1808	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	20

this, and the immense superiority of the enemy in musketry, the Decouverte, in three quarters of an hour, compelled the Dorade to haul down her colours.

This very gallant exploit on the part of Lieutenant Campbell, his officers and crew, was performed after a loss of five seamen wounded, three of them dangerously, and one mortally. Lieutenant Campbell himself was also slightly wounded, but did not communicate the circumstance in his official letter. The omission was caused by a feeling highly honourable to Lieutenant Campbell as a man : his wife was in England in a poor state of health, and he rightly judged, that uncertainty about the full extent of his wound might prey upon her feelings and protract her recovery. Of the privateer's 72 men, seven were found on her decks dead and three wounded ; and it was understood that about seven others had been thrown overboard during the progress of the action..

On the 8th of February, in the evening, the British 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Meleager, Captain John Broughton, cruising off the port of San-Jago de Cuba, detached her barge, cutter and jollyboat, with 41 men, commanded by Lieutenants George Tupman and William Sainburn, and Lieutenant of marines James Denne, to capture a felucca-rigged privateer at anchor under the shore. The three boats gallantly boarded and captured without loss on either side, although the enemy was perfectly prepared, the French privateer Renard, armed with one long 6-pounder and a large proportion of muskets, and 47 men, 18 of whom jumped overboard and swam for the shore.

On the 13th of February, in the evening, the British 20-gun ship, Confiance,* Captain James Lucas Yeo, being off the Tagus, sent her cutter and jollyboat, under the command of master's mate Robert Trist, with 19 men, to row guard at the mouth of the river, in consequence of a report, current at Lisbon, that the Russian squadron was about to put to sea. No sooner had Mr. Trist arrived at his station, than he perceived a French gun-vessel at an anchor under Fort San-Pedro, between the forts Belem and San-Julien : he instantly, in a most gallant manner, boarded, and after an ineffectual resistance on the part of the enemy carried, the French gun-vessel No. 1, commanded by Enseigne de vaisseau Gaudolphe, and mounting one long 24-pounder and two brass sixes, with 100 stand of arms, and 50 men ; of whom three were killed and nine badly wounded : but the British, notwithstanding they had been hailed and fired at in their approach to the gun-vessel, did not lose a man. This truly gallant exploit, performed as it was in opposition to a force so superior, and almost under the guns of several heavy batteries, deserved every praise that was bestowed upon it, and fully entitled

* Made a post-ship by her commander's promotion to post-rank on the 19^th of December, 1807. See vol. iv., p. 138.

^ back to top ^