1806 - Boats of Pique at Ocoe bay, and Cape Roxo, Boats of Renommée and Nautilus at Vieja


 
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Naval history of Great Britain - Vol. IV
by
William James
1806 Boats of the Pique at Ocoe bay 227

During the cannonade the frigate had only one seaman wounded, and that by a grape-shot ; making her total loss nine killed and 14 wounded. The death of Mr. Thompson was a great loss to the service. He had been a most active and enterprising officer, and had left in Jamaica a young and amiable wife to whom he had very recently been united. Lieutenants Ward and Baker were both wounded severely by musketry, the one having a ball through his thigh, the other through his right arm.

The loss on board the Phaëton, although admitted to be very severe, could not be exactly ascertained. Among her wounded was Lieutenant Freycinet, with the loss of his right arm. The loss on board the Voltigeur, who, from her position on the Pique's weather bow, received very little of her fire, was wholly immaterial. Indeed the frigate, being very light, lay over so much with the strong breeze, that her fire upon either brig was comparatively ineffective. The Phaëton and Voltigeur were new vessels, of about 320 tons each, and were afterwards commissioned as British cruisers, under the names of Mignonne and Musette.

Nine days previous to the capture of these two French brigs, Lieutenant Ward, with the gig of the Pique, and Mr. John Eveleigh, midshipman, with the yawl, gallantly boarded, and after a very smart resistance, but fortunately without any loss, succeeded in capturing, off Ocoe bay, St.-Domingo, the Spanish armed schooner Santa-Clara, of one long 9-pounder and 28 men, completely equipped for war.

On the 1st of November Captain Ross sent the barge and two other boats of the Pique, under the direction of Lieutenant Christopher Bell, assisted by lieutenant of marines Edward Bailie, to intercept a schooner coming round Cape Roxo, Porto Rico. Owing, however, to a heavy squall from the shore, attended with rain, the boats lost sight of her in the night. Determined not to return to the ship empty-handed, these two enterprising officers pushed in for Carbaret bay, where lay a fine Spanish copper-bottomed brig pierced for 12 guns. This vessel they not only brought safe out, but they destroyed a three-gun battery on shore, spiking the cannon and breaking the carriages ; and all without the loss of a man.

On the next day, the 2d, Lieutenant Philip Henry Baker, in the Pique's launch, chased, and, after some smart skirmishing but no loss, drove on shore upon the reef of Cape Roxo, a French felucca-rigged privateer, of two carriage-guns, four swivels, and 26 men, where she was completely wrecked. On his return to the ship, Lieutenant Baker chased and captured another very fast-sailing French privateer, of one-gun and 20 men.

On the 3d of April a Spanish squadron, consisting of two ships of the line, a frigate, and a brig, having under their

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