the Naiad. Whether the presence of this British frigate kindled the wrath of Napoléon, and he wished her away, or that he considered she would make an excellent target, for his prames and brigs to exercise their guns at, certain it is, that he ordered a division of the flotilla to weigh and stand towards her. At 1 P. M., the wind at south-south-west, and a strong flood tide setting to the north-east, Rear-admiral Baste, with seven prames, each armed and manned as already stated, got under way, and steered for the Naiad, then bearing from them nearly north.

As, in the state of the wind and tide, the Naiad by getting under way would only increase her distance from the prames, she remained at an anchor with springs on her cable. At 1 h. 40 m. P. M. the leading prame, having arrived just within gunshot, opened her fire, and received the frigate's in return; then tacked and stood off. Each of the leading prame's six followers did the same; and at about 2 P. M. 10 brigs, mounting each four long 24-pounders, and a sloop fitted as a bomb-vessel, joined in the cannonade. At 3 h. 30 m. P. M., it being then slack water, the Naiad weighed and stood off on the larboard tack; partly to repair some trifling damage, but chiefly, by getting to windward, to be better able to close with the prames and brigs, and get within shore of some of them. At 4 h. 45 m. the flotilla stood in under the batteries to the eastward of Boulogne, and ceased firing. At 5 h. 30 m. the Naiad tacked and stood in-shore, under all sail, in chase; but, about sunset, the wind fell to a calm. Shortly afterwards the prames and gun-brigs came to anchor near Pointe la Crèche; and at 7 h. 30 m. P. M. the Naiad herself anchored in her former position without having a man hurt. Nor had she the smallest spar shot away, as some token to the French emperor, who, no doubt, was honouring the British frigate with his regards, that the long 24-pounders of his flotilla, having failed to drive the Naiad off the coast, had even struck her with any effect.

On the 21st, at 7 A. M., when the weather tide made, the seven prames, 10 brigs, and bomb-sloop, with several one-gun luggers, got under way, and stood to the westward on the larboard tack, formed in two lines. The weathermost line consisted of three prames, the admiral's first, then a commodore's, and lastly a pendant prame; and the lee line, of four prames; the brigs and small craft taking stations as most convenient in the rear of either line. The British in-shore squadron consisted this morning, besides the Naiad, of the Rinaldo and Redpole, the 18-gun brig-sloop Castilian, Captain David Braimer, and the 8-gun cutter Viper, Lieutenant Edward A. D'Arcey. These four vessels, having during the night stood in upon the Basse bank at the westernmost part of the bay, near fort L'Heurt, had, when the prames weighed at 7 A. M., tacked and hove to, formed in line thus: Rinaldo, Redpole, Castilian, Viper, with their heads.

to the west-north-west and colours hoisted, to await the approach of the enemy; the town of Boulogne bearing from the leading brig south-east by east distant five or six miles. At 8 h. 30 m. A. M. the Naiad, who had weighed when the prames did, joined the Rinaldo and her companions, and lay to on the same tack, slowly stretching off shore, in the hope of imperceptibly drawing the French from the protection of their formidable batteries.

At 9 h. 30 m. A. M. the rear-admiral's prame, which was the leading one of the weather line, tacked in-shore, and on coming round fired her broadside. The instant her helm was down, the British line, by signal from the Naiad, wore together and bore up in chase. The six remaining prames had wore at nearly the same instant as their admiral, and the whole were now crowding sail to regain the protection of the batteries. The Naiad hauled up for the prame of the French admiral; while the brigs, bearing away and passing the frigate, stood for the sternmost prame of the lee line. At 10 h. 20 m. A. M. the Naiad, having got nearly within pistol-shot between the two lines, opened her fire from both sides; and the Rinaldo and Redpole poured their broadsides into the sternmost prame of the lee line, the Ville-de-Lyon, commanded by Lieutenant de vaisseau Jean Barbaud, who had been gallantly endeavouring to succour his admiral. Finding it impossible to reach the latter owing to shoal water, the Naiad, being then on the starboard and weather bow of the Ville-deLyon, bore up, and, wearing round, boarded and carried her; but not without an obstinate resistance on the part of the French officers and men, with a loss of between 30 and 40 of them in killed and wounded, including among the latter the prame's commander, Lieutenant Barbaud.

While the Naiad stood away with her prize in tow, the Rinaldo, Redpole, and Castilian continued engaging the remainder of the flotilla. The first two brigs succeeded in getting alongside the prame next in the line to the Ville-de-Lyon, and soon obliged her to haul up for the weather line. Being by this time fired upon by all the batteries, and having but three fathoms' water under their bottoms, the three British brigs ceased firing and stood out to join the Naiad. The damages of the latter were very trifling; but her loss amounted to two seamen killed, one lieutenant of marines (William Morgan), one midshipman (James Dover), and 12 seamen wounded. The Castilian had her first Lieutenant, Charles Cobb, killed, and

one

seaman severely wounded; and the Redpole, her pilot wounded. The capture of this prame, out of the midst of the flotilla and almost under the guns of the batteries, must have wofully disappointed the spectators on shore, and have given rather an awkward finish to the morning's amusement of the French emperor and his generals.

On the 1st of August as a small British squadron, consisting

of the 12-pounder 32-gun frigate Quebec, Captain Charles Sibthorpe John Hawtayne, 16-gun brig-sloop Raven, Captain George Gustavus Lennock, gun-brigs Exertion and Redbreast, Lieutenants James Murray and Sir George Morat Keith, Bart., and hired armed cutters Alert and Princess-Augusta, was cruising off the coast between the Texel and the Elbe, information was received, that a division of gun-boats lay at an anchor within the island of Nordeney. The Quebec's first lieutenant, Samuel Blyth, immediately volunteered, and was permitted to attempt, to cut them out.

Accordingly, 10 boats, containing 117 seamen and marines, including the following officers: Lieutenants Samuel Blyth, of the Quebec, John O'Neale, Alert, Samuel Slout, Raven, and Charles Wolrige, Quebec, lieutenant of marines, Humphrey Moore, Quebec, sub-lieutenant Thomas Hare, Exertion, second master George Downey, Redbreast, carpenter Stephen Pickett, Raven, master's mates Robert Cook and John M'Donald, Quebec, midshipman Richard Millet, Raven, and mates James Muggridge (pilot to the expedition), Princess-Augusta, and George Johnson, Alert, pushed off from the frigate, and shaped their course towards the coast of East-Friesland. On the 2d the boats entered the river Jahde, and captured a boat belonging to the imperial douaniers; whose peculiar duty it was to support the continental system, and to cut off all commercial intercourse with England. Passing through the intricate navigation called the Wadden, between the islands Wanger-oog, Spyker-oog, and Langer-oog, the British boats, on the same afternoon, came in sight of the enemy's gun-boats, four in number; each armed with one long 12, and two long 6 or 8 pounders and 25 men, including five soldiers, and commanded by a lieutenant de vaisseau in the French navy.

As soon as the British arrived within gun-shot, the gun-brigs opened upon them a fire of grape and canister. Lieutenant Blyth, in the Quebec's barge, pulling rapidly up, sprang upon the deck of the first gun-boat, and killed one man and wounded two in the struggle. Mr. Muggridge, who was also in the barge, was opposed, while boarding, by two soldiers, one of whom he shot dead; but the other wounded the young man in the throat with his bayonet; and, had the latter not fallen into the sea, he must have been killed. Mr. Muggridge eventually reached one of the boats. In a few minutes the British mastered the crew of the headmost boat, and, driving the hands below, turned the long 12-pounder upon the other three boats; which were so situated that they could not fire upon the captured vessel without destroying their own people. There was a quantity of cartridges lying on the deck, covered by a sail, and from these the British loaded the gun, but could find no lighted match. The gunner of the Quebec, having primed the 12-pounder from a French powder-horn, which from its peculiar construction scattered a

1811. BOATS OF QUEBEC, &c. ON COAST OF EAST-FRIESLAND. 341

part of the powder on the deck, discharged the piece by firing his pistol at the priming; when the flash, communicating to the loose powder on deck, and thence to the cartridges under the sail, caused an explosion that killed or wounded 19 persons, including Lieutenant Blyth himself, who was blown into the sea, but afterwards reached one of his boats. He had previously been wounded in the shoulder by a French soldier, and was burnt in his face, hand, and foot, by the explosion. This disaster, fatal as it was to the British on board the outermost gun-boat, did not save the other three from capture. In 10 minutes they were compelled to surrender, with the loss of two men killed and 10 wounded.

In the attack, the British lost two killed and nine wounded, including among the latter Lieutenants Blyth and Slout, and Messieurs Millet and Muggridge. Lieutenant Slout had been dreadfully wounded by the second gun-boat's 12-pounder, which put two grape-shot through his thigh and one through his leg. The wounds in the thigh were so high up, that there was no chance of saving this young officer's life, but by taking off the leg at the hip-joint. To this painful and precarious operation Lieutenant Slout would not submit, and soon died from the effects of mortification. With respect to Mr. Muggridge, although, in case of being disabled, not belonging to the royal navy, he could expect no pension from the government, that gallant young seaman had volunteered his services: his wound, fortunately for him, was not dangerous. Of those blown up by the accident, three died the next day; and several were dreadfully scorched, including Lieutenant Moore of the marines. Having thus achieved their very gallant exploit, Lieutenant Blyth and his party, with their boats and prizes, returned to the little squadron off the island of Heligoland. As a reward for his behaviour on the occasion, Lieutenant Blyth was promoted to the rank of commander.

The small island of Anholt in the Cattegat, which, it will be recollected, was captured from the Danes in May, 1809,* became this year the scene of a very splendid exploit. The British garrison at present upon it consisted of 350 royal marines and 31 marine artillery; the marines under the command of Captain Robert Torrens of that corps, and the whole under Captain James Wilkes Maurice of the navy, the governor of the island, and the officer who, six years before, had so distinguished himself in his defence of the Diamond rock. The island of Anholt, in the languishing state of commerce occasioned by the rigorous edicts of Buonaparte, was found very useful to England as a dépôt and point of communication between her and the continent. Whether Napoléon instigated the Danes to aid his views by expelling the British from Anholt, or that the Danes

* See p. 130.

themselves felt the laudable desire of recovering possession of an island which had formerly belonged to them, certain it is, that preparations for the attack began to be made in the summer of 1810. But, so long as the sea remained open, British cruisers continued to hover round the island; and the same hard weather, which at length drove the ships into more southern waters, shut up in their lakes and harbours the Danish gun-boats and transports.

The spring came, the ice melted, and the sea of Denmark and its vicinity again admitted the barks of the bold and adventurous to traverse its bosom. So early as on the 23d of March a flotilla, consisting of 12 gun-boats, each mounting two long 24 or 18 pounders, and four brass howitzers, and manned with from 60 to 70 men, having under their protection 12 transport vessels, resembling the gun-boats in appearance, and containing between them, according to the Danish official account, about 1000 troops, including an organized body of 200 seamen, assembled in Gierrild bay. On the 24th the island was reconnoitred, or, in other words, was visited, by an intelligent officer of the Danish navy, first Lieutenant Holstein, in the sacred character of a flag of truce. He soon ascertained that the garrison consisted of less than 400 men, that the lighthouse-fort was the only fortification of importance, and that the sole vessel of war cruising off the island was a small armed schooner. Nothing could be more satisfactory. Accordingly, on the 26th, the flotilla set sail from Gierrild bay; and on the 27th, at 4 A.M., in the midst of darkness and a heavy fog, the Danish troops disembarked, in perfect order, at a spot distant about four miles to the westward of Fort Yorke, the head-quarters of the garrison, and, being unseen, were of course unopposed.

Since the 10th of February Governor Maurice had received an intimation of the intended attack upon his sovereignty, and had made use of every resource in his power to give a proper reception to the assailants. It was just before dawn on the 26th, that the out-pickets on the south side of the island made the signal for the flotilla's being in sight. The garrison was immediately under arms, and the brigade of four howitzers, covered by 200 rank and file, commanded by the governor in person, having with him Captain Torrens, major-commandant of the battalion, quitted the lines to oppose the landing; when Captain Maurice, having advanced to a ridge of sand-hills, that runs nearly the whole length of the south side, to reconnoitre, discovered that the Danes had already landed and were then proceeding along the beach beneath him. As the two Danish wings out-flanked the British brigade, and, if the latter continued to advance, would get between the British and their works, Captain Maurice ordered a retreat. Before this could be effected, the corps of 200 Danish seamen, under Lieutenant Holstein, had gained the heights and were advancing with rapidity, cheering the retreat of the howitzers;