named her the Admiral Rainier, and placed her under the command of Lieutenant Dobbie, whose activity during the blockade gave great annoyance to the enemy. On one occasion he was sent up the Carawang river, with seven armed boats of the squadron, to destroy a depot of grain; which he fully accomplished after a contest of two hours with eight proas stationed there to protect the public stores. Five of these vessels were either sunk or burnt; the others he carried off, together with the commandant’s yacht, and three large proas laden with coffee; all the public storer , &c. were likewise totally destroyed. On this service he was most gallantly supported by Lieutenant Joseph Corbyn of the Sybille, and Messrs. William Richard Smith and Robert Watts, of the Daedalus and Centurion: the latter gentleman was very badly wounded. On rejoining the squadron. Captain Ball was pleased to express his entire approbation of Lieutenant Dobbie’s conduct[1].
The Centurion and her consorts remained at anchor off Onrust until recalled at the request of the Governor-General of India, who had undertaken the Mahratta war, to the great disappointment of Vice-Admiral Rainier, that officer having received instructions from the Admiralty to prepare for an attack on Java. Whilst there a favorable negociation was entered into with the native princes of that island; and by the utmost vigilance the squadron was kept from the contagion of the endemic fever, so fatal to Europeans. At length, however, some soldiers of the 12th regiment breaking into a store and obtaining liquor, the disorder commenced with such destructive violence, that the ships when about to depart had scarcely strength to weigh their anchors. At this period Lieutenant Dobbie was ordered to resume his station as first of the Centurion.
In 1802, hostilities having ceased inconsequence of the treaty of Amiens, Vice-Admiral Rainier hoisted his flag on board the Centurion, intending to return home in that ship with the last division of the India fleet; but on the 4th Dec. she narrowly
- ↑ The loss sustained by Lieutenant Dobbie’s little flotilla was much less than might have been expected from the opposition he met with – it consisted of only 2 killed and 6 wounded.
