resembling that of England as nearly as national 1800. customs and prejudices would admit. One of the state-papers, published on this occasion, represented the french navy to consist of 48 sail of the line at sea and in the different ports of France, and 13 building, of which eight were nearly ready for launching; also 50 frigates, besides 12 building, of which 10 were nearly ready for launching, and 42 ship and brig corvettes. The gun-brigs and smaller vessels, down to 177 flat-bottomed boats, constructed for the descent on England, were stated to amount to 243, making a grand total of 398 ships and vessels. A very large proportion of this total, consisting of non-cruising and insignificant vessels, may fairly enough be compared with the largest total, 757, in the abstract of the british navy for the commencement of the present year.

Among the first diplomatic acts of Buonaparte at his assumption of the chief-consulship was a letter, dated the 25th of December, 1799, addressed to the king of England, containing proposals for a general peace.* To this letter lord Grenville replied, stating the terms to be inadmissible; and the negotiation was broken off. It was considered to be merely a plan of the subtle chief to induce England to grant an armistice by sea, of which immediate advantage was to be taken, in the transit of troops and the entry of convoys with provisions and naval

stores.

At the commencement of the present year the british Channel fleet, composed of 28 sail of the line, under admiral sir Alan Gardner in the RoyalSovereign, cruised off the port of Brest, blockading the combined french and spanish fleet, composed, as already mentioned, of 45 sail of the line.

On the 9th of March the 64-gun ship Repulse, March. captain James Alms, having been detached by sir Alan Gardner to cruise off the Penmarcks, for the

* For a copy of the original letter, see Appendix, No. 7.

Re

1800. purpose of intercepting some provision-vessels exMarch. pected at Brest, experienced a violent gale of wind ; in the height of which captain Alms, by the rolling Loss of of the ship, was thrown down the companion-ladder, pulse. and so seriously injured as to be incapable of doing any further duty on deck. For two or three days previous the weather had been so thick as to render it impracticable to take an observation; and on the 10th, at about 10 P. M., the Repulse, then going about six knots an hour, struck on a sunken rock, supposed to be the Mace, about 25 leagues southwest of Ushant. After beating on the rock for nearly three quarters of an hour, during which the water rushed in so fast that the lower deck was flooded, the Repulse got off, and, by great exertions, was kept afloat long enough to be able to approach and run aground upon the french coast near Quimper.

On the 11th, at 10 h. 30 m. A. M., captain Alms and his ship's company quitted the Repulse, then stranded, and made good their landing on one of the Glénan islands, situated about two miles from the continent. From this island the british officers and crew were sent as prisoners to Quimper, except the first lieutenant, John Carpenter Rothery, the master, George Finn, two midshipmen, and eight seamen; who got into the large cutter, and, on the fourth day, after experiencing much bad weather and being nearly lost, reached the island of Guernsey.

In a few months afterwards, on his return home, captain Alms, his officers, and crew, were tried by a court-martial for the loss of the Repulse. The first lieutenant and master were dismissed the service and declared incapable of serving again, for having disobeyed the orders of the captain; who, as already stated, was incapacitated from active duty by a serious accident: the captain and remainder of the crew were honourably acquitted.

In the latter end of March lord Bridport resumed the command of the Channel fleet off Brest, bringing with him 17 sail, making, when sir Alan Gardner

had gone home with seven ships to refit, a fleet of 1800. 38 sail of the line. On the 24th of April, however, April. lord Bridport resigned the command of the Channel fleet then in port, and admiral sir Alan Gardner sailed with it on a cruise. Two days afterwards admiral earl St.-Vincent hoisted his flag on board the 90-gun ship Namur at Spithead, as the commander in chief of the Channel fleet, and soon afterwards joined it off Brest.

On the 1st of June earl St.-Vincent detached June. captain sir Edward Pellew, with the Impétueux and six other 74s, also five frigates, one sloop, and five troop-ships, having on board about 5000 troops including 200 artillery, commanded by major-general Maitland, for the purpose once more of rendering assistance to the Chouans and other royalists in Quiberon bay and the Morbihan. On the 2d the squadron anchored in the bay; and on the 4th the 32-gun frigate Thames, captain William Lukin, 16-gun ship-sloop Cynthia, captain Micajah Malbon, and some small-craft, attacked the south-west end of Quiberon, and silenced the forts, which were afterwards destroyed by a party of troops landed under major Ramsay. Several vessels are represented. to have been brought off, and some scuttled, with the loss of only two men killed and one wounded on board the Cynthia.

On the 6th, before daybreak, about 300 men of the Queen's regiment landed in the Morbihan, covered and sustained by a division of small-craft and gun-launches under lieutenant John Pilfold, first of the Impétueux. This united force brought off two brigs, two sloops, two gun-vessels, and about 100 prisoners. The french 16-gun brig Insolente and several smaller vessels were burnt, the guns of the fort destroyed, and the magazine blown up; all with the loss of only one seaman killed in the boats, and some slight hurts. A descent upon Belle-Isle was intended to be the next operation; but, intelligence being received that the force on the island

1800. amounted to 7000 men, the enterprise was abanJune. doned as impracticable. The british troops then landed and encamped upon the small island of Houat, situated about two leagues to the south-east of Quiberon point; whence they subsequently reembarked, and proceeded for the Mediterranean.

Marl

Before we quit the neighbourhood of the Channel and bay of Biscay for the Mediterranean, we have to notice the loss of a second british ship of the line Nov. off the coast of France. On the 4th of November, in the night, while the british 74-gun ships Captain, captain sir Richard John Strachan, and Marlborough, captain Thomas Sotheby, were cruising in company Loss of between the islands of Groix and Belle-Isle, the boro'. latter ship struck on the Bividaux or Bervadeux shoal. Here the Marlborough hung for several hours; but, by the great exertions of her officers and crew in throwing overboard a part of her guns and the whole of her heavy stores, the ship got off. The Marlborough, however, had received so much damage that, even after all her masts had been cut away and the remainder of her guns thrown overboard, the quantity of water she made obliged the officers and crews to leave her to her fate. The Captain, and a danish brig which had just joined, received the whole of them; and shortly afterwards the Marlborough sank at her anchors. Under these circumstances no blame could attach to her captain, his officers, or ship's company, and a court-martial pronounced their full acquittal.

There being no longer a french fleet to watch in the port of Toulon, vice-admiral lord Keith and his cruisers were principally employed in blockading the island of Malta, and in cooperating with the Austrians in their efforts to expel the French from March. Piedmont and Tuscany. On the 16th of March lord Keith, having, with lieutenant John Stewart and four other persons, landed at Leghorn from his flag-ship the Queen-Charlotte, ordered captain Todd to get under way, and proceed to reconnoitre the

March.

island of Capraia, distant about 36 miles from Leg- 1800. horn, and then in the possession of the French; and which island there was some intention of attacking. On the succeeding morning, the 17th, when only three or four leagues from Leghorn on her way to Capraia, the Queen-Charlotte was discovered to be on fire. Every assistance was immediately forwarded from the shore; but a great many boats were deterred from approaching the ship, in consequence of the firing of the guns, which were shotted, and which, when heated by the fire, discharged their contents in all directions.

Among the survivors on this melancholy occasion, was the carpenter, Mr. John Baird. His account is as follows: "At about 20 minutes after six o'clock in the morning, as I was dressing myself, I heard throughout the ship a general cry of fire! I immediately ran up the fore-ladder to get upon deck, and found the whole half-deck, the front bulkhead of the admiral's cabin, the coat of the mainmast, and the boats' covering on the booms, all in flames; which, from every report and probability, I apprehend was occasioned by some hay, that was lying under the half-deck, having been set on fire by a match in a tub; which was usually kept there for signal guns. The mainsail at this time was set, and almost instantly caught fire, the people not being able, on account of the flames, to come to the cluegarnets.

"I immediately went to the forecastle, and found lieutenant (the honourable George Heneage Lawrence) Dundas and the boatswain encouraging the people to get water to extinguish the fire. I applied to Mr. Dundas, seeing no other officer in the forepart of the ship, (and being unable to see any on the quarterdeck from the flames and smoke between them,) to give me assistance to drown the lower decks, and secure the hatches, to prevent the fire from falling down. Lieutenant Dundas accordingly went down himself, with as many people as he could