capstern In this manner the desired object was effected in the course of a week, during which time Lieutenant Maurice and the working party on shore suffered most dreadfully from excessive heat and fatigue, being constantly exposed to the sun and frequently obliged to lower themselves down over immense precipices to attend the ascent of the guns, and bear them off from the innumerable projections against which they swung whenever the ship took a shear, which often occurred, and caused considerable delay. By the same process shot, powder, tools, provisions, &c. were conveyed to the rock, which was ultimately placed on the establishment of a sloop of war, and the command thereof conferred upon Lieutenant Maurice, as a reward for his uncommon activity and exertions[1].
Lieutenant Maurice’s promotion and appointment to the command of “H.M. sloop Diamond Rock,” was confirmed by the Admiralty, May 7. 1804, from which period nothing material occurred until the 20th Feb. 1805, when a French squadron, consisting of one 3-decker, four seventy-fours, three heavy frigates, two brigs, and a schooner, having on board 3500 troops, arrived from Europe, under the command of Rear-Admiral Missiessy, for the purpose of throwing supplies into Martinique, &c. and of attacking the weakest of the British colonies. Immediately on the appearance of this hostile force. Captain Maurice despatched his first Lieutenant, in a swift-rowing boat, to St. Lucia, with instructions to purchase a schooner and proceed with the intelligence to Commodore Hood, then lying at Barbadoes; but who unfortunately had no other line-of-battle ship than the Centaur wherewith to oppose so formidable an intruder.
On the French Admiral’s second departure from Fort Royal bay, to which he had returned after ravaging Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, Captain Maurice despatched the same officer to St. Lucia and Barbadoes, with intelligence that the enemy were bound to St Domingo, which proved to be perfectly correct, although the rapidity of their movements
- ↑ An animated account of the Diamond Rock, and of the circumstances attending its occupation by the British, will be found in the Nav. Chron. vol. xii, pp. 205–212.
