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captured the French privateers le Hazard, of 14 guns and 49 men; Vengeur, 10 guns and 48 men; and la Fortune, of 14 guns and 58 men. His gallant conduct in Aix Roads on the memorable 11th April (and following days) 1809, is thus recorded in the minutes of a court-martial which was afterwards assembled to investigate the conduct of Lord Gambier:

Question put to Captain George Wolfe, of l’Aigle frigate.– “Lord Cochrane having remarked to you that some of the fire-ships, upon the first attack upon the enemy, had not been well managed, do you know of any particular fire-ship, or fire-ships, that were improperly conducted on the evening of the 11th April?”

Answer.– “I cannot particularise those that were badly managed; the ship that passed between us and the island of Oleron, and got on shore there, was the only one I particularly noticed.”

Q.– “Do you know her name?”

A.– “I do not; I hailed five that came very near us. Our own ship was very nearly burnt by two that were badly managed, and which were on fire as they passed us. I could only learn the names of the officers of two of the fire-ships that behaved well; they did not fire their ships till after they had passed me. Five behaved very well: one of them was commanded by Captain Newcombe, who desired me to remember he had passed us^[1].”

The following is Captain Newcombe’s own account of his proceedings on the ensuing day:

“Being under weigh, on the 12th April, and it being reported to me that a signal was made by the commander-in-chief – the frigates to go to the ship making signals of distress in such a quarter – I felt it my duty to proceed on after the Imperieuse, to Aix Roads; l’Aigle and the other frigates, besides the Valiant and Revenge, following. Conceiving it the intent of the commander-in-chief that I should so proceed, on having previously discovered the Etna bomb and several gun-brigs making sail for the anchorage, preceding the Imperieuse, and which I judged was from the directions they received from the commander-in-chief, I judged it prudent to reserve in preparation my bower anchor and cable, for any of the ships that might require it, concluding that there was a great probability that it might be required by either the line-of-battle ships or frigates. I caused my own stream-cable and anchor to be ready with a spring to it, to make use of as a bower to bring up the sloop I command, the wind being then moderate enough to ride her by, and to facilitate my movements to wherever I should be required. I brought up in Aix Roads, with my stream-anchor, on the larboard quarter of the Imperieuse, and without her, merely that I should not interrupt the anchorage of the line-of-battle ships and frigates that

1. See Gurney’s Minutes of the Court Martial, 2d edit, p 215 et seq.