terms, and begs to recommend to your Lordship. He also speaks very highly of the conduct of Lieutenant James Hall, first of the Cyane, and of every officer and man under his command. * * * * * * Captain Staines has lost his left arm out of the socket, and is wounded also in the side, but he is in a fair way of recovery. Lieutenant Hall is likewise severely wounded in the thigh and arm, but there ia every reason to hope he will do well[1].”
The loss and damages sustained by the Cyane, in this last action is thus described in the journal now before us:
“Two men killed; the Captain, 2 Lieutenants, 1 Midshipman, and 16 men wounded. The fore and mizen masts badly wounded by large shot; all the other masts and yards much injured by grape; the standing and running rigging cut to pieces; all the sails rendered useless; 19 large shot through the hull, 26 others lodged in the sides; 6 chain-plates, 4 port-timbers, and 2 port-cells destroyed; one knee on the gun-deck broke, and 4 guns disabled in consequence of the breeching ring-bolts giving way.” The enemy acknowledged that their loss amounted to 50 killed and wounded[2].
Lord Collingwood, when transmitting Rear-Admiral Martin’s despatch to the Board of Admiralty, expressed himself as follows:
“It is represented to me that nothing could exceed the gallantry which was displayed by Captain Staines in all these several attacks in which he was for three days (and with little interruption by night) engaged in a succession of battles. * * * * * * As the Cyane has suffered very much in her hull, masts, and other respects, I have sent orders for her to proceed to England to be refitted.”
Captain Staines arrived at the Motherbank, Oct. 16, 1809; and received the honor of knighthood on the 6th Dec. following, about which period he also obtained his sovereign’s permission to accept and wear the insignia of a K.F.M. which had been conferred upon him by the King of Sicily, as a reward for his distinguished bravery on the coast of Naples. In April, 1810, several of the principal gentlemen in the isle of Thanet gave him a dinner at Margate, and presented him with an elegant sword, “as a mark of the very high admiration in which they held both his public and private character[3].”
