1808	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	32

Prindts-Christian-Frederic, out of a complement on board of 576 men and boys, had 55 killed and 88 wounded ; a loss sufficient to prove, that her commander did not surrender his ship earlier than was consistent with the honour of the Danish flag.

On the 23d of April the British 20-gun ship Daphne, Captain Francis Mason, 18-gun ship-sloop Tartarus, Captain William Russel, and 12-gun brig Forward, Lieutenant David Shells, cruising off the coast of Denmark, destroyed a Danish sloop laden with provisions, part of a convoy lying at Flodstrand, and destined for the relief of Norway. It being an important object to attempt getting hold of these vessels, Captain Mason, on the evening of the 25th, detached three boats from the Daphne and two from the Tartarus, under the direction of Lieutenant William Elliott, first of the former ; accompanied by Mr. Hugh Stewart, master, Lieutenant Richard Boger, of the royal marines, and midshipmen George Beazeley, James Durell, Thomas Elliott, John Moore, and George H. Ayton, belonging to the Daphne, and Lieutenants Richard Gittens and William Love Patterson, and midshipmen John Septford, Charles Lutman, and Francis Andrews, belonging to the Tartarus.

The five boats, towed near the shore by the Forward, proceeded to the attack. Lieutenant Elliott and his party found the vessels, consisting of seven brigs, averaging about 160 tons, three galliots of about 110 tons each, and one schooner and one sloop of about 90 tons each, all of which, except two of the brigs, were deeply laden with grain and provisions, moored close under the fort of a castle mounting 10 guns, and made fast to the shore by hawsers ; but, the moment the alarm was given by some of the Danish boats, the Danes abandoned their vessels and fled. No sooner, however, had the British set foot in the vessels, than a heavy fire of round, grape, and musketry, opened upon them from the castle and from another battery of three guns, as well as from the crews of the vessels assembled on the beach. Many of the shots struck the hulls and went through the sails of the vessels ; but the British maintained their footing, and the five boats, with the 10 laden vessels, cleared the harbour with so slight a loss as five wounded, including Lieutenant Elliott and the Daphne's master ; one of the seamen " of a punctured wound in the neck by one of the Daphne's crew, having mistaken him for a Dane."

A Danish boat, with five men in her, having the temerity to persist in endeavouring to retake one of the vessels, although repeatedly warned by Lieutenant Elliott, the latter was obliged with his people to fire in self-defence. The consequence was, that three of the five Danes, whose determined conduct in so laudable a cause deserved a better fate, fell to rise no more. The enterprise, upon the whole, was skilfully planned and gallantly executed, and did credit to all who were engaged in it.

On the 29th of April the British 16-gun ship-sloop Falcon,

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