1813	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	168

management of Captain Charles Napier of the 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Euryalus, the French coasting trade, to and from Toulon to the eastward, was collected in Cavalarie road, to the number of upwards of 20 sail. Judging this convoy to be a proper object of attack, Captain Edward Brace, of the 74-gun ship Berwick, detached for the purpose the boats of the two ships under the orders of Lieutenant Henry Johnston Sweedland, assisted by Lieutenant Alexander Sandiland, first of the Euryalus, and, among others, by midshipmen John Monk and Maurice Crawford, containing, along with a detachment of seamen, the whole of the marines of the 74 and frigate, commanded by Captain William T. I. Matthews.

On the morning of the 16th the united detachments landed, and in 20 minutes were in possession of the batteries, and had begun to open a fire from them upon the retreating enemy. The French national xebec Fortune, carrying 10 long 8-pounders and four swivels, with a crew of 95 men, commanded by Lieutenant Félix-Marie-Lotiis-Anne-Joseph-Jullen Lecamus, tried to effect her escape; but the Euryalus, pushing close in, cut her off. The French crew then abandoned her, leaving her, with a hole made through her bottom by a shot from one of her guns and a train laid to her magazine, at anchor with a spring on her cable, under the fire of the Euryalus, the captured fort, and the launches. The vessel was promptly boarded by a division of the boats, and just in time to preserve her from blowing up or sinking. The vessels found in the harbour amounted to 22, of different descriptions. The whole were either taken or destroyed ; and the object of the enterprise was fully accomplished, with no greater loss than one marine killed and one seaman missing.

On the 18th of August an attack was made upon the batteries of Cassis, a town between Marseille and Toulon, by the Undaunted frigate, Redwing brig, and 16-gun brig-sloop Kite, Captain the Honourable Robert Cavendish Spencer, accompanied by a detachment of boats from the three first-named vessels, and from the Caledonia, Hibernia, Barfleur, and Prince-of-Wales line-of-battle ships, part of Sir Edward Pellew's fleet. Owing to light winds, the Undaunted could not take up the anchorage that Captain Ussher intended ; but the Redwing and Kite, in spite of a fire from four batteries that protected the entrance of the bay, swept themselves in, and took a most judicious position for covering the marines ; who, led by Captain Jeremiah Coghlan, of the Caledonia, carried the citadel battery by escalade. The marines then drove the French before them, at the point of the bayonet, and pursued them through the batteries to the heights that commanded the town. The boats, under the direction of Captain Sir John Sinclair of the Redwing, then entered the mole, across the entrance to which two heavy gun-boats were moored, and captured them, a third gun-boat, and 24 merchant settees and tartans.

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