1803. lieutenant Henderson and four seamen were wounded, Oct. one of the latter dangerously.

of Mer

On the 27th of October the british 16-gun shipBoats sloop Merlin, captain Edward Pelham Brenton, and lin, &c. 14-gun schooner Milbrook, lieutenant Mauritius Adolphus Newton De Starck, discovered the french lugger-privateer Sept-Frères, of two carriage-guns and 30 men, commanded by captain Pollet, endeavouring to get into Calais. Captain Brenton immediately despatched in pursuit of her the boats of the Merlin, under the orders of lieutenant Henry Clement Thompson, who had already lost an arm in the service. Finding her retreat effectually cut off by the british boats, the lugger ran herself on shore about half a mile to the westward of Gravelines. In the evening the Milbrook stood in, and anchored within musketshot of the Sept-Frères; and, in the face of a heavy fire opened upon the schooner and the boats by some field-pieces brought down to the beach, the British totally destroyed the french lugger, without incurring any loss, although the Milbrook was several times struck by shot.

Nov.

Braith

Albion.

On the 3d of November, while the 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Blanche, captain Zachariah Mudge, Lieut. was lying at an anchor off the entrance of Mancenille waite bay, island of St.-Domingo, the french cutter Albion, and the armed with two 4-pounders, six swivels, and 20 muskets, and manned with 43 officers and men, was discovered lying close to the guns of Monte-Christi, waiting to carry her cargo, consisting of 52 bullocks, to the relief of the garrison of Cape-François. As the cutter, notwithstanding her proximity to the fort, which mounted four long 24-pounders and three fieldpieces, appeared to be assailable, captain Mudge, on the same day, despatched the launch, barge, and two cutters, with 63 officers and men, under the command of lieutenant William Braithwaite, to attempt cutting her out. The boats returned unsuccessful, not owing to any lack of zeal in officers or men, but to their having proceeded to the attack in open

day, with the sea-breeze blowing right into the bay, 1803. The battery, in consequence, had begun early to Nov. fire at the boats, and soon convinced lieutenant Braithwaite that, should he even succeed in capturing the cutter, it would, in the state of the wind, be impossible to get her from the shore without a great sacrifice of lives.

and the

With more judgment, a night attack was deter- Lieut. mined upon, and lieutenant Edward Nicolls, of the Nicolls marines, volunteered, with one boat, to attempt cut- Albion. ting out the vessel. His offer was accepted; and on the evening of the 4th the red cutter, with 13 men, including himself, pushed off from the frigate, A doubt respecting the sufficiency of the force, or some other cause, induced captain Mudge to order the barge, with 22 men, under the orders of lieutenant the honourable Warwick Lake, first of the Blanche, to follow the red cutter and supersede lieutenant Nicolls in the command. The second boat joined the first, and, as soon as the two arrived abreast of the french cutter, lieutenant Nicolls hailed lieutenant Lake, and pointed her out to him; but the latter professed to disbelieve that the vessel in sight was the Albion: he considered that she lay on the opposite, or north-east side of the bay, and with the barge proceeded in that direction; leaving the red cutter to watch the motions of the vessel, which lieutenant Nicolls still maintained was the Albion, the object of their joint search.

It was now 2h. 30 m. A. M. on the 5th, and the land wind was blowing fresh out of the bay. An hour or two more, and the day would begin to dawn, and the breeze to slacken, perhaps wholly to subside, The men in the boat were few, but their hearts were stout. In short the red cutter commenced pulling, cautiously and silently, towards the french vessel; the crew of which, expecting a second attack, had made preparations to meet it. As soon as the boat arrived within pistol-shot, the cutter hailed. Replying to the hail with three hearty cheers, the boat

1803. rapidly advanced, receiving in quick succession two Nov. volleys of musketry. The first passed over the heads of the British; but the second severely wounded the coxswain, the man at the bow-oar, and a marine. Before the french cutter could fire a third time, lieutenant Nicolls, at the head of his little party, sprang on board of her. The french captain was at his post, and discharged his pistol at lieutenant Nicolls just as the latter was within a yard of him. The ball passed round the rim of the lieutenant's belly, and, escaping through his side, lodged in the fleshy part of his right arm.

Almost

at the same moment a ball, either from the pistol of lieutenant Nicolls, or from the musket of a marine standing near him, killed the french captain. After this the resistance was trifling; and the surviving officers and men of the french cutter were presently driven below and subdued, with the loss, besides their captain killed, of five men wounded, one of them mortally.

As yet, not a shot had been fired from the battery, although it was distant scarcely 100 yards from the cutter. Judging that the best way to keep the battery quiet would be to maintain the appearance of the Albion's being still in french possession, and able to repulse her assailants, lieutenant Nicolls ordered the marines of his party to continue firing their muskets: the seamen, meanwhile, busied themselves in getting the vessel under sail. A spring having been run out from the cutter's quarter to her cable, and the jib cleared, the cable was cut, and the jib hoisted to cast her. At this moment the barge came alongside, and lieutenant Lake took command of the prize. Scarcely had he done so, and the musketry by his orders been discontinued, when the battery opened a fire of round and grape, which killed two of the Blanche's people. However, the breeze being fair, and blowing moderately strong, the captured cutter, with two boats towing her, soon ran out of gun-shot, and, without incurring any further loss, joined the frigate in the offing.

Cutting out an armed vessel is usually a desperate 1803. service, and the prize seldom repays the loss which Nov. is sustained in capturing her. The spirit engendered by such acts is, however, of the noblest, and, in a national point of view, of the most useful kind: its emulative influence spreads from man to man, and from ship to ship, until the ardour for engaging in services of danger, services, the repeated success of which has stamped a lasting character upon the british navy, requires more frequently to be checked than to be incited. An attack by boats upon an armed sailing vessel, as respects the first foot-hold upon her deck especially, may be likened to the "forlorn hope" of a besieging army; great is the peril, and great ought to be the reward. So the reward usually is, if the affair be represented in its true colours to the proper authority. The same officer, who, when about to transmit to his government the account of an engagement between his ship and another, fears saying too much, lest he should be chargeable with egotism, when, in the routine of his duty, he has to write about an act performed exclusively by his subordinates, enters minutely into the merits of the case, points out those who distinguished themselves, and separates, as well as he is able, the actual combatants from such as, by accident or otherwise, did not partake of the danger; well knowing that, without this act of justice on his part, promotion, honours, and other rewards, may light upon the undeserving, while he who fought and bled, he who, perhaps, both planned and achieved the enterprise, finds himself passed over and neglected.

The captain of the Blanche had a fine opportunity, without detracting from the bravery of one party, to state the good fortune (call it nothing else) of the other. Here follows his letter to the admiralty: "Having gained intelligence that there was a large coppered cutter full of bullocks for the Cape, laying close under the guns of Monte-Christi, (four 24pounders and three field-pieces,) notwithstanding her

1803. situation, I was convinced we could bring her off; Nov. and at two this morning she was masterly and gallantly attacked by lieutenant Lake, in the cutter, and lieutenant Nichols of the marines, in the barge, who cut her out. She is ninety-two tons burthen, coppered close-up and fastened, with two 4-pounders, six swivels, and twenty muskets. This affair cost me two men killed, and two wounded."

Mr. Smith

The mistatements in this letter, now that the correct details are confronted with them, discover their importance; and it cannot be doubted, that captain Mudge had a favourite whom he was determined to serve, no matter at whose expense. How came he not to name lieutenant Nicolls among the wounded? It was not a scratch of his finger nor a graze of his shin, but a hole on each side of his body and a ball in his arm, that sent him bleeding to the Blanche's cockpit. Who would expect that, of the "two" men wounded one was a commissioned officer? In every case, except this, the rank, if not the name, of the officer is stated in the official letter; and, in some letters, the smallest boy in the ship, if he has been wounded ever so slightly, may find his name in the returns. The name of lieutenant "Nichols," however, as the commanding officer of one of the boats, (not of "the barge,") entitled him, in the estimation of the committee at Lloyd's, to a second best claim upon their bounty; so that, when the Patriotic Fund presented lieutenant Lake, " for his gallantry," with a sword valued at 50%, they gave lieutenant Nicolls one valued at 301. Another quarter, equally deceived, promoted one officer, but, until a subsequent explanation at least, paid no attention to the claims of the other.

Between the two attacks upon the Albion, another and boat-party from the Blanche captured, in a very french gallant manner, a vessel of superior force. On the schoo- 4th, in the morning, the launch, armed with a 12

ner.

pounder carronade, and manned with 28 men, under the command of Mr. John Smith, master's mate,