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And the number of seamen and marines, voted for the service of the same year, was 145,000.*

Such had been the unremitting exertions of the shipwrights in the arsenal of Antwerp, that, by the latter end of the summer, Vice-admiral Missiessy was at anchor at the mouth of the Scheldt, with a fleet of 15 sail of the line, one frigate, and nine brigs, waiting to elude the vigilance of Admiral Young; who, since the preceding May, had superseded Sir Richard Strachan in the chief command, and, with a corresponding fleet, was cruising outside. In addition to the above French force in this quarter, the Gorée squadron, consisting of three sail of the line, the Chatham of 80, Hollander of 74, and Tromp of 68 guns, had recently been buoyed over the flats and brought to Antwerp, where they were repairing. Upon the stocks at Antwerp, Terneuse, and Flushing, were from 12 to 15 ships of the line, five or six of them in a state of great forwardness. To protect the vast dépôt now formed and forming along the shores of the Scheldt, immense fortifications had been constructed, particularly at Flushing; the sea-front alone of which mounted 100 long 36pounders and 60 (French) 12-inch mortars. The opposite or Cadzand shore had also had its fortifications greatly strengthened. In the Texel seven Franco-Batavian sail of the line were ready for sea. Proceeding southward, we find that, besides the two 74s at anchor in the road of Cherbourg, two were on the stocks in the arsenal; and that Lorient, Rochefort, and Toulon had all their building slips full.

The latter port, indeed, was dividing with Flushing the attention of the British. The road of Toulon, in the course of the present year, contained as many as 16 sail of the line, and nearly half as many frigates, including among the former four immense three-deckers. The command of this fine and powerful fleet had, since the preceding year, devolved upon Vice-admiral Emerian, who had under him Rear-admirals Cosmao, Lhermite, and Baudin. During the first half of the year the British Mediterranean fleet remained under the command of Admiral Sir Charles Cotton; but the latter, returning to England to take the command of the Channel fleet, was succeeded off Toulon, on the 18th of July, by Vice-admiral Sir Edward Pellew, whose force consisted of the

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Joshua Rowley Watson.
Patrick Campbell.

Frigates, Apollo, Impérieuse, and Franchise.

Early on the morning of the 19th of July the two French 40gun frigates Amélie and Adrienne, on their return from Genoa with conscripts for the fleet, were endeavouring to enter Toulon by the Petite-Passe. Since daylight the semiphoric signals along the coast had apprized Vice-admiral Emeriau of the presence of these frigates: and, just as the British admiral, who was cruising off Cape Sicie with the above-named 16 sail of the line and three frigates, had made the signal for chase to the Conqueror and Sultan, the two in-shore line-of-battle ships, M. Emeriau weighed and sailed out of the road, with 13 sail of the line and the Incorruptible frigate, to cover the Amélie and Adrienne. At 11 h. 30 m. A. M. the Conqueror got near enough to open her fire upon the two frigates; and presently afterwards both the Conqueror and the Sultan exchanged a few distant broadsides with the French advanced division, consisting of the Ulm, Danube, Magnanime, and Breslau 74s. The two frigates very soon got completely under the protection of their fleet, which then bore up and returned to Toulon road.

Neither of the two British ships appears to have been struck by a shot; but, according to M. Emeriau, the Ulm had some of her rigging cut by the fire of the British. As of course the Conqueror, who was the nearest in-shore, on finding herself getting within gun-shot of four French 74s, with a fleet of nine more line-of-battle ships close in their wake (M. Emeriau admits he sailed out with 13), shortened sail and tacked off to rejoin her fleet, the French admiral in his despatch, was enabled to say, "L'ennemi," meaning the British fleet, not the advanced 74, " ayant pris la bordée du large, j'ai fait retourner les vaisseaux au mouillage."

On the 7th of August the British fleet came to anchor in the bay of Hyères, out of gun-shot of the batteries, leaving a line-ofbattle ship and two or three frigates, as a squadron of observation off Cape Sicie. This afforded to Vice-admiral Emeriau several opportunities to sail out with his fleet, and chase "the enemy" from off the port; but he invariably returned to his anchorage after effecting this important service: important, indeed, for the admiral wrote a despatch every time he weighed,

and the minister of marine invariably published that despatch in the columns of the Moniteur.

On the 13th, while the British fleet was getting under way in very light winds, the Téméraire drifted near to the battery at Pointe des Mèdes. Instantly the battery opened a fire upon her; which was returned by the Téméraire, as well as by the Caledonia, who was also within gun-shot. By the aid of their boats, both ships got out of reach of the battery; but not until some shots had struck them, particularly the Téméraire, who had one of her maindeck gun-carriages disabled, and her master, Mr. Robert Duncan, severely, and three seamen slightly wounded. A shot from her, or from the Caledonia, had also wounded two men in the French battery. The noise of the firing brought out M. Emeriau with 14 sail of the line, and furnished the Moniteur with another paragraph, to prove the fearlessness with which the French fleet could manoeuvre within a league or two of its own port.

Almost every day that the British fleet remained at the Hyères, or cruised off Cape San-Sebastian, the French fleet, or a division of it, sailed out and in, to exercise the crews, the principal part of which were conscripts. On the 20th of November, when the only British force off Toulon were the two 38-gun frigates Volontaire, Captain the Honourable Granville George Waldegrave, and Perlen, acting Captain Joseph Swabey Tetley, and these had been blown to some distance from the coast, a fleet of 14 French ships of the line and several frigates sailed upon a cruise between the capes of Sicie and Sepet; intending to extend it a little beyond them, if wind and weather should permit, and if Sir Edward Pellew should approach no nearer than his present cruising ground, off Cape San-Sebastian. The French admiral remained out all that night, and all the following day and night, without being crossed by a hostile sail.

At daylight on the 22d, however, as the Volontaire and Perlen were lying to, at the distance of from two to three leagues west-south-west from Cape Sicie, the French advanced division, consisting of three line-of-battle ships and two frigates, made its appearance in the south-east. Both parties were soon under a crowd of sail. At 9 A. M. Captain Tetley exchanged several shot with a French frigate upon his lee quarter; and, owing to the Perlen being able from the peculiar construction of her after-body (she was a Danish-built ship) to bring six guns, three on each deck, to bear upon what is usually termed the point of impunity, he so cut up the French frigate forward, that, at 10 A. M. the latter bore away out of gun-shot. The Trident 74 and Amélie frigate, in the mean time, had exchanged a few distant shot with the Volontaire. The French 74 and frigate then stood for the Perlen; at whom they began firing at 11 A. M., and upon whom they gained gradually in the chase. At noon Cape Sicie bore

from the Perlen east-north-east 10 or 11 leagues. At 1 P. M., finding that the two ships were advancing rapidly upon her, the Perlen cut away the sheet, spare, stream, and kedge anchors. At 2 h. 30 m. P. M. the Trident was on her lee, and the Amélie on her weather quarter; both still keeping up a heavy fire, and the Perlen returning it. In another quarter of an hour, provoked at being fired at so effectually, in a position from which she herself could bring no guns to bear, the Trident yawed and discharged her broadside. This of course occasioned the French 74 to drop astern; and, accompanied by the Amélie, the Trident stood for the Volontaire. In a little while, however, the two French ships, finding that the state of their rigging gave them no hope of success in the chase, altered their course, and bore away for Toulon.

The Perlen had her standing and running rigging and sails very much cut, and received two shot so low down, as to cause her to make nine inches of water per hour; but, fortunately, the frigate had none of her crew hurt. The Volontaire was not struck; although, at one time, two two-deckers, one with a rear-admiral's flag, fired several broadsides at her. Having thus chased away the only British force at this time off the coast, and which the magnifying optics of his reconnoitring captains made out to be "un vaisseau et une frégate," Vice-admiral Emeriau continued manoeuvring about until the 26th; then reanchored in the road of Toulon. On the same day Vice-admiral Sir Edward Pellew, with the British fleet, anchored off the southeast end of the island of Minorca.

The length of the French admiral's cruise required a few days' relaxation; and it was not, we believe, until the 9th of December, that the fleet again weighed from the road. On this day M. Emeriau, having as he states, been apprized by the signalposts, that a British fleet of 12 sail of the line was in the offing, put to sea with "16 sail of the line and two frigates." In a few hours, however, the French admiral returned into port; and this proved to be the last exploit of the Toulon fleet during the year 1811.

Is it not a little surprising that, out of upwards of 56 sail of the line in commission at the different ports of the French empire, namely, 18, including three Dutch ships, in the Scheldt, seven in the Texel, two in Cherbourg, two in Brest, four in Lorient, three in Rochefort, 16 in Toulon, and four at least in the ports of Genoa, Spezzia, Venice, and Naples, not one squadron, nay, not one line-of-battle ship, should have ventured out of sight of her own harbour? What prevented Vice-admiral Emeriau from going fairly to sea on the 20th of November? Where had the glory of the "great nation" hid itself? Where were the Duguay-Trouins, the De Grasses, and the Suffrens, when, on the 6th of December, 1811, a French admiral, with 16 sail of the line, allowed himself to be driven back into port by a British

admiral with 12? And yet, if report be true, Buonaparte had an object, a grand object, in view; no less than that of getting a powerful fleet to the East Indies, and thereby possessing himself of the immense territories belonging to Great Britain in that quarter of the globe.

LIGHT SQUADRONS AND SINGLE SHIPS.

On the 24th of March, at daylight, Barfleur lighthouse bearing south by east distant 12 or 13 miles, the British 74-gun ship Berwick, Captain James Macnamara, observed a large sail directly between herself and the lighthouse, running along the shore. This was the French 40-gun frigate Amazone, Captain BernardLouis Rousseau, making another attempt to get from Havre to Cherbourg. The 74 immediately gave chase, and compelled the frigate to haul in for a small rocky bay, about a mile to the westward of the lighthouse; where the Amazone anchored with the loss of her rudder. Thinking an attack by boats practicable when the tide suited, Captain Macnamara called in from the offing by signal the 38-gun frigate Amelia, Captain the Honourable Frederick Paul Irby, and the 16-gun brig-sloops Goshawk and Hawk, Captains James Lilburn and Henry Bourchier. At 8 A. M., the lee tide making strong, the Berwick, to avoid the rocks and shoals surrounding her, came to an anchor about two miles to the northward of the Amazone; as, upon their junction, did the Amelia, Hawk, and Goshawk.

At noon the 38-gun frigate Niobe, Captain Joshua Wentworth Loring, joined from the westward. At 4 P. M., the flood tide making, and Captain Macnamara having relinquished the plan of attack by boats on account of the rapidity of the tides, the squadron got under way; and the Niobe, followed by the Amelia and Berwick in succession, stood in as close to the French frigate as the safety of the ships would admit. The latter being surrounded by rocks and shoals, their fire could only be bestowed in the act of wearing, and was consequently partial and of little effect. At 6 P. M. the British hauled off, with the loss of one man killed and one wounded on board the Amelia, and the standing and running rigging of all three ships much cut.

On the 25th, at daylight, Captain Macnamara stood in again with his squadron, for the purpose of renewing the attack; but the French captain rendered that step unnecessary, by setting fire to his ship; and the Amazone, a fine new frigate of the largest class, was soon burnt to the water's edge.

On the 8th of May, at 9 h. 30 m. A. M., the British 18-gun brigsloop Scylla (sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two sixes), Captain Arthur Atcheson, being close in with the isle of Bas, discovered to leeward, and immediately chased, the French gun

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