1811. of wind, was advancing fast upon the Brevdrageren's Sept. Starboard quarter, the Algerine hauled up and hove to, as if to cover her consort. This demonstration of resistance produced the desired effect, and the Lougen fell back. At sunset the Danes discontinued their fire, and at 9 P. м. gave up the chase of the two british vessels. Loss on board Although very much cut up in hull, masts, and the two rigging, the Brevdrageren escaped with so slight british a loss, as one man killed and three wounded. vessels. The Algerine had also one man killed, but Chan ticleer fall in danish war. suffered very little in other respects. The small On the 2d of September, at 1 h. 30 m. A. M., as the and british brig-sloop Chanticleer, of eight 18-pounder Manly carronades and two sixes, with 75 men and boys, with captain Richard Spear, and gun-brig Manly, mountthree ing two more carronades than the Chanticleer, with brigs of 42 men and boys on board, lieutenant Richard William Simmonds, were standing along the coast of Norway to the westward, three sail were descried by the Chanticleer, on her lee bow. The sloop, who was considerably ahead of her consort, immediately bore away in chase; and, as the three strangers, which were the danish 18-gun brigs (long 18-pounders, with 120 men each) Loland, captain Holm, Alsen, first lieutenant Lutkin, and Sampsoe, first lieutenant Grothschilling, hauled up also in chase, the two * Brenton, vol. v. p. 329. 1811. w re parties were not long in meeting. At 2 h. 30 m. A. M. the Chanticleer closed and hailed the Sampsoe; Sept. who immediately replied by a broadside, and an action Chancommenced between these two brigs. In a short ticleer time the Loland and Alsen, who had already opened treats. their fire upon the Manly, wore round, and made sail to support their consort engaged with the Chanticleer. The latter, on observing this, wore under the stern of the Sampsoe, and made all sail on the larboard tack, followed by the three danish brigs. ed by and af ter by The Loland shortly afterwards hauled her wind for the Manly, then gallantly approaching on the starboard tack, to cooperate with her consort in repulsing the superior force which had so suddenly come upon them, At 4 A. M., having by her Manly superior sailing got upon the larboard beam of the attackManly, the Loland commenced firing at her; and Loland these two brigs soon became warmly engaged. The action continued in this manner until nearly 6 A. M.; wards when the Sampsoe and Alsen, having given over the Sampchase of the Chanticleer, came up to the assistance soe and of the Loland. The Sampsoe placed herself on the Manly's larboard bow; and the Alsen, taking the station of the Loland, who had tacked to get on her opponent's starboard quarter, lay on the Manly's starboard beam. Thus hemmed in, and having had her head-sails all shot away since the commencement of the action, her standing and running rigging cut to pieces, her remaining sails reduced to tatters, her two masts and bowsprit badly wounded, Surand four of her guns dismounted, the Manly hauled renders down her colours. Alsen. board Although, as the danish official account states, Loss on the Manly was much crippled, and there was no Manly. part of her hull but had more or less suffered, she came out of the action with so comparatively slight a loss, as one seaman killed, and one seaman and two marines dangerously wounded. All three danish brigs received some trifling damage in their sails and rigging; but the Loland alone is admitted to ac count. 1811. have sustained any loss, and that was only one man killed. The danish captain Holm, with a feeling Danish that establishes him for a brave man, says in his letter to rear-admiral Lutkin: "It must be confessed, that it reflects much honour on the commander of the Manly to have made such a resistance." And it is really a question, in our view of the subject, whether more honour was not gained by the loss of the Manly, than by the escape of the Chanticleer. Court- Lieutenant Simmonds, when subsequently tried for martial the loss of his brig, was not only most honourably lieut. acquitted, but received from the president of the Sim court, captain Richard Lee, when the latter returned him his sword, a very handsome eulogium on his conduct. on monds. on the danish war. Re- Before we quit the subject of danish brigs of war, marks we will submit a remark or two upon the nature of arma- their armament. From the concurrent testimony of ment of all the british officers who have been engaged with brigs of them, the Langland, Lougen, Loland, and other danish brigs of that class, carried "long 18-pounders;" and, if we are not mistaken, we have seen the same caliber of guns mentioned in some of the danish official accounts. We strongly suspect, however, that the gun was not the "long 18-pounder," as usually understood by that term, but a sort of medium gun, not much longer nor much heavier than a danish carronade of the same, or at all events of a 32-pound, caliber. Our opinion is founded upon the fact, that 18 long english 18-pounders, with their carriages, weigh about 856 cwt.; while 18 carronades, 32pounders, with their slides and carriages, weigh but 415 cwt. The british brig that carries the latter measures about 382 tons, and therefore the danish brig that could carry the former would measure at least 600 tons. Now the largest brig of war, which the British have taken from the Danes, was the Gluckstadt, and she measured but 338 tons. Her force, as well as that of the seven or eight other danish brigs taken with her, was officially stated to be 18 guns; but we doubt if any of these vessels 1811. had their guns on board. In this case the ports only Dec. (a practice that ought to be laid aside) would be reckoned; from which, in a single decked vessel, a deduction of two is always to be made for the bridle or bow ports. Hence the Gluckstadt and her companion, when fitted out in the british service, carried no more than 16 guns. The only danish vessels taken on the same occasion, capable of mounting 20 guns, were the Fylla and Little-Belt, and they measured but 490 tons; less, by 20 or 30 tons, than the generality of french ships carrying the same number of guns. Upon the whole, we conclude, that the Lougen, and her consorts of the largest class, carried 18-pounders, about six feet in length and weighing from 26 to 28 cwt.; and that consequently, even at a moderate range, they were a full match for the largest class of british brig-sloops. Baltic from This year closed with a lamentable catastrophe, British which befell a part of the british Baltic fleet, on its fleet return to England for the winter months. On the sails 9th of November the british 98-gun ship St.-George, Hano. captain Daniel Oliver Guion, bearing the flag of rear-admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, accompanied by several other men of war of the Baltic fleet and a convoy of 120 merchant vessels, sailed from Hano Sound for England. On the 15th, when the fleet Suffers lay at anchor off the island of Zealand waiting for a gale fair wind, a violent storm arose, in which about 30 and anof the convoy perished, and the St.-George drove Wingo. on shore, but eventually got off with the loss of her three masts and rudder. The men of war, with the remainder of the convoy, then proceeded to Wingo Sound; where the St.-George was fitted with jury masts and a Pakenham's rudder, and the whole fleet, got ready to depart with the first fair wind. by a chors at Sails On the 17th of December the fleet, consisting of again eight sail of the line, several frigates and smaller for vessels of war, and about 100 merchant vessels, land. Eng 1811. sailed from Wingo sound; and as the St.-George Feb. Was, as we have seen, in a greatly disabled state, Is over- the 74-gun ships Cressy and Defence, captains taken Charles Dudley Pater and David Atkins, were ap by a tre men dous and De fence ed on pointed to attend her. The fleet had just cleared the Sleeve, when a tremendous gale of wind came gale. on, which blew successively from the west-northSt.- west, the west, and south, and then shifted, with George greater violence than ever, to the north-west. On the 24th, after combating with the gale for five wreck days, the St.-George and Defence were wrecked on the western coast of Jutland; and the whole of their of Jut- united crews, except six men of the one, and 12 of land. the other, perished. The Cressy saved herself by escapes wearing from the starboard tack, and standing to the southward; 'but captain Atkins of the Defence could not be persuaded to quit the admiral without the signal to part company, and therefore shared his melancholy fate. coast Cressy Hero wrecked on Haak sand. On the 25th the 74-gun ship Hero, captain James Newman Newman, who had sailed from Gottenburg the on the 18th, met a similar fate on the Haak sand off the Texel, with the loss of all her crew except 12 men, that were washed on shore; making a total of nearly 2000 officers and men thus entombed in a Grass-watery grave. The 18-gun brig-sloop Grasshopper, hopper captain Henry Fanshawe, was in company, and ders to struck also, but drove over the bank close in with the Texel island. No alternative now remained but to surrender to the dutch admiral; which the Grasshopper accordingly did. surren Dutch. Barges and Jieut. of Cer- On the 4th of February the british 18-pounder berus 32-gun frigate Cerberus, captain Henry Whitby, and Active 38-gun frigate Active, captain James Alexander under Gordon, cruising off the north-east coast of Italy, Haye discovered four vessels lying at an anchor in the port of "Pestichi" or Pescaro. It being nearly calm, vessels captain Whitby despatched lieutenant George Haye Pescaro of the Active, with the barge of each frigate, to endea cut four out of |