1813	Eurotas and Clorinde	269

having, by mistake we believe, received on board a set of long or 49 cwt. 24s, was fitted with the 24-pounder of Colonel Congreve, measuring also 7 ft. 6 in., and intended to weigh 41 cwt. 1 qr. 12 lb., but actually weighing only 40 cwt. 2 qrs. 21 lb. With 28 of these guns on the main deck, 16 carronades, 32-pounders, two long nines, and the usual 18-pounder launch-carronade, on the quarterdeck and forecastle, as her regular establishment, and with, we are inclined to think, one additional 24-pounder upon General Blomefield's principle, the Eurotas, commanded by Captain John Phillimore (promoted from the Diadem troop-ship, which he had commanded since June, 1810), sailed from the Nore in the middle of the month of August, bound off Brest.

On the 30th the Eurotas joined the blockading squadron, which was under the command of Commodore Pulteney Malcolm, in the 100-gun ship Queen-Charlotte, Captain Robert Jackson. On some day in September (we believe the 14th) Captain Phillimore invited the commodore and all the captains of the squadron on board the Eurotas to witness a trial of her 24-pounders. The guns were tried eight times, with the full allowance of powder, and double-shotted ; and they stood remarkably well. Commodore Malcolm said he should like to have Colonel Congreve's 24-pounders on the Queen-Charlotte's second and third decks; and every one of the captains went away pleased with the gun. The following captains, with the exception of one or two, but which we cannot say, were present at this successful trial of the guns of the Eurotas: Captains Willoughby Thomas Lake, Robert Lambert, Thomas Elphinstone, Sir Michael Seymour, Henry Vansittart, George M'Kinley, George Tobin, George Harris, and Robert Jackson. Captain Phillimore subsequently declared that, if well manned, he could fight both sides of the Eurotas with ease ; was delighted with the guns in a gale of wind ; and found that, when the Eurotas was carrying a press of sail off Ushant, the guns did not work in the least, nor the ship seem to feel the smallest inconvenience from them.* On the 25th of November the Eurotas sent six of her 24-pounders on board the Cydnus, and received in exchange the same number of the latter's guns ; but on the 5th of the ensuing February, when the two ships again met, the Eurotas received back her six 24s and returned to the Cydnus those belonging to her. We must now show what ensued between the Eurotas and the French frigate Clorinde ; whose force it may be necessary to state, was 28-long 18-pounders, 14 carronades, 24-pounders, and two long 8-pounders, total 44 guns.

At 4 p.m. the wind shifted to the north-west and fell considerably; but the Eurotas, nevertheless, gained in the chase. At about the same time the Clorinde, then not quite four miles

* For a copy of a letter from Captain Phillimore, stating most of these particulars, see Appendix, No. 10.

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