tinued, till three boats, with about 70 men and 4 officers, were sent on shore from the ship, who delivered themselves up as prisoners. The French are then said, with an inhumanity which appears to have been merely gratuitous, to have refused permission for the boats to return for the remainder of the crew, who would have been their prisoners; and they must all have perished, had not Captain Somerville, against the remonstrance of his pilot, gallantly worked his ship up among the rocks, brought her to anchor, and taken the men off the wreck, after they had been upon it in a very perilous situation for several hours. The French fired on the boats till they were out of reach.

A letter from Captain Taylor, of the Apollo, to Vice-admiral Pellew, dated Feb. 14, mentions, that on the preceding day, on rounding Cape Corse, he fell in with a French frigate-built store-ship and a corvette. On closing with them, the former vessel struck, and proved to be the Merinos, commanded by M. Honoré Coardonan, captain of a frigate, and a member of the legion of honour, the ship quite new, of 850 tons, pierced for 36 guns, but carrying only twenty 8-pounders, with 126 men. She was bound to Sagona for timber. The Apollo suffered no loss, though exposed for four hours to batteries on shore. The corvette made her escape with the assistance of boats from the shore.

Capt. Talbot of the Victorious, senior officer of the upper part of the Adriatic, communicated on March 3rd to Capt. Rowley, an account of his success in capturing a line-of-battle ship of the enemy. On Feb. 21, the Victorious, in

company with the Weazel sloop, descried a large ship with several small ones proceeding from Venice to Pola in Istria. A signal for chace was made, the enemy being in a line of battle, with two gun boats and a brig a-head of the large ship, and two brigs astern. The Weazle, Capt. Andrews, was directed to bring the brigs astern of the commodore to action, in order to induce him to shorten sail, which had the intended effect. At half past four in the afternoon the Victorious commenced action with the line-of-battle ship the Rivoli, of 74 guns, at the distance of half-pistol shot, neither ship having hitherto fired a gun; and the water being smooth, every shot told, and the carnage on both sides was dreadful. At five, one of the brigs engaged with the Weazel blew up, and that vessel went in chase of the rest, but was recalled by captain Talbot, who thought that as they were in only seven fathoms water, one or the other of the great ships might get aground and want assistance. Capt. Andrews, on being recalled, placed his brig on the bow of the Rivoli, and raked her with three broadsides. That ship, for nearly two hours, had been rendered perfectly unmanageable, and had been able to keep up only a very slow fire. At nine o'clock she struck, and was taken possession of. She bore the broad pendant of Commodore Barre, the French commander in chief of the Adriatic, who displayed great skill and valour in the action. He lost 400 killed and wounded, including his captain and most of his officers, out of 862 persons, with whom he entered into action. The Victorious also sustained a severe loss of men, not

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enumerated. She had at the commencement only 506 actually on board, of whom 60 were on the sick list. Of the French brig engaged with the Weazel, which blew up, only three men were saved; the Weazel did not lose a single man. Few actions in any year have afforded more convincing proof of the superiority of British seamanship.

A spirited action on a small scale was reported in March by Mr. Harvey, commander of the sloop Rosario, off Dieppe. On the 27th of that month, in the morn ing, he observed an enemy's flotilla, consisting of 12 brigs and one lugger, standing along shore, and immediately made sail, with the intention of cutting of the leewardmost. The flotilla formed into a line, and engaged the Rosario as she passed; and when she luffed up to attack the sternmost, they all bore up to support her, and endeavoured to close with the sloop. The commander, not chusing with his small force to run the risk of being boarded, bore away to a brig in the offing, which proved to be the Griffin, Captain Trollope, and made the signal for an enemy, which was answered. He then immediately hauled his wind, and pursuing the flotilla, which was making all sail for Dieppe, began to harass the rear, and at length dashed into the midst of them, receiving and returning their whole fire. He disabled some, and ran others on shore, before he was joined by the Griffin, which could not come up sooner. Capt. Trollope gallantly contributed his part; and the result was, the capturing three of the enemy, driving two on shore, and much damaging the

others. This flotilla was proceed, ing from Boulogne to Cherbourg : each brig carried three long brass 24-pounders, and an eight-inch brass howitzer, with a complement of 50 men ; and they were assisted by batteries on shore, keeping up a constant fire of shot and shells. The loss on board the Rosario was, however, only five wounded.

The account of a successful attempt to intercept two French frigates and a brig off l'Orient, was communicated in a letter dated May 24th, from Captain Hotham, of the Northumberland, to RearAdmiral Sir H. B. Neale. The writer states, that having, according to orders, proceeded off l'Orient with the Growler gunbrig in company, the French vessels were descried on the morning of the 22nd, the N. W. point of isle Groa bearing N. from the Northumberland ten miles distant, crowding all sail to get into the port of l'Orient. Capt. Hotham's first endeavour was to cut them off to windward of the island; but not being able to effect this, he caused the Northumberland to be pushed round the S. E. end of Groa, and got to windward of the harbour's mouth before the enemy could reach it. He continued to beat to windward between Groa and the continent in order to close with them, unavoidably exposed to the fire of the batteries on each side when within their range. The enemy, after some consultation, at length bore up in a close line with every sail set, and made a bold attempt to run between the Northumberland and the shore, under cover of the numerous batteries with which it is there lined, Capt. Hotham placed his ship to meet

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them as close as he could to a point, with her head to the shore; but they hauled so close round the point, following the direction of the coast, that he did not think it prudent to pursue that plan with a ship of such a draught of water. He therefore bore up and steered parallel to them at the distance of two cables length, giving them broadsides, which were returned by a very brisk fire from the ships and batteries, highly destructive to the Northumberland's sails and rigging. It was Captain Hotham's object to prevent them from passing on the outside of a dry rock; but there was evident hazard in bringing his ship so near the rock as to leave them no room to pass this was, however, effected by the skill and care of the master; and the French ships attempting, as the only alternative, to sail between the rock and the shore, all grounded. During the falling tide, the Northumberland was employed in repairing damages: she was then brought to anchor with her broadside bearing upon the enemy's ships, which had all fallen over on their sides next the shore as the tide left them. A continued fire was kept on them for more than an hour; when their crews having quitted them, their hottoms pierced with shot, and one of them completely in flames, Captain Hotham got under sail, leaving the Growler to prevent by its fire the return of the men to their vessels. In the evening, the first frigate blew up with a dread, ful explosion; and soon after, the second appeared to be on fire. She also blew up during the night; and a third explosion heard on the next day was doubtless that of the

brig; and thus the work of destruction was completed. Captain Hotham was informed that these vessels were L'Arianne and L'Andromache, of 44 guns and 450 men each, and the Mameluke brig of 18 guns and 150 men: that since January they had been cruizing in various parts of the Atlantic, and had destroyed 36 vessels of different nations, the most valuable parts of the cargoes of which they had on board. The loss of men in the Northumberland was not considerable in proportion to the warmth of the action.

On July 7th, Capt. Stewart, of his Majesty's ship Dictator, with three armed brigs, being off Mardoe, on the coast of Norway, observed the mast heads of a Danish squadron over the rocks. Captain Robilliard, of the brig Podargus, having a man on board acquainted with the place, offered to lead in to attack them; but on the entrance he ran a-ground, and the Flamer brig being left to assist her, Capt. Stewart was deprived of their assistance. The Calypso, Capt. Weir, however, led the way through a passage of 12 miles among the rocks, in some places so narrow that there was scarcely room for setting out their studdingsail booms, till at length they came within reach of the enemy, who had been retiring before them under a press of sail. These consisted of the Nayaden frigate of 38 guns, but mounting 50, three stout brigs, and 25 gun-boats, lying anchored close together in the small creek of Lyngoe. The Dictator ran her bow on the land with her broadside to the enemy, and being seconded by the Calypso, their fire was so powerful, that in

half an hour the frigate was battered to pieces, and flames were seen bursting from her hatchways, the brigs had struck, and most of the gun-boats were beaten, and some sunk. The Podargus and Flamer being a-ground were at this time engaged with numerous gun-boats, and batteries, but were at length safely got afloat. At three in the afternoon, the Dictator, Calypso, and Prize brigs, were returning through the passages, when they were assailed by a division of gun-boats so placed behind the rocks that no gun could be brought to bear on them. In this situation, the prize brigs ran aground, and it was necessary to abandon them in the state of complete wrecks, humanity forbidding setting them on fire, on account of the many wounded they had on board. In this bold enterprize the English squadron suffered a loss of 50 in killed and wounded: that of the Danes was at least 300.

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Of minuter successes, one most worthy of notice was nicated by Capt. Josias Rowley, of the America, in a letter dated off Languillia, May 10th, addressed to Vice-admiral Sir Edward Pellew, the commander-in-chief off Toulon. It states, that the America, in company of the Leviathan and Eclair, having, on the preceding day, fallen in with a convoy of 18 sail of the enemy deeply laden, which took shelter under the town and batteries of Languillia, on the coast of Genoa, it appeared to him and Captain Campbell practicable to destroy them by getting possession of the batteries. For this purpose, the marines of the America and Le

viathan were landed at day-break on the 10th, and whilst a party was detached to carry a battery to the` eastward, which was effected, the main body rapidly advancing through a severe fire of grape, carried the battery adjoining the town of Languillia, consisting of four 24 and 18-pounders, though protected by a strong body of the enemy posted in a wood and in several contiguous buildings. The fire of the Eclair having in the meantime driven the enemy from the houses on the beach, the boats proceeded to bring out the vessels, which were secured by various contrivances; and 16 being towed off, the marines were re-embarked without molestation, though a strong party was advancing from the town of Allassio to reinforce their friends. The loss in the spirited attack on the batteries was much less than might have been expected, but the America's yawl was unfortunately struck by a chance shot, and ten marines and a seaman were drowned.

Another attempt was made, on June 27th, to carry off a convoy from the towns of Languillia and Allassio, by the Leviathan, Capt. Campbell, who had also under his command the Curaçoa, Imperieuse, and Eclair.

The marines landed on this occasion were attacked, as soon as formed on the beach, by treble their number; but rushing on with their bayonets they drove the enemy from their batteries, killing many, spiked the guns, and destroyed the carriages, and reembarked with several prisoners. The vessels were, however, so firmly secured, that they could not be brought away, and they were

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destroyed by the fire from the ships.

The naval success in the Danish sea was. in some degree balanced by the loss of his Majesty's brig Attack, on August 18th, which, being surrounded by 14 gun-vessels off Foreness in Jutland, was obliged, after a gallant resistance, to yield to a vast superiority of force. The brig had a smaller crew on board than that of each of her antagonists; and the commander, Lieut. Simmonds, was most honourably acquitted for the surrender, by a court-martial.

These were the most memorable occurrences respecting the British navy in the European seas during the year 1812; and if not highly important, they were such as sufficiently evinced that the zeal and activity of our countrymen engaged in this service had suffered no diminution for want of adequate antagonists. We shall reserve the painful task of recording the reverses in a different quarter, to that narrative of the new war in which this kingdom is unfortunately engaged, which must occupy some of our future pages.

CHAP.