island from falling into the hands of the British, who, by the last accounts, were on the eve of attacking it. with ford's dron, He It was at about 4 h. 30 m. P. M. that the squadrons falls in of rear-admiral Willaumez and commodore Berescapt. ford fully discovered each other. The latter was Beres- then steering about east-south-east, with a fresh squa- breeze at north-north-east, and the former was nearly close hauled on the same tack. Rear-admiral Gourdon's division, consisting of four sail of the line, molest immediately bore up in chase, and the remaining division soon afterwards did the same. Whereupon the british squadron tacked, and steered west-northwest, formed in line of battle, the Theseus leading, but does not it. followed by the Revenge, Triumph, and Valiant. 1809. A short continuance of the british squadron upon Feb. this course leaving open the port of Lorient, the french ships, by the time they had approached within four or five miles of the enemy, again hauled their wind. At 6 P. M., neither squadron then in sight of the other, the british ships tacked and shortened sail; and at about the same time the french squadron, which had been partly delayed by the falling of the breeze, arrived off Isle Groix. and sig Ame A calm during the night kept both squadrons stationary; but at daylight on the 23d a fresh breeze from the north-west enabled M. Willaumez, after sending in the Magpie schooner to apprize commodore Troude of his arrival off the port, to steer for the Pertuis d'Antioche. At about 9 A. M. the two squadrons regained a view of each other, and continued in sight until late in the afternoon. The Is seen french ships then, passing inside of Belle-Isle, nalled steered for Isle d'Yeu, with the wind back to north- by east; and at 10 h. 30 m. P. M., just as they had arrived thyst. abreast of the Tour de Baleine, were discovered by the 36-gun frigate Amethyst, captain Michael Seymour, the look-out ship of rear-admiral Stopford's squadron, at anchor to the north-west of the Chasseron lighthouse, consisting of the 80-gun ship Cæsar, captain Charles Richardson, and 74-gun ships Defiance, captains Henry Hotham, and Donegal, captain Peter Heywood, acting for captain Pulteney Malcolm, who was in England attending a court-martial. A flight. of rockets soon conveyed the information to the rearadmiral, and the british squadron got under way and stood to the north-west, the direction in which the Amethyst lay. At about midnight the british Enters rear-admiral gained a sight of M. Willaumez's Basque squadron to the eastward, standing into the Pertuis d'Antioche. The former went in chase, and at daylight on the 24th saw the French in the act of entering Basque roads. Rear-admiral Stopford, rightly considering that the squadron had escaped from Brest, roads. 1809. despatched by signal the 38-gun frigate Naïad, Feb. captain Thomas Dundas, to acquaint lord Gambier with the circumstance. At 7 A. M. the Naïad, having run a few miles to the north-west, made the signal of three suspicious sail coming down from the northward: whereupon, leaving the Amethyst, in company with the 36-gun frigate Emerald, captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, to watch the squadron of M. Willaumez, rear-admiral Stopford wore and made sail in the direction pointed out by the Naïad. Three Shortly after rear-admiral Willaumez had sailed frigates sail from Isle Groix, the three french 40-gun frigates from Italienne, commodore Pierre-Roch Jurien, and rient. Calypso and Cybèle, captains Louis-Léon Jacob and Lo Raymond Cocault, sailed from Lorient, with the wind at about east-north-east. Finding, on clearing the road, that commodore Troude, owing to the state of the tide, had not a sufficient depth of water to enable him to get under way, captain Jurien stood to sea, and in the evening, when off Belle-Isle steering along the coast to the south-east, descried in the offing the squadron of commodore Beresford. On the 24th, at daylight, the Tour de Baleine made its appearance; and the british 38-gun frigate Amelia, captain the honourable Frederick Paul Irby, accompanied by the 18-gun brig-sloop Dotterel, captain Anthony Abdy, both of whom had been in chase during the whole of the night, now approached so near to the Cybèle, the rearmost french frigate, that her two consorts hauled up for her support. It was about this time that captain Jurien observed the They squadron of rear-admiral Stopford, approaching from for the the south-east. Being thus completely cut off, the Sable french commodore, with the wind now at about lonne. South-east by east, steered for the Sable d'Olonne, and was followed closely by the Amelia and DotAmelia terel. At 9 A. M. the two latter tacked to the northDotte- east, as the three french frigates had previously rel at- done; and in ten minutes more the Amelia, having steer d'O and tack wore round, hauled under the stern of the Cybèle, |