1801 - Capture of Egyptienne Régénérée &c.


 
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Naval History of Great Britain - Vol III
1801 British and French Fleets - Mediterranean 110

and proportionably contracting the breadth of her frame. The ship, thus reduced in length and breadth, was pierced for 15 guns of a side on the main deck, and 10 on the quarterdeck and forecastle, or 50 guns in the whole. But, when ready to be fitted for sea, the foremost maindeck port was found too much in the bend of the bow to admit a gun: hence the Egyptienne (as, considering her first destination, the ship was appropriately named) received on board 28, instead of 30, long 24-pounders for her main deck, 12 long 8-pounders and two 36-pounder brass carronades for the quarterdeck, and four long 8-pounders and two 36-pounder brass carronades for the forecastle; total 48 guns, with a complement, as alleged, of 400, but, we rather think, of 450 men and boys.

Conformably to this arrangement of her guns, the Egyptienne, when, about six months after her capture, the British admiralty ordered her to be armed, was established with 28 long 24-pounders on the main deck, 12 carronades, 24-pounders, and two long 9-pounders on the quarterdeck, and four carronades and two long guns of the same two calibers on the forecastle, total 48 guns; with a complement, upon the prevalent economical scale of the British navy, of 330 men and boys. A contemporary, whose mistakes respecting the armaments of ships, English as well as foreign, we are almost tired of correcting, says thus of the frigate in question : " The Egyptienne, a frigate of sixteen hundred tons, taken at Alexandria, in Egypt, in 1800, carried on her maindeck sixteen long thirty-two pounders on each side, and on her quarterdeck and forecastle sixteen forty two pound carronades, and four long twelve-pounders. " *

As we have done on most other occasions, so we must here, give some account of the honours and rewards bestowed upon the conquerors. The thanks of parliament were voted to both commanders-in-chief. Lieutenant-general Hutchinson was made, and no one can say undeservedly, first a knight of the bath, and then a peer of Great Britain; and Lord Keith was raised from a peer of Ireland to a peer of Great Britain : not certainly for any active exertions in bringing the campaign to a close, nor, we presume, for doing what any clever agent for transports might have done as well, disembarking the troops; but as the head of the naval part of the expedition, without the aid of which, it is clear, the campaign itself could not have been undertaken.

We are unable to state what officers of the navy gained steps in rank ; but undoubtedly those serving on shore with the army, and on board the flotilla upon the Nile and the neighbouring lakes, well merited the promotion they may have obtained. The following is the handsome manner in which the commander-in-chief of the army speaks of their exertions: " The labour and fatigue of the navy have been continued and excessive ; it has not

Brenton, vol. i., p. 43,

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