1812	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	54

engaged with the shore-batteries and another division of gun boats. At length, by the indefatigable exertions of their respective officers and crews, both the Podargus and Flamer got afloat, very much cut up. At 3 a.m. on the 7th the Dictator, Calypso, and the two prize-brigs, the Laaland, commanded by Lieutenant James Wilkie of the Dictator, and the Kiel, by Lieutenant Benjamin Hooper of the Calypso, in attempting to get through the passages, were assailed by a division of gunboats from behind the rocks, so situated that not a gun could be brought to bear upon them from either vessel. In this attack, both prize-brigs, already complete wrecks, grounded ; and, notwithstanding every exertion on the part of the lieutenants and men placed in them, they were obliged to be abandoned : that, too, without being set on fire, owing to the wounded men of their crews remaining on board.

In this very bold and well-conducted enterprise, the British sustained a loss as follows: Dictator, three seamen, one marine, and one boy killed, one midshipman (John Sackett Hooper), one captain's clerk (Thomas Farmer), 16 seamen, two boys, and four marines wounded; Podargus, her purser (George Garratt), one first-class volunteer (Thomas Robilliard), and six seamen and one marine wounded ; Calypso, one seaman and two marines killed, one seaman wounded, and two missing ; and Flamer, one seaman killed, and one midshipman (James Powell) wounded ; total, nine killed, 36 wounded, and two missing. The Danes acknowledged a loss, in killed and wounded together, of 300 officers and men. For their gallant conduct on this occasion, Captain Weir was immediately, and Captain Robilliard in the ensuing December, promoted to post-rank, and the Dictator's first lieutenant, William Buchanan, was made a commander.

On the 19th of June the British 10-gun brig-sloop Briseis, Captain John Ross, by the orders of Rear-admiral Thomas Byam Martin, stood into Pillau roads in the Baltic, to communicate with the British merchant ship Urania, and found that she was in possession of the French troops, and that they intended to destroy her if the Briseis approached. Captain Ross accordingly tacked and stood off, and at midnight detached the pinnace, under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Jones, the 2d, with midshipman William Palmer and 18 men, to endeavour to recapture the ship.

The instant she got within gun-shot of the ship, the pinnace was fired at by the French on board, who had six carriage-guns and four swivels mounted. But every obstacle was overcome by the gallantry of Lieutenant Jones and his small party ; who gave three cheers, boarded over the small-craft that were alongside, and drove the French troops off the decks into their boats which were on the opposite side. The cable was then cut, and the Urania was brought out, together with a French

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