1799 - Dædalus and Prudente


 
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Naval History of Great Britain - Vol II
1799 Loss of the Proserpine 317

beating about for some time, was at length cast on shore at the island of Baltrum. From this spot Mr. Anthony and his little party providentially escaped, and soon afterwards joined their friends at Cuxhaven ; whither the whole of the officers and crew left at Newark, except the captain, had since arrived.

Ill-health, occasioned chiefly by anxiety of mind at the supposed loss of the master and the five persons with him, detained Captain Wallis at Newark island till towards the end of February. On the 26th of March the captain, his officers, and ship's company, having arrived home, were tried for the loss of their ship. It need hardly be stated, that they all received an honourable acquittal : in addition to which the highest encomiums were passed upon the late Proserpine's seamen for their unparalleled good conduct throughout the whole of the melancholy and trying occasion. To mark their sense of the hospitable treatment which they had experienced from Lorenti Wittké, of the island of Newark, the officers and men presented him with a piece of plate in the shape of a coffee-urn, bearing a suitable inscription.

Of Rear-admiral Sercey's Indian squadron of seven frigates, we have already shown that three had quitted him for Europe ; and we rather think a fourth, the Cybèle, got back to Lorient. This frigate had arrived at the Isle of France a year or two before the war commenced, and therefore could not, towards the close of the year 1797, when her name last occurs, have been in a very good state. Without reckoning the Cybèle, the French frigates which, at the commencement of the present year, were still cruising in the Indian seas, were the Forte, Preneuse, and Prudente. In what manner the last of these was stopped in her career, we shall now proceed to relate.

On the 9th of February, soon after daybreak, in latitude 31° 30' south, and longitude 33° 20' east, the British 12-pounder 32-gun frigate Dædalus, Captain Henry Lidgbird Ball, steering to the southward and westward, with the wind right aft, or north-east, discovered two sail on her starboard bow. These were the French 36-gun frigate Prudente, Captain Emanuel-Hippolite Le Joliff, and an American ship from China, her prize ; and on board of which, it would appear, the frigate had placed, with a crew of 17 officers and men, all her quarterdeck 6-pounders but two ; thus leaving herself with 26 long 12 and two long 6-pounders, and two brass 36-pounder carronades, total 30 guns. The force of the Dædalus consisted of 32 long 12 and 6 pounders, and six 24-pounder carronades.

At 7 a.m., the Dædalus hauled to the northward in chase ; and the two strangers now seen to be ships, separated, the smaller one standing, to the southward, and the larger, which was distant from the Dædalus about six miles, bearing away north-west. The Dædalus immediately bore up after the large ship; which, at about 10 a.m., put right before the wind, and

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