until he sank down between the thwarts, lifeless. The agony of these poor sufferers must have been very great; they had seen the Fisgard in the afternoon, standing towards them, although they were not discerned by any one on board; the frigate then wore in chase, and after steering away from them for about an hour, during which she spoke the strange vessel, again wore, and providentially happened to stand in the direction of their boat again. At the very instant that the almost exhausted Danes hailed her, the helm was up to go in pursuit of another vessel to leeward, and in five minutes she would have been out of hearing. It was such a bitter cold night, that, with the boat full of water, the Danes must all have perished in a few hours, the wind being directly off the land, and blowing very strong, so as to preclude the possibility of getting into smooth water. We need scarcely add that Captain Mason took the first opportunity of sending them ashore. This was the third crew which he had been the providential means of saving in twelve months.
The Fisgard returned to England in Jan. 1812, and about the same time intelligence was received of the melancholy fate of H.M. ships St. George, Hero, and Defence, a circumstance which we are induced to mention, the subject of this memoir having been on a court-martial with the unfortunate Rear-Admiral Reynolds and Captains Guion, Newman, and Atkins, few days before they all perished; the three former on the coast of Jutland, and the latter on the Haak sands, in the same gale which proved so fatal to the above mentioned Danish vessel.
After refitting at Spithead, the Fisgard was sent to cruise off Cherbourgh, where she continued until found to he perfectly worn out. She was consequently paid off in July, 1812, and Captain Mason remained unemployed till May 1813, when he was appointed to the President of 46 guns, in which ship he was present at the storming of St. Sebastian[1]; and afterwards cruised on the Cork station till April 1814; when peace appearing certain, and his lady being in a
