were greatly damaged, made after three privateers, mounting respectively 10, 6, and 4 guns, who, under cover of the smoke, had made their escape from before the town. These she pursued until they ran on shore, apparently in a sinking state, at Jovosa, four miles west of Benidorme. Capt. Ussher subsequently resumed his station in the Gut of Gibraltar; where he continued to display the same zeal, the same skill and enterprise, which had already raised his reputation so high, and which led Lord Collingwood to observe that he was entitled to “whatever regard the Admiralty might be pleased to show him.” On 7 May, 1808, being about six miles E.S.E. of Cape Trafalgar, he discovered, at daybreak, a convoy of 12 sail passing alongshore under the protection of seven armed vessels, namely, two schooners, the Diligente and Boreas, each mounting 2 long 24-pounders and 2 8’s, with a complement of 60 men; three gun-vessels, carrying in the aggregate 3 long 24-pounders, 2 6’s, 1 36-pounder, and 111 men; and a mistico and felucca, each of 4 guns and 20 men. Forming a line abreast, this formidable force swept, with an evident intention of boarding, towards the Redwing; who, nothing loth, prepared for the conflict by loading each gun with one round shot, one grape, one canister, and 500 musket-balls, the latter tied up in a bag. When within pistol-shot the Redwing’s broadside, reserved until then, went off like a single gun. Struck at the water-line, and cut open fore and aft, the Diligente gave two or three heavy rolls, turned over, and, with all on board, went down. Sharing her fate, the Boreas was soon no more; two other of the vessels, with four of the merchantmen, disappeared in the surf; and seven traders, together with the armed mistico, fell into the hands of the British. The felucca, one gun-boat, and a single merchant-vessel were all that escaped. In thus brilliantly disposing of her foes the Redwing had her foremast crippled by two 24-pounders; and a shot of similar dimensions passed through her mainmast; the gammoning of her bowsprit was shot through; and the knee of her head was cut asunder. Her loss, however, was confined to 1 man killed, and the Master, Purser, and 1 sailor wounded; while that of the Spaniards, as by themselves admitted, extended to 240, out of 271, killed, wounded, and taken prisoners.[1] “I shall transmit to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,” says the veteran Collingwood in a letter addressed to Capt. Ussher, “a detail of this gallant atfair, to whom I make no doubt it will be as gratifying as it is to me, as it affords another instance of that zeal and ability which have been so conspicuously displayed by you for the good of his Majesty’s service, and the annoyance of the enemy.” On 1 June, 1808, we find the Redwing pursuing a mistico and two feluccas into the Bay of Bolonia, near Cape Trafalgar; where, as soon as she had silenced the fire of a battery, mounting 6 long 24-pounders, her boats, under Lieut. Ferguson, destroyed the mistico and took possession of the feluccas. Accompanied by the Lieutenant and 40 men armed with pikes, Capt. Ussher then landed, stormed the battery, rendered its guns unserviceable, and destroyed the magazine. Up to this period the Redwing, in the whole, had not lost more than 7 men killed and 32 wounded. On his return to Gibraltar, Capt. Ussher found that for “his judicious and gallant conduct in his Majesty’s service” he had been promoted to Post-rank by a commission bearing date 24 May, 1808. Although directed to continue in the Redwing, the state of his health, from his former wounds, proved such as not to admit of his doing so; and he accordingly returned to England in the Bittern sloop, arriving there about the following Sept. To mark their Lordships’ appreciation of his services, they promoted, it may be right to add, his First-Lieutenant, confirmed the officer who was acting as Second, awarded the Senior-Midshipman, Mr. Rich. Soper, a commission, and ordered warrants to be given to such of his own boat’s crew as were qualified for them. At a public dinner given to him by the nobility and gentry at Dublin, Capt. Ussher was presented with the freedom of that city. His subsequent appointments were – 6 May, 1809, to the Leyden 64, which ship was paid off about Jan. 1810 – 15 and 24 May, 1811, to the America 74 and Hyacinth 26 – 1 Oct. 1812, to the Euryalus 36[2] – and, 2 Feb. 1813 and 29 June, 1814, to the Undaunted 38 and Duncan 74. It was at first intended that the Leyden should be stationed in the Kattegat for the protection of British trade; and for that purpose she had attached to her 13 gunboats with 18 Lieutenants and 800 picked men. The abdication of the King of Sweden, however, causing an alteration in the plans of Government, she was not employed in any particular way until the commencement of the operations against VValcheren, when she proceeded thither with a regiment of guards. She returned to England with a number of sick soldiers; but, on being ordered back to the Scheldt, was found in so defective a state that the pilots refused to take charge of her. Capt. Ussher was in consequence obliged to navigate her himself; a service for which he obtained the thanks of the Admiralty. After accompanying a fleet of merchantmen in the Hyacinth to the Mediterranean, he joined the squadron engaged in the defence of Cadiz. On the night of 29 April, 1812, having assembled the boats of his own ship and of the Goshawk sloop and Resolute gun-brig, and having added to them a gun-boat. No. 16, he placed himself at the head of the whole and proceeded to the attack of several privateers,[3] commanded by one Barbastro, a man of great enterprise and daring, and then lying in the port of Malaga; the entrance to which was protected by two batteries, one mounting 15 long 24-pounders, the other 4 guns of the same calibre. In his own gig with 6 men, supported by his Second-Lieutenant, the present Sir Thos. Hastings, in the pinnace with 20 men, he made a dash at the larger battery, and although fired at before the scaling-ladders could be placed, made, himself completely master of it in less than five minutes after he had touched the shore. He immediately turned the guns against the castle of Gibralfaro, and kept the garrison there in check until all the powder he could find was expended. He then pulled up the harbour to superintend the further operations; but the boats, in the mean time, had become exposed, with such prizes as they had taken, to a murderous fire as well from the castle as from the 57th Regt. of French infantry, on the mole-wall; and the moon now rising with more than usual brightness, and displaying them to full view, while from the effects of the firing the wind died away, their position became criticalin the extreme. Barbastro’s own privateer, however, the Braave of 10 guns and 130 men (most of whom jumped overboard), and the Napoléon, of similar force, were brought out – the remainder, before they were abandoned, being damaged as much as possible. In this most heroic affair the British, out of 149 officers and men, had 15, including Capt. Jas. Lilburne of the Goshawk, killed, and 53 wounded. Although the enterprise was not fully successful, yet the judgment with which it was planned, and the valour that marked it, failed not to attract the high approbation of Sir Edw. Pellew, the Commander-in-Chief, and the Board of Admiralty, while co-operating, in May, 1812, with the patriots on the coast of Granada, whose confidence he had gained, Capt. Ussher, with the Hyacinth, Termagant sloop, and Basilisk gun-brig under his orders, attacked on 26 of that month, and in less than an hour silenced the fire of the important castle of Almuñecar, armed though it was with 2 brass 24-pounders, 6 iron 18-pounders, and a howitzer, and defended by 300 French troops. At 7 a.m. on the 27th the latter, having during the night mounted a howitzer in a breach made by the ships in the covered way to the castle, re-opened their fire; but by 10 a.m. the castle was again silenced, and the French were driven with groat loss into the town,
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