1809	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	152

half distant, with her starboard fore topmast and lower studding-sails set, rapidly approaching.

The Horatio, out of a crew on board of about 270 men and boys, had one midshipman (George Gunter) and six seamen killed, her captain, first lieutenant (Manley Hall Dixon), boatswain (Andrew Lock), and 14 seamen badly, and one lieutenant of marines (Richard Blakeney) one master's mate (Robert King), and seven seamen and marines slightly wounded ; and the Latona, one midshipman (John Hoope) and five seamen slightly wounded ; making, with the Driver's one wounded, the total loss on the British side amount to seven killed and 33 wounded. From the number of shot-holes low down in her hull, the Junon was in a very leaky state ; and her loss was very severe, amounting, out of a very fine crew of 323 men and boys, to 130 in killed and wounded, including among the mortally wounded her gallant commander.

As the Horatio and Junon each mounted 46 guns of nearly the same caliber, had they met singly, a fairer match could not have been desired ; and, notwithstanding the skilful and resolute manner in which the Junon was manoeuvred and fought, the relative damage and loss sustained by the two ships leaves it scarcely doubtful which combatant would have ultimately gained the victory. That the Junon, when at 2 h. 12 m. p.m., she made off from the Horatio, was in an unmanageable and defenceless state, may be inferred from her running to leeward directly into the fire of another enemy's ship : whereas, could she have hauled to the wind, her escape would have been certain, as the Horatio could set no after-sail to enable her to chase in that direction. More over Lieutenant Jean-Léon Emeric, the French commanding officer, upon the removal of Captain Rousseau from the deck, declared that nearly all the injury done to the Junon, both in materiel and personnel, arose from the fire of the Horatio, When, also, the Latona's officer came on board to take possession, M. Emeric refused to deliver up his sword until the arrival of an officer from the Horatio, pointing to her ; and Lieutenant John James Hough, third of that ship, presently afterwards came on board and received it. The case, in other respects, displays nothing very striking, unless it be the conduct of Captain Ferrie of the Supérieure, who, in his little vessel, so closely and perseveringly pursued the French frigate ; and who, during the action between the Junon and the Horatio, did more with his four guns, than the commander of another sloop that was present did with his 18, and those, too, of a heavier caliber.

The prize was nearly a new frigate, and of rather larger dimensions than the Horatio, who was herself one of the finest British-built frigates of the 18-pounder class. The Junon was carried to Halifax, Nova-Scotia, and, as soon as repaired, was commissioned under the same name, as a cruising frigate in the British navy.

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